TCL wants to remind the world on the eve of IFA 2017 a new BlackBerry-branded mobile device is coming... a little later this year.
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BlackBerry may get network carriage for what’s expected to be its third DTEK-branded phone to be manufactured by TCL.
Leaks man Roland Quandt tweeted that the device, so far as we know it to be codenamed “Mercury,” is indeed headed to the United States in an unlocked GSM form as well as a variant for Verizon bands. He also says that the “BBB100” is designed by BlackBerry, which accounts for CEO John Chen’s desire to put out at least one more device with a physical keyboard on it.
The Priv was BlackBerry’s last phone made in-house and to have widely spread among carriers, especially in the US. The newer DTEK50 and DTEK60 phones were mostly dealt from BlackBerry and its partner retailers.
Benchmarks have shown and Quandt can confirm that the phone’s display does have a resolution of 1080 x 1620 or 2:3 in the phone’s vertical orientation. Renders and leaks have portrayed the phone to have an intractible keyboard, so it’s expected that for dimensional considerations, the screen has to shrink in real estate.
The Mercury is expected to arrive at market as the DTEK70 and will likely be revealed at CES 2017.
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After pretty much taking over the BlackBerry mobile hardware division just last week, China-based TCL concisely teased the looming CES 2017 announcement of #TheNewBlackBerry on its North American President and GM’s Twitter feed.
The manufacturer behind all those super-cheap Alcatel-branded handhelds of recent years, as well as the DTEK50 and 60, is still not ready to share many details on exactly what’s coming to Vegas early next month.
But we now know for certain the “BlackBerry brand legacy will live on in a new generation” of TCL-made smartphones. Yes, that’s smartphones (plural), and an entire new “generation”, although we’re merely promised a “first look” at the “evolutionary” addition of the new BlackBerry brand of smartphones to the company’s “current portfolio.”
If we were to venture a wild guess therefore, we’d expect the physical QWERTY keyboard-sporting DTEK70, aka Mercury, to get a full announcement between January 5 and 8, with general (and generic) plans of what comes next also likely to be further discussed.
TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited (TCT) aims to transition from the “number four handset manufacturer in North America to a tier one portfolio brand” with this “business update”, trusting BlackBerries to work as “building blocks of our new growth strategy.” And yes, “additional announcements” are on schedule for later in 2017, so we’re definitely looking at a partnership for the long haul.
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The age of licensed manufacturing has come back strong for 2017. Whereas it was HTC, ZTE and a ton of Chinese players putting out phones for other brand names in the past, this time around we have a Finnish startup led by old Nokia executives to build phones for today’s Nokia.
And then, there’s the case of TCL, known for its Alcatel brand of devices, and BlackBerry. The former has already delivered two phones for its client. Now, as the main contractor for the Canadian enterprise brand, we figure there’s a third on the way. But will CES 2017 reveal what that phone is?
President and General Manager of TCL North America Steve Cistulli is definitely piquing the intrigue. He’s teasing #TheNewBlackBerry to come out during the big trade event.
Very exciting news. Can’t wait to share more at #CES2017 #TheNewBlackBerryhttps://t.co/vklgf2hY2T
— Steve Cistulli (@SteveCistulli) December 15, 2016
Remington No. 2 of 1878 #TheNewBlackBerry
— Steve Cistulli (@SteveCistulli) December 16, 2016
Cistulli makes mention of the Remington No. 2 typewriter from 1878, the refined sequel to the overly floral and semi-functional original version. It featured a shift button. In case you’re wondering, BlackBerry’s first Android phone, the Priv, had a retractable keyboard with a shift key on it.
We don’t know if what’s to come will be marked as the “DTEK70,” but we’ve also been calling a recently leaked device by its supposed codename, “Mercury.”
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It’s come to this. The end of Pebble. Juan’s favorite smartwatch has shuffled off its mortal coil. As despondent as he is, the industry must move on, as must the discussion of wearable technology. Where do we go from here? Also, is Apple to reliant on phones for profit? Yes. Yes they are. What might be the solution for generating shareholder value in an era of smartphone saturation? We don’t know, but we’re going to talk about it.
