OnwardMobility, the new BlackBerry licensee reported it will be releasing BlackBerry-branded smartphones this year all which will have the latest 5G network support in the Western smartphone market. A newer announcement has it that the company is also planning to include the Asian market in its plan.
According to a press release from the company last year, OnwardMobility stated it was going to announce BlackBerry-branded smartphones in Europe and North America but the exclusion of other regions especially the billion-dollar Asian mobile market wasn’t a good news. According to Nikkei Asia, OnwardMobility will now be including Asia on its list of regions to market its BlackBerry devices when they’re finally released later on this year.
According to the report, OnwardMobility head Peter Franklin is said to have made claims that the Asian market is also very important to the company even though there isn’t a defined timeframe as to when the devices will launch in Asia even though Franklin stated that the “process of speaking to customers and mobile carriers on a global scale to develop our distribution plan”.
OnwardMobiity will also continue with the BlackBerry legacy which includes a qwerty keyboard and a flagship-level camera with 5G capabilities. The development of the device will be a joint venture between the firm and Foxconn’s FIH Mobile and the device would be assembled in the United States.
According to Franklin, there is still hope for BlackBerry in the market especially with its physical qwerty buttons – something which modern smartphones have all moved away from since the introduction of the first iPhone. The presence of physical buttons can make typing much more faster and efficient especially for the enterprise users who had always been BlackBerry’s target since its early days.
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Aside the physical buttons, other distinct features includes the device’s security-conscious software and powerful data protection system against cyber crimes and leaks online.
Since the time BlackBerry has lost its market share, regaining it back will be extremely difficult considering how comfortable consumers are with popular brands like Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and the rest. This might further relegate BlackBerry as a niche smartphone for the IT experts and enterprise users who would rather use the device as a productivity tool with highly powerful security system and faster internet connection rather than the fun-filled popular smartphones in the market used by the average consumer.
