[johnny_bravo72]

BlackBerry Mobile's statement at MWC 2018.

https://www.techradar.com/news/black...e-here-to-stay

[Bla1ze]

More aptly, BlackBerry Mobile and their BlackBerry-branded handsets. Although it's easy to forget, there is 2 others out there with a license to build BlackBerry-branded handsets.

[anon(10268214)]

True there are two others besides BBMo but how distinct they really are from one another is a valid point. It's pretty clear the Indian BlackBerry is built by TCL, and Indonesia is selling the KEYone now as well. Even the marketing materials (such as website graphics etc.) of the two sister brands are almost identical to those used on BBMo's website. So to me at least it's looking more and more as if the Indian and Indonesian licensees are really in name only. With the exception of the Aurora, they are basically just pushing TCL's products or variants of them.

[Bla1ze]

It's pretty clear the Indian BlackBerry is built by TCL, and Indonesia is selling the KEYone now as well.

Don't count on seeing much more overlap between India/TCL. Optiemus has their own plans lined up and have for a while now, though, it seemingly took them longer than expected, hence the overlap we saw. While it might seem like a 'just in name thing' now, it's bound to change soon and it likely won't go in reverse either. eg: India device being distributed by TCL outside of India.

Edit: Heh.. told ya. - https://crackberry.com/optiemus-blac...-handset-leaks

[DJBS4LIFE]

I'm in Indonesia now and have been and I have yet to see any KEYone around. people are looking at my phone and asking what's this lol. Even the BlackBerry shops that are all Aurora have no idea this device exists. All I see is iPhone, Samsung and OPPO. Not one KEYone poster anywhere.

[anon(10268214)]

I'm in Indonesia now and have been and I have yet to see any KEYone around. people are looking at my phone and asking what's this lol. Even the BlackBerry shops that are all Aurora have no idea this device exists. All I see is iPhone, Samsung and OPPO. Not one KEYone poster anywhere.

According to Putih's website they are, but as for how many people actually bought one...who knows? One thing is for sure, the product is TCL's KEYone and the graphics...even marketing slogans are pulled directly from BBMo's website. I thought the commonly held belief here was that each licensee did its own marketing and was responsible for its own devices? At the moment at least, that's obviously far from the truth...there is definitely a lot of 'sharing' going on...even the same Mr. and Mrs. KeyONE used on all three sites. Lol.

https://bbmerahputih.co.id/

https://www.optiemus.com/index.html

https://www.blackberrymobile.com/en/

[Bbnivende]

I think there is a slot in the market for a quality all touch phone at about $550 US. Has to have a much better screen to body ratio and a reasonably good SOC and camera. Rounded corners too. Something that feels premium . I think that about 2 million units per year is a reasonable goal for PKB phones.

[thurask]

With the exception of the Aurora, they are basically just pushing TCL's products or variants of them.

Even then the Aurora is just a ZTE device with BlackBerry paint on it, nothing actually new. Until either of Merah Putih, Optiemus, or that other Chinese licensee whose name I can't remember get around to designing devices then it's just TCL bearing the load.

[Bbnivende]

Even then the Aurora is just a ZTE device with BlackBerry paint on it, nothing actually new. Until either of Merah Putih, Optiemus, or that other Chinese licensee whose name I can't remember get around to designing devices then it's just TCL bearing the load.

It will be interesting to see an all-new PKB phone not designed by old BlackBerry. I am also interested to see if the Motion will be reliable. A ”premium” phone should be reliable.

[Invictus0]

Even then the Aurora is just a ZTE device with BlackBerry paint on it, nothing actually new. Until either of Merah Putih, Optiemus, or that other Chinese licensee whose name I can't remember get around to designing devices then it's just TCL bearing the load.

There's a fourth licensee? I thought TCL had the license for the Chinese market?

[conite]

There's a fourth licensee? I thought TCL had the license for the Chinese market?

