OnwardMobility, a new BlackBerry licensee, announced last year that it is working on bringing new BlackBerry phones with 5G to the market. Now, a recent report suggests that the American company is planning to bring the new BlackBerry phones to the Asian market as well.
In its first press release, OnwardMobility revealed that its first BlackBerry phone will be announced in Europe and North America. However, that is not the case anymore according to a Nikkei Asia report. Moreover, Peter Franklin, head of OnwardMobility, recently commented that Asia is also a very important market.
As far as the launch schedule is concerned, the manufacturer has not defined a timeframe but the CEO said they are in the “process of speaking to customers and mobile carriers on a global scale to develop our distribution plan”.
According to other reports, the first BlackBerry phone from the company will have a physical keyboard, a flagship camera, and 5G connectivity. Furthermore, it is being jointly developed with Foxconn’s FIH Mobile. The company’s long-term goal is to have its phones assembled in the USA.
Franklin believes that there is still a market for BlackBerry phones and that their smartphones with physical keyboards will boost productivity. Apparently, the company has no intention of making a touchscreen-only model like the Optiemus-made BlackBerry Evolve and BlackBerry Evolve X or the TCL-made BlackBerry Motion.