Those stories, plus we answer YOUR viewer questions, so make sure you’re charged and ready for the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast!
Watch the live video broadcast from 10:00pm Pacific on December 8th, or check out the high-quality audio version right here.
For folks watching live, you can comment and ask questions by using the #PNWeekly hashtag on Twitter during the broadcast. For folks watching later, you can shoot your listener emails to podcast [AT] pocketnow [DOT] com for a shot at getting your question read aloud on the air the following week!
December 08, 2016
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(00:10:16)
The deal is done. The announcement is official. Pebble is dead. Pre-orders for the Time 2 and Core are cancelled. What do we do now?
50:08 | Windows 10 emulation on a Qualcomm 820 looks fantastic!
1:03:23 | Will the G6 go all glass? Will the S8 get its groove?
1:11:56 | Blackberry DTEK70 brings familiar QWERTY hardware action.
1:19:23 | SoftBank investing $50 Billion in the USA
1:23:25 | Samsung vs Apple lawsuits continue after Supreme Court ruling
1:27:04 | Were iPhones shutting off because of air?
1:30;46 | Honor Magic to be announced December 16
1:35:35 | TouchWiz is dead, long live the Samsung Experience!
1:39:40 | Shopping an LG V20 in Canada? Freedom Mobile has it on sale
(01:42:47)
The smartphone market is fairly well saturated, and Apple has a major milestone next year. After the iPhone 8, what will the company do to drive the market, and build profits?
(01:49:13)
We’ve got a FULL slate of viewer questions and emails to chew through! Thanks to everyone who sent in a query!
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See you next week!
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You know that end-of-an-era in-house BlackBerry QWERTY smartphone CEO John Chen last month confirmed was still “coming”? Codenamed Mercury, and likely to be officially branded DTEK70 when it eventually rolls out, this may have been finally photographed in the flesh.
For real this time, and no, the physical keyboard doesn’t appear to slide out from underneath the 4.5-inch or so touchscreen. So, yeah, it looks like the Priv will remain without an heir, and although the alleged pre-release Mercury prototype has a few things in common with the squarish Passport, it’s probably not a direct follow-up to that either.
Instead, it could carve its own path into the challenging mid-range Android smartphone landscape, almost definitely running Nougat out the box, sporting Full HD display resolution (with a sky-high ppi), as well as Snapdragon 625 processing power, 3GB RAM, and 18/8MP cameras.
Of course, it’s still recommended to take all the above with a proverbial pinch of salt (or several), real-life leaked pics included, since their authenticity is very much in question. If legit, we can’t help but notice the full-sized four-row QWERTY keyboard, trio of capacitive buttons on the top, and overall tall aspect of the looming productivity-focused, business-centric BlackBerry DTEK70, aka Mercury. Hot or not, what do you guys think?
The post Freshly pictured BlackBerry QWERTY phone could well be in-house DTEK70/Mercury appeared first on Pocketnow.
It’s not over until… CEO John Chen explicitly says it is. BlackBerry may have issued an official press release a little while back corroborating rampant rumors of the financially struggling Canadian company’s “plans to end all internal hardware development”, but apparently, a very important part of the story was left out.
Namely, Chen’s “promise” to build at least one more “keyboard phone” in-house, which the outspoken executive still intends to uphold. He won’t say exactly when, just that it’s not going to be “that long”, and everything from the market moniker of the device “coming” soon to its design, hardware specifications and software type also stays under wraps.
Mind you, BlackBerry could go one of a few different paths in integrating a physical QWERTY keypad, perhaps following in Priv’s, Passport’s or even Classic’s footsteps. And although Android feels like the most logical platform choice going forward, the security specialist’s proprietary BlackBerry 10 OS is technically not dead yet.
It remains to be seen if maybe the recently leaked DTEK70 design hasn’t been outsourced to TCL after all, and we’re also interested to hear more about the two companies, one from China and the other from India, currently running neck and neck in a race to launch the next BlackBerry-licensed phone.
Oh, and if you’re curious what John Chen thinks of Donald Trump’s “shocking” US election win, there’s roughly 8 minutes of that too in the same Bloomberg interview.
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