It was only last month that it was confirmed that a new BlackBerry 5G phone with a keyboard would be released this year. This was supposed to be the first BlackBerry smartphone in years, but it appears that the device has been canceled after OnwardMobility lost the rights to the BlackBerry name.
OnwardMobility was announced as the latest licensee for the BB brand for smartphones in August 2020. While the BlackBerry 5G phone was delayed, OnwardMobility insisted that it was on its way. However, according to an AndroidPolice report, the 5G BB project appears to be dead. The news comes from Kevin Michaluk, the founder of CrackBerry, and other sources have revealed that OnwardMobility will no longer work on the project.
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Despite having obtained a license to use the American phone maker’s name, the company is said to have canceled the project. Furthermore, BlackBerry is attempting to distance itself from its previous identity as a smartphone vendor, having sold the remainder of its mobile patents earlier this month for 600 million US dollars. While there have been no leaks of OnwardMobility’s 5G BlackBerry phone, it was expected to have a design similar to the previously launched BB Priv, which was an Android slider phone.
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For those who are unaware, the new 5G BB phone was supposed to be released in mid-2021, but it was delayed due to supply chain issues, which led to BlackBerry CEO John Chen changing his decision to have another OEM try to revive the brand on another smartphone. As a result of OnwardMobility losing the license to its name, we may not see another BlackBerry phone for quite some time.