Are BlackBerry smartphones everything? Onward Mobility loses license to use BlackBerry name

It seems that the appearance of new BlackBerry smartphones on the market is no longer worth counting on - Onward Mobility has lost its license to use the BlackBerry name.

What does it mean?

There has been no official announcement about this yet, but according to CrackBerry.com founder Kevin Michaluk, Onward Mobility has officially shut down.

"Dead since yesterday. Confirmed from multiple sources. We'll see if they actually post an official update on their blog or not, but I'm guessing John Chen/BlackBerry prefers they just quietly leave (he's clearly done with phones) and that's probably best for now for all. Most new ventures fail, so don't think it's such a shocking surprise," writes Mikhalyuk.

As a reminder, Onward Mobility acquired the right to use the BlackBerry name in 2020. At the same time, the company promised that in 2021 it would release the first 5G smartphone BlackBerry with physical keyboard. It never happened, but last month Onward Mobility stated that the development of the smartphone continues, and its release is postponed to 2022.

In addition, BlackBerry recently sold all of its patents related to mobile devices. The buyer was Catapult IP Innovations, which paid $600 million ($450 million in cash plus a promissory note for the remainder).

Will it now someone it is still unknown to use the BlackBerry brand to release new smartphones. But it is possible that the era of BlackBerry devices is gone forever.

A source: GSM Arena, crackberry.com