WATERLOO, ON – BlackBerry has licensed its software and brand to TCL Communication Technology Holdings, giving the Chinese manufacturer the rights to sell BlackBerry devices almost everywhere.
Under the terms of the agreement, announced Thursday, TCL Communication will design, manufacture, sell and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices globally except for in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. BlackBerry will continue to control and develop its security and software solutions, serve its customers and maintain 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.
The deal builds upon the two companies existing work together on the DTEK50 and DTEK60 handsets.
“TCL Communication is the natural choice to license Blackberry's software and brand on a global scale”, said BlackBerry COO and mobility solutions GM Ralph Pini, in the news release. “We successfully partnered with them on the DTEK series of secure smartphones and we've been impressed with their excellence in hardware design, development and manufacturing. With our unparalleled expertise in mobile security and software and TCL Communication's vast global reach and consumer access, we are 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."