I think he meant that there was a company that licenced BlackBerry Secure for its smartphones.

NTD / Yangzhou New Telecom Science from Hong Kong.

[Invictus0]

I think he meant that there was a company that licenced BlackBerry Secure for its smartphones.

Ah right that's probably it. The licensee is NTD, assuming their original schedule is still accurate they should be announcing something soon.

https://mobilesyrup.com/2017/09/28/b...sing-deal-ndt/

[Sigewif]

According to Putih's website they are, but as for how many people actually bought one...who knows? One thing is for sure, the product is TCL's KEYone and the graphics...even marketing slogans are pulled directly from BBMo's website. I thought the commonly held belief here was that each licensee did its own marketing and was responsible for its own devices? At the moment at least, that's obviously far from the truth...there is definitely a lot of 'sharing' going on...even the same Mr. and Mrs. KeyONE used on all three sites. Lol.

https://bbmerahputih.co.id/

https://www.optiemus.com/index.html

https://www.blackberrymobile.com/en/

It actually makes a lot of sense for the various makers of BB devices to share material for advertising, at least for now, and I would say going forward too. Maybe not all of the same material but enough that it is recognizable. They bring continuity to their products so people see them and think, "BlackBerry Phones" the world over. This helps them all because it gives more name recognition. (Though there isn't that much on billboards round about, if you do a web search you will find them). It is such a connected world now that we can see the material from different parts of the world from where ever we happen to be.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Don't count on seeing much more overlap between India/TCL. Optiemus has their own plans lined up and have for a while now, though, it seemingly took them longer than expected, hence the overlap we saw. While it might seem like a 'just in name thing' now, it's bound to change soon and it likely won't go in reverse either. eg: India device being distributed by TCL outside of India.

Optiemus's Ashok Gupta (chairman) had stated they would launch one sub-Rs40,000 smartphone in June 2017 and then the next month and another at sub-Rs20,000 . And that was back in May of 2017... so they apparently were very close.

But I expect that the Aurora was an eye opener, and Optiemus figured out that customers in India weren't much different than customers in Indonesia.

[anon(10268214)]

Optiemus's Ashok Gupta (chairman) had stated they would launch one sub-Rs40,000 smartphone in June 2017 and then the next month and another at sub-Rs20,000 . And that was back in May of 2017... so they apparently were very close.

But I expect that the Aurora was an eye opener, and Optiemus figured out that customers in India weren't much different than customers in Indonesia.

Or, more appropriately, it's an example of the licensees striking a balance between all the good intentions of signed agreements, and reality. Sure it sounds great on paper that each licensee should be responsible for its own devices and marketing. But the reality is when the licensees see a successful BlackBerry product from another market is catching their customers' attention, as an official BlackBerry oem they would definitely be feeling some pressure to roll out that product in their own markets rather than miss out on the opportunity.

[Bla1ze]

Or, more appropriately, it's an example of the licensees striking a balance between all the good intentions of signed agreements, and reality. Sure it sounds great on paper that each licensee should be responsible for its own devices and marketing. But the reality is when the licensees see a successful BlackBerry product from another market is catching their customers' attention, as an official BlackBerry oem they would definitely be feeling some pressure to roll out that product in their own markets rather than miss out on the opportunity.

Pretty much this. They are supposed to be responsible for their own marketing and such but there's nothing stopping them from making internal agreements, we covered this a while ago. - https://crackberry.com/understanding...-business-unit

Just as I noted earlier:

I think it's also important to note that while Optiemus is launching the KEYone, I don't think this means we can nor should expect all of the BlackBerry hardware licensees to always work together in this fashion. Just as BB Merah Putih launched the BlackBerry Aurora all-touch phone in Indonesia, I'd expect to see Optiemus to launch some BlackBerry phones of their own design. And I wouldn't expect all future TCL-built BlackBerry models to be available from Optiemus.

