TCL Communication to design and manufacture BlackBerry smartphones

TCL Communication may sound unfamiliar, but in fact, you’ve seen their designs before: the DTEK50 and DTEK60 were both designed and developed by the Chinese company.

Essentially, the announcement of this long-term licensing agreement between the two companies is an extension of their already-existing partnership. It builds upon their work together on the two obscurely-named BlackBerry handsets we saw in the past: the DTEK50 and DTEK60.

From now on, BlackBerry will – as announced before – focus on software development and its service suite, and TCL Communication will design, manufacture, sell and provide support for all BlackBerry-branded devices:

BlackBerry will continue to control and develop its security and software solutions, serve its customers and maintain trusted BlackBerry security software, while TCL Communication will manage all sales and distribution and serve as a global distributor of new BlackBerry-branded mobile devices along with dedicated sales teams.

It seems like at least for the foreseeable future, TCL Communication will be the sole and exclusive hardware partner for the troubled Canadian company. TCL Communication is a subsidiary of TCL Corporation, a multinational Chinese electronics company, and is the fourth largest handset manufacturer in North America and top-10 globally according to IDC.

As Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer at BlackBerry, explains, this long-term agreement might benefit BlackBerry since it doesn’t need to waste its resources on the hardware side of things but instead can focus on its forte: software and security. Pini claims that the agreement with TCL Communication “represents a key step in our strategy to focus on putting the ‘smart in the phone’ by providing state-of-the-art security and device software on a platform that mobile users prefer and are comfortable with.”

He further adds that given the success the company saw with TCL-designed DTEK smartphones and TCL Communication’s vast global reach and consumer access, and given BlackBerry’s “unparalleled expertise in mobile security and software,” he is “confident that BlackBerry-branded products developed and distributed by TCL Communication will address the needs of BlackBerry users and expand the availability of BlackBerry Secure products throughout the world.”

How important is mobile security to you? Is BlackBerry the only way or do you use other services like Samsung’s KNOX? Let us know by leaving a comment down below!