Optiemus to make and sell BlackBerry smartphones in India

BlackBerry is no more making smartphones, instead, the Canadian company gave rights to TCL the license to manufacture and sell all BlackBerry branded smartphones globally, except for select Asian countries including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Now BlackBerry has announced its partnership with Indian telecom enterprise Optiemus Infracom for an agreement to license BlackBerry software and services for manufacturing BlackBerry branded Android smartphones in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will license its security software and services suite, as well as related brand assets to to Optiemus Infracom.

Moreover, Optiemus will also design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded smartphones. BlackBerry on the other hand will control and develop its security and software for the smartphones.

Optiemus is a distributor of mobile phones and accessories, and it has been the distributor of BlackBerry smartphones in India since November last year for distribution and sale of DTEK50 and DTEK60 smartphone.

As for Indonesia, BlackBerry's largest handset market, the company has signed a similar deal with BB Merah Putih back in September last year, giving the company rights to make and sell BlackBerry devices in that country. 

The announcement comes just ahead of MWC 2017, where, TCL-BlackBerry will launch BlackBerry Mercury smartphone that comes with the brand's signature QWERTY keyboard. Mercury is said to be designed and engineered by BlackBerry, but TCL is its manufacturer. 

Source

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative