You cannot kill what's already dead. That apparently, does not apply to BlackBerry phones.
The BlackBerry brand hasn’t made any phones since 2016. But since then, BlackBerry Limited has sold its license to the Chinese company TCL, to run a brand known as BlackBerry Mobile in hopes of keeping the brand power alive.
What this means, TCL has the global rights to use the 'BlackBerry' brand name. TCL as the company that created phones under the Alcatel name, has the rights to produce, market, and sell BlackBerry branded mobile devices, as well as providing customer service.
And here in a quiet announcement, TCL has decided about BlackBerry's fate, saying that it would stop selling BlackBerry devices starting August 31, 2020.
The company said that it “has no further rights to design, manufacture, or sell any new BlackBerry mobile devices,” though the company said that warranties should continue until 2022.
— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) February 3, 2020
The announcement is because the partnership between TCL and BlackBerry comes to an end on that said date.
The BlackBerry-TCL partnership dates back to 2016. At that time, TCL signed a deal to produce BlackBerry-branded Android phones, after the BlackBerry brand decided to stop making its own devices.
The first phones that were created after the partnership, were the DTEK50, DTEK60 and BlackBerry Keyone. These phones were designed and built by TCL, and ran secure software by BlackBerry. BlackBerry Limited provided apps and a security-enhanced version of the Android operating system for the devices, while TCL paid BlackBerry a royalty for each unit sold.
Announcing the end of the agreement, TCL said it had been "blessed" to work with BlackBerry on the smartphones.
BlackBerry was one of the most prominent smartphone vendors in the world, specializing in secure communications and mobile productivity, and also well known for the keyboards on most of its devices. At its peak popularity in September 2013, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide.
Once the market leader, BlackBerry lost its dominant position in the market, and struggled to keep pace with rival handsets like Apple and Android-powered devices. The number of members it had in March 2016 dropped significantly to just 23 million.
It attempted to launch a new operating system called BlackBerry 10 to regain its pace in the market, but it failed to attract popular apps to its platform.
It should be noted that the end of the TCL-BlackBerry partnership isn't the end of the road for BlackBerry, the company.
At this time and going forward to a foreseeable future, BlackBerry is offering secure enterprise services and owns QNX, a popular OS for automotive applications. And as long as the "BlackBerry" brand lives, there is always a chance for another company to revive it.