BlackBerry Stops Smartphone Manufacturing

BlackBerry, once a leading Canadian Company for manufacturing and producing smartphones, announced that they are no longer going to make smartphones. According to the Independent (a British Newspaper) this announcement came after BlackBerry signed a contract with the Indonesian Company BB Merah Putih which will now take over the manufacturing of the smartphones.

BlackBerry did not withdraw completely from the market, they only stopped making smartphones. This decision was based on the drastic financial losses which were calculated in the financial report in the fourth quarter of the company’s fiscal year. The total losses were added up to 372 million USDs.

What do you know about BlackBerry?

BlackBerry Limited – or Research In-Motion Limited - headquarters is based in Waterloo, Canada. They have been in the market since 1999, and are specialized in wired and wireless communications. They released the first pager in 2002 which led to the manufacturing of smartphones afterwards.

BlackBerry was the number one smartphone company in 2009 (ahead of Nokia the Finnish Company) and had a market share of 20% in the smartphone industry.  They had their own instant messaging application known as BlackBerry Messenger – BBM – which was a big technological advancement at that time.

The name Research In-Motion was changed to BlackBerry in 2013 and the last phone they released was the DTEK50 in last August 2016. What were the best specifications and features of the DTEK50?

Specifications of BlackBerry’s DTEK50

BlackBerry DTEK50 – also known as Blackberry Neon in the market – was the last phone manufactured and developed by BlackBerry before announcing there withdraw from the smartphone market and handing over their phones designs and technology to the Indonesian Company.

BlackBerry removed the keypad in Neon and was left with a touchscreen like other smartphones.

DTEK50 has the dimensions of 147 millimeter length, 72.5 millimeter width, and 7.4 millimeter thick with a weight of 135 grams (4.76 ounces).

It has a 5.2 inch IPS LCD touch screen with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. The screen takes a percentage of 69.9% of the phone.

DTEK50 operates on an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor made from two quad-core Cortex A53 processors: the first with a speed of 1.5 gigahertz and the second with a speed on 1.2 gigahertz. It is also powered by a 6.0 Android version (also known as Marshmallow).

It has an internal storage of 16 gigabytes and a 3 gigabyte RAM. DTEK50 can support an additional Micro SD Card – up to 256 gigabytes.

It also has fast charging ability reaching 50% in 51 minutes and it is available only as a black color in the market.

Summary: Did BlackBerry stop manufacturing smartphones forever?

The huge loss suffered by BlackBerry pushed them to make this decision and stop the manufacturing of BlackBerry Phones. BlackBerry attempted to revive their sales last year when they released BlackBerry Priv in November 2015 but unfortunately it did not rise up to their expectation.

Therefore, BlackBerry had no other choice except to sign off a contract with an Indonesian Company called BB Merah Putih. This Indonesian Company took over the manufacturing of BlackBerry phones since they now have the designs and technology. Meanwhile, BlackBerry will now focus on programming and data security.

According to the news report released by the British newspaper the Independent, BlackBerry the Canadian Company will now focus on developing, programming, and manufacturing of programs, software, and data security. In other words, it seems that BlackBerry switched their industry to Programming, a path that will rescue it from total bankruptcy. This decision was made again due to the losses and as you know manufacturing smartphones requires a lot of capital funds and expenses.

Many experts believe that BlackBerry followed in the footsteps of the Finnish company Nokia. Back in 2009, BlackBerry and Nokia were the first two brands in the smartphone industry, but once the revolution occurred in the smartphone industry, those places were claimed by Apple and Samsung.

We must point out that we have previously written an article on BlackBerry Priv in last February 2016. BlackBerry were counting on this product to rescue and maintain their market share and they used a different operating system than BlackBerry’s which is the widely used Android in hopes it will be more appealing to users. This was the first time BlackBerry uses another powering system other than theirs!

BlackBerry Phones will not disappear from the market but will now be manufactured by another company as of the 30^th of September 2016.

We cannot yet speculate and guess whether or not BB Merah Pitah, the Indonesian Company, will be successful in manufacturing and developing BlackBerry phones and make a comeback to the market.  The phones produced by BB Merah Pitah will be powered by Android operating system.

Generally, users lost interest in BlackBerry phones when the American Company Apple and Southern Korean Company Samsung started producing smartphones. In addition to when Chinese Companies like Huawei and Lenovo began manufacturing smartphones as well!

According to BlackBerry, the decision to stop manufacturing smartphones, keeping the trademark, and outsourcing the production came after years of planning and thinking.

The problem BlackBerry fell in was their determination to keep the traditional keypad and own operating system without paying attention the users’ preferences. The technologies and innovations used and made in the smartphone industry were humongous including features like being water and dust resistant, having a dual camera, fingerprint and iris-print passcodes, and so much more.

The main idea here is that in the smartphone industry, and recently the tablet industry, is witnessing many innovations. Here lies the competition between different companies to produce the most advanced phone and get a bigger share in the market. This is also expanding to become the main source of competition between companies manufacturing electric devices and appliances.

Finally, we at Labeb and just like always will bring you the updates happening in the Tech World continuously so you can stay informed! We are also your gateway to the market and have the different electric devices and electric appliances on our websites for you to check, compare, and reach the nearest store.

Always stay connected to Labeb.com for a smart and wise buying decision.

DTEK50 was the last phone developed by BlackBerry, but that does not mean the end of the company as they have changed their industry to Programming and Data Security.

BlackBerry users will still have the BlackBerry name and trademark even though another company will be producing them, so there is no need to worry!