After selling $600 million in mobile-related patents, 5G BlackBerry may really be gone

Today’s smartphones are all in the form of notch screens, punch-hole screens, and folding screens, but 10 years ago, you could still see physical full-keyboard phones like BlackBerry, not as highly homogeneous as today’s phones. Although a startup called OnwardMobility said last year that they had licensed the brand from BlackBerry, a 5G phone with the BlackBerry logo would be launched in 2021, it’s 2022 now, and no product has been unveiled yet, and the latest news points out that this BlackBerry phone is likely to be gone.

Image: BlackBerry

According to the latest report from Android Police, OnwardMobility has lost its BlackBerry brand license. A source said that after BlackBerry released its communications-related patents in February, it has completely gone away from making mobile phones. OnwardMobility has not responded to this statement. In fact, due to the lack of product information updates for a long time, they also made a self-deprecating announcement at the beginning of this year, “we are not dead”, and their official website still maintains the promotional page of 5G BlackBerry phones.

As a tyrant in the North American mobile phone market, after entering the era of all-touchscreen smartphones, BlackBerry was defeated in the competition with iPhone and Android mobile phones. The parent company (former RIM) chose to transform into an in-vehicle safety system. In 2016, BlackBerry began to give up its own smartphone making. Instead, it will be handed over to third-party OEMs to launch new mobile phones based on the Android system through authorized brands.