Blackberry 5G phone official dead as OnwardMobility shuts down business

Blackberry license holders OnwardMobility have announced a complete shutdown of business, which means the “ultra-secure” 5G Blackberry handset development will not see the light of day. OnwardMobility was reportedly working on a Blackberry phone with a keypad, while no pictures or designs of this 5G phone have been seen. Reports suggest the design was based on Blackberry Priv, the only Android-based Blackberry made in-house.

“We want to thank you all for the tremendous amount of support that you have given us since we first launched OnwardMobility. However, it is with great sadness that we announce that OnwardMobility will be shutting down, and we will no longer be proceeding with the development of an ultra-secure smartphone with a physical keyboard.” The company said in a statement published on its official website.

On January 4^th,2022, Blackberry ended the support for Blackberry 7.1 OS, Blackberry 10, and Blackberry PlayBook OS 2.1 along with the previous versions. Provisioning services support was stopped, leading to the non-functioning of several functions like WiFi, Data, Phone Calls, SMS, and emergency call support.

In its hay days, Blackberry was quite the rage with Blackberry Messenger, Emails and Blackberry services. Having a physical keyboard on the smartphone-enabled quick typing and shortcuts. As iPhones and Androids disrupted the smartphone market, the legacy smartphone brand just could not catch up. The Canadian company tried launching Android-based Blackberry phones through TCL–The KeyOne and Key2 but with the competition already miles ahead, the smartphones just could make it.