Canada based BlackBerry has stopped manufacturing its own smartphones, and, has licensed the manufacturing to its partners. Well, that was the first phase of BlackBerry’s licensing strategy. Now, as a part of the second phase, the company is said to start licensing its software to other manufacturers soon.
According to a report, BlackBerry is in talks with global smartphone manufacturers to license its secure version of Android to them so that they can use it in their smartphones. This secure version of Android that will be provided to the manufacturers is called BlackBerry Secure.
BlackBerry’s version of Android is said to be much more secure than what you find on other Android smartphones. It comes with their DTEK security suite, and, the company also rolls out security patches every month. Well, the smartphones that will run BlackBerry Secure will come with all such security and privacy features offered by BlackBerry.
For now, BlackBerry has an agreement with Optiemus in India for BlackBerry Secure, the company which launched the BlackBerry KEYOne Limited Edition Black in India last month. BlackBerry has also partnered with BB Merah Putih for Indonesian market and TCL for rest of the markets.
“We have already started talking to a couple of medical manufacturers. John Chen [BlackBerry CEO] had also talked about TVs – there is an amazing amount of products that run Android