BlackBerry to end smartphone production, will move to services-only model
Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 1:00PM 
The last true BlackBerry: The BlackBerry Classic was the last handset to feature RIM's core smartphone features
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The writing has been on the wall for some time on this one, BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) has announced that it is exiting the hardware business and will no longer make any more handsets. Instead, it will rely on partners for hardware as well as focus on a services-only model moving forward.
"The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners," said CEO John Chen in a statement about the tactical shift for the company. "Our financial foundation is strong, and our pivot to software is taking hold."
"Today we make our first significant step toward leading as a software company by announcing that we are transitioning from doing internal handset hardware development to leveraging our third party partner to provide that function," said Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, at BlackBerry. "This is what the future looks like for our business, and it is the right move as we progress towards profitability. This will enable our resources to focus all efforts on providing state-of-the-art security software for devices and the enterprise of things, as well as work on other critical areas of the company.
The last few handsets from BlackBerry are essentially rebranded Alcatel devices running a hardened version of Google's Android operating system. BlackBerry still provides various applications such as the BlackBerry Hub on Android but these apps haven't really resonated with Android users.
It's a sad day for many BlackBerry fans, specially in Canada. The company brought a lot of innovation and really set the foundation of the smartphone industry we now enjoy. BlackBerry hardware had a reputation for being classy yet tough with many clever and thoughtful features no one in the industry could match.
The company began the process of shedding its smartphone business two years ago when it shipped its last BB10 OS powered devices and made the sudden shift to rival Android OS, while promising to bring security to what is considered to be the least secure and most malware riddled mobile platform.
The BlackBerry Priv, an outstanding flagship device that priced itself out of many businesses smartphone budgets, was an inspired release but did not manage to hold on to momentum.
The new BlackBerry is a software and services company. They may release new handsets in partnership with other companies or keep releasing software they hope other platform's users will adopt but for the most part, the BlackBerry smartphone dream is over.
“We focus all of our efforts on where we can deliver differentiation—in software and security,” said Chen. “This plays to our strengths and is aligned with where the market is going.”
Reader Comments