TCL Stops Manufacture and Sell of BlackBerry Smartphones

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• Customer and warranty services for existing devices will run through August 2022

Chinese electronics giant TCL Communications, the company that has designed, manufactured, and sold BlackBerry smartphones since 2016 will stop selling BlackBerry’s end of August this year.

Taking to Twitter on Monday, it said they will no longer be offering any new BlackBerry-branded mobile devices as they have no further rights to design, manufacture or sell.

“TCL Communication has no further rights to design, manufacture or sell any new BlackBerry mobile devices,” it said.

They will, however, they will offer customer service and warranty service for existing devices until August 31, 2022, or later where applicable.

The last Android security patch for the Key2 and Key2 LE will be issued in May 2020 and Aug. 2020, respectively. After that, the phones will stop receiving software updates.

We'd like to thank TCL Communication @BBMobile and their team for a successful partnership over the past few years. Together we produced great things. Many thanks and appreciation to our BlackBerry community for your continued support. https://t.co/fn2iM3bvzR

— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) February 3, 2020

In a statement, TCL said: “We were very excited and humbled to take on this challenge.

“What made these devices great wasn’t just the hardware developed and manufactured by TCL Communication, but also the critical security and software features provided by BlackBerry Limited to ensure these were genuine BlackBerry devices.

“The future is bright for both TCL Communication and BlackBerry Limited, and we hope you’ll continue to support both as we move ahead on our respective paths.”