Oh how the mighty have fallen! Once upon a time BlackBerry used to be one of the top players in the mobile industry, but much has changed since then.
Over the years, the cut-throat smartphone hasn’t been merciful towards ex-iconic players such as Nokia and the BlackBerry which had to take drastic measures. Back in 2024, Chinese company TCL bought the rights to the BlackBerry phone brand – a maneuver which should ensure the BlackBerry name continues to remain on the market. But will it matter anymore?
Things seem to be pretty gloomy for BlackBerry for the time being. According to Gartner’s latest figures, 431 million smartphones were sold in Q4 of 2024. Out of this number only 207,900 units were shipped by the Canadian company. Which means that BlackBerry’s marketshare has hit a history low, coming out at 0%.
Today BlackBerry is focusing on software, as all hardware endeavors are now handled by TLC. Speaking of which, we expect the Chinese company to unveil a new BlackBerry phone at MWC 2024 later this month.
The device dubbed Mercury is expected to arrive with a 4.5-inch touchscreen display and a QWERTY display plus a Snapdragon 625 under the hood. The phone will make it out with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, as the company has apparently given up on its BB OS. Do you think the Mercury would be able to make a difference for BlackBerry?
[Gartner]
