BlackBerry stops making its own devices

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Philip
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…but will outsource to other companies instead
Arguably, BlackBerry was done with internal hardware design as soon as the DTEK50 was released. That device was based on a TCL reference design, and the leaked upcoming DTEK60 uses the same model as well. BlackBerry has consistently been moving away from the costs associated with their hardware for a while now, so the news while surprising at first blush, has been a long time coming. Still, it's a bit of an 'end of an era' feeling we're having here because of the history.

This leaves a lot of questions still in play. Who could BlackBerry partner up with? What will the hardware look like? According to John Chen, during the Q2 fiscal results call, there will be hardware out that is in the high-end range, but the conversation was limited. One thing is for sure for now, BlackBerry might not be building and designing their own phones, but they're not done with phones entirely. Stay tuned for more; there's a lot of information to pull out of here.
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-announ ... tners-here

As the article says, it's not really the end of BlackBerry, but it's the end of an era. We all know technology changes so quickly but it really was only four or five years ago when you'd see BlackBerries everywhere.
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WillPS
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It's a shame, because the BlackBerry Passport remains the best phone I have ever used bar none. The hybrid keyboard is unparalleled.

BlackBerry 10 is also the best OS I've experienced bar none. Even the supposed 'app gap' isn't really as big a you might expect, especially since someone managed to get Google Play working.

I guess I'll stick with the Passport for the time being. Nothing I see elsewhere convinces me it'd be better, and I think when I do go it'll be because there isn't enough support for Android 4.4 (which is the limit of BB10's Android kernel sadly) rather than because a better device is available.

If only they were able to get BB10 out just a bit quicker.
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robschneider
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Joined: Wed 14 Aug, 2013 14.53

I had one 2010-2012 and whilst I was a big fan, I got left behind by iOS and Android - so many apps my friends had which I couldn't run.

That massive outage they had in 2011 didn't help them either.
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