BlackBerry 5G is reportedly dead — for real this time

(Image credit: Future)

When OnwardMobility — the licensee of the BlackBerry brand afterward TCL's uneventful time with the brand — missed its 2021 goal for a 5G BlackBerry reboot, many causeless it was game over for the deposed king of smartphones.

Not then, said OnwardMobility, challenge "we are non expressionless" just 34 days ago, and promising more regular updates to come with the start arriving afterwards that month.

That new borderline passed without whatsoever updates, and a couple of new reports claim that the radio silence is because the projection to review BlackBerry phones now really is expressionless.

"Dead every bit of yesterday," wrote Kevin Michaluk, the well-connected founder of CrackBerry on the site's forums, citing "multiple sources" and adding that while he never signed an NDA, he had to remain a little vague to protect them.

That didn't finish Michaluk beingness quite blunt, however. "We'll run into if they actually post a formal update to their blog or non, but my guess would be that John Chen/BlackBerry prefers they just go quietly abroad (he's clearly done with phones) and at this point it's probably best for all of us to forgot about this railroad train wreck," Michaluk connected. "Well, train wreck is too gratuitous equally it would imply they built a train that they and then wrecked. They never got that far."

AndroidPolice backed this written report up, adding that its ain sources have confirmed that OnwardMobility's rights to use the license accept been cancelled. That's not to say that OnwardMobility couldn't make a keyboard based phone without the BlackBerry branding (Jan's web log post notably didn't mention the word "BlackBerry" once). Only that would brand an uphill struggle fifty-fifty more steep than before.

Stop of the road (again)?

While it'southward possible that some other company will attempt to persuade BlackBerry to give it another shot at the license, the signs don't look adept. Not only has BlackBerry been burned here, but equally Michaluk wrote, John Chen is "clearly done with phones" and the company even went equally far as to sell a agglomeration of legacy patents for $600 million at the get-go of the month.

Even if that's non the example and BlackBerry is withal groovy to find a licensee, it's non articulate if anyone would be upward for the challenge. TCL Communications tried betwixt 2017 and 2018 with a number of so-so handsets such equally the Key2 LE, but the fact information technology allowed the last 2 years of the agreement to pass without any new additions speaks volumes. Reading betwixt the lines, that suggests a commercial flop.

Unfortunately for BlackBerry diehards, this really could be the end of the road this time and it looks like concrete keyboards are out of fashion now. Samsung used to make BlackBerry-manner keyboard cases for its Milky way S flagships, but gave up after the Galaxy S8 ,which suggests that the demand simply wasn't there.

In that location are niche Android handset makers trying to offering a modern BlackBerry experience — the $299 Titan Pocket is probably the closest you tin get right at present — but the hopes of a mainstream concrete keyboard revival probably died with OnwardMobility's 5G BlackBerry.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional mag too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his e'er-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.