BlackBerry is recognised as the device maker who dawned and popularised the era of smartphones but lost its own way in the long run. Even after shifting to Android over the past year, the company failed to gain traction from the enterprise users(the avenue where it was once popular) and had to shutter its hardware business.
Launched last month, DTEK60, manufactured by Alcatel, was expected to be the ‘official’ final smartphone offering but BlackBerry CEO John Chen has now confirmed that the company is working on one last(yes, the very last one) keyboard-laden smartphone. In conversation with Emily Chang of Bloomberg TV, he states,
We have one keyboard phone I promised people. It’s coming.
Well, during its pivot from BlackBerry OS to the all-hailing Android, the company decided to keep one feature intact to give the smartphone that BlackBerry feel — the keyboard. The Priv, which was its first Android offering, launched with a built-in keyboard and the upcoming phone is expected to be a successor to the same.
Fanboys and regular users (if there still are any!) were disappointed with the launch of the new DTEK60 without the keyboard. But they can now rejoice as Chen is fulfilling his promise to the users and launching a final keyboard-laden phone in the market. There is currently no information about the specs or features of the device but it will surely be manufactured by Alcatel yet again.
For those unaware, under the leadership of Chen, BlackBerry has now moved away from manufacturing hardware devices. The company will instead focus its attention on the software and enterprise business. Giving up on its flailing one percent share in the smartphone market, BlackBerry now plans to take hold of the software revenue, which is doubling year-over-year.
Well, the clicky smartphone keyboards are the one thing BlackBerry will always be remembered for. And this will be your last chance to get your hands on an Android-powered keyboard smartphone from the once-popular Canadian manufacturer.
