BlackBerry stops developing its own smartphones

BlackBerry stops developing hardware itself. There will continue to be smartphones under the BlackBerry name on the market, but the Canadian company outsources the development to third parties.

BlackBerry announces its new strategy at the presentation of the quarterly figures. The Mobility Solutions strategy focuses on software development, including security products and applications. Stopping hardware development should reduce costs for the company.

That BlackBerry stops with its own hardware comes as no surprise. The company’s latest smartphone, the Dtek50, is an Alcatel Idol 4 with BlackBerry skin and an upcoming model, the Dtek60, appears to be an Alcatel Idol 4s. BlackBerry wants to distinguish itself with an Android app that focuses on security and privacy. This app aims to make users aware of the screen lock, data encryption and permissions for apps.

BlackBerry’s goal is to license that app and further modifications to Android to other companies. One of the first companies to do so is the telecom joint venture BB Merah Putih. The fact that the company focuses entirely on Android probably means the end of BB10, BlackBerry’s own operating system. This news comes two months after the announcement that the manufacturer stopped production of the BlackBerry Classic with this OS.

BlackBerry has been making its own hardware since the late 1990s and initially focused only on the business market. About eight years ago, when young people realized that you could send text messages for free with BlackBerry Messenger, devices with a keyboard became popular among teenagers in particular. BlackBerry added 3G and a music player to its phones at that time.

Highlights were the Bold 9000 and Curve 8520, both from 2008. Both devices remained popular for years and were among the best-selling smartphones in their time. At the time, BlackBerry was the second largest in the smartphone market, after Nokia, but ahead of HTC, Apple, Sony and Samsung.

The turning point seems to have come at the end of 2008, when BlackBerry thought it had an answer to Apple’s popular iPhone with its Storm. In the United States, market leader Verizon Wireless pitted the Storm against AT&T’s iPhone 3g and pumped in tens of millions of dollars in marketing money, but the device suffered from many quality problems and many customers returned it. The following year, Verizon stopped working with BlackBerry, instead relying on Motorola’s Android device Droid.

The manufacturer launched its own operating system BlackBerry 10 in early 2013. At the end of 2014, the last smartphones with this OS were released, the Passport and Classic. After that, BlackBerry switched to Android, with the Priv being the first at the end of 2015.

BlackBerry achieved quarterly revenue of $352 million. Software revenue was $156 million, more than double last year’s in the same quarter, but less than last quarter’s $166 million.