14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry planned to go out of the smartphone business in style, but unfortunate circumstances did not allow the Canadian company to follow its plan.
Instead of three smartphones, BlackBerry only launched the DTEK50 and DTEK60 this year, even though John Chen, the company's CEO, promised fans a QWERTY smartphone.
Well, even if that won't happen since we're just a few weeks away from the end of the year, BlackBerry will eventually keep its promise and will give fans a smartphone that will feature its traditional QWERTY keyboard.
A new BlackBerry smartphone will be unveiled next month at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, United States. The information has been confirmed by Steve Cistulli, GM of TCL Communication in North America, CrackBerry reports.
Cistulli said that his company can't wait to share more details about the new BlackBerry smartphones at CES 2016, which is scheduled to kick off early next month.
He also tweeted a rather cryptic message related to the upcoming device: “Remington No.2 of 1878 #TheNewBlackBerry.” Upon further investigation we've learned that Remington No.2 is in fact a typewriter that was produced since 1878 and came with a QWERTY keyboard that featured a shift key.
The presence of a shift key was revolutionary for the future of typewriters, as the industry fully embraced the new functionality hurriedly.
That is a clear reference to the fact that the next BlackBerry smartphone will feature a full QWERTY keyboard.
Still, just the addition of such a keyboard won't make the device stand out from previous models launched by the Canadian company, so we're expecting TCL to offer fans its own take on the traditional QWERTY keyboard that made BlackBerry phones so popular among business customers.
BlackBerry has announced that it has entered a long-time partnership with TCL, as the Chinese company will be allowed to design, manufacture and sell BlackBerry-branded smartphones.