[Bbnivende]

Or, more appropriately, it's an example of the licensees striking a balance between all the good intentions of signed agreements, and reality. Sure it sounds great on paper that each licensee should be responsible for its own devices and marketing. But the reality is when the licensees see a successful BlackBerry product from another market is catching their customers' attention, as an official BlackBerry oem they would definitely be feeling some pressure to roll out that product in their own markets rather than miss out on the opportunity.

Do any of the licensees have the expertise and money necessary to design and build a good PKB phone?

According to Verge 850,000 BlackBerries were sold in 2017. I do not see how the economics can work for the Indonesian and Indian markets.
Paying the fees to BlackBerry Canada would seem to sap out any potential profits.

[conite]

Do any of the licensees have the expertise and money necessary to design and build a good PKB phone?

According to Verge 850,000 BlackBerries were sold in 2017. I do not see how the economics can work for the Indonesian and Indian markets.
Paying the fees to BlackBerry Canada would seem to sap out any potential profits.

Even by these numbers (which I wouldn't bet on), it's 10x more than the Essential top-tier, low-cost, 3-year security patch, now-Oreo slab.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Do any of the licensees have the expertise and money necessary to design and build a good PKB phone?

According to Verge 850,000 BlackBerries were sold in 2017. I do not see how the economics can work for the Indonesian and Indian markets.
Paying the fees to BlackBerry Canada would seem to sap out any potential profits.

While others have made PKB devcies in past.... no one has really made any recently.

Potential Profits.... that the problem in both Indonesia and Indian markets, most buyers are well below the price point where a licensed devices can be offered. A slab phone is going to be compared to other slab phones. There is a reason neither is talking about new SLABS, and that even BBMo changed their mind the high end slab this year.

I had wondered what TCL was going to do with PALM, if they added another PKB device it that would eat into BBMo sales. But they didn't mention PALM at MWC.... I bet one of these new BlackBerries will have a PALMISH feel to it, as it probable was meant to be a PALM device.

[anon(10268214)]

While others have made PKB devcies in past.... no one has really made any recently.

Potential Profits.... that the problem in both Indonesia and Indian markets, most buyers are well below the price point where a licensed devices can be offered. A slab phone is going to be compared to other slab phones. There is a reason neither is talking about new SLABS, and that even BBMo changed their mind the high end slab this year.

I had wondered what TCL was going to do with PALM, if they added another PKB device it that would eat into BBMo sales. But they didn't mention PALM at MWC.... I bet one of these new BlackBerries will have a PALMISH feel to it, as it probable was meant to be a PALM device.

Time to let Palm go. It's not coming back. Lol.

[TheBirdDog]

Time to let Palm go. It's not coming back. Lol.

Depends on what BBMo paid for the Palm brand but it's likely enough that they just bought it to keep anyone else from trying to compete.

And, if BlackBerry devices ever completely go away, they still have a 'Plan B' at their disposal.

[conite]

Depends on what BBMo paid for the Palm brand but it's likely enough that they just bought it to keep anyone else from trying to compete.

And, if BlackBerry devices ever completely go away, they still have a 'Plan B' at their disposal.

They likely bought Palm at a fire-sale price, but ultimately decided it was useless.

[Bbnivende]

Lots of brave words by TCL at the MWC but I am getting the feeling that BlackBerry Secure for mobile phones is not really happening. I can see John Chen getting out of the phone OS business. People here will say that was his plan anyway.

[conite]

Lots of brave words by TCL at the MWC but I am getting the feeling that BlackBerry Secure for mobile phones is not really happening. I can see John Chen getting out of the phone OS business. People here will say that was his plan anyway.

Well that's a complete jump out of nowhere.

What evidence do you have that the current licencees aren't paying the bills?

[Invictus0]

Depends on what BBMo paid for the Palm brand but it's likely enough that they just bought it to keep anyone else from trying to compete.

TCL bought the Palm brand years ago, long before BB Mobile was a thing.