TCL to design, manufacture & sell Blackberry smartphones

Blackberry Ltd. have tied up with TCL to design, manufacture and sell their smartphones.

The new agreement in both the companies is called Blackberry Smart Phone Software and Brand Licensing Agreement with TCL Communication. The company will license software and security services to  TCL communications. It will also license the brand assets to it for designing, manufacturing and sales of Blackberry smartphones.  After this deal, Blackberry will continue to work on software and security services in the smartphones. TCL will be a global distributor for Blackberry branded smartphones.

Nicolas Zibell, CEO of TCL Communication said, “At TCL Communication, we are committed to creating the best portfolio solutions, while ensuring the quality support to consumers and enterprise users who trust the integrity of the BlackBerry device and the brand’s security leadership, coupled with the Android platform”

Something Blackberry also said,

This agreement with TCL Communication represents a key step in our strategy to focus on putting the ‘smart in the phone’ by providing state-of-the-art security and device software on a platform that mobile users prefer and are comfortable with,” said Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry. “TCL Communication is the natural choice to license BlackBerry’s software and brand on a global scale. We successfully partnered with them on the DTEK series of secure smartphones and we’ve been impressed with their excellence in hardware design, development and manufacturing. With our unparalleled expertise in mobile security and software and TCL Communication’s vast global reach and consumer access, we are confident that BlackBerry-branded products developed and distributed by TCL Communication will address the needs of BlackBerry users and expand the availability of BlackBerry Secure products throughout the world.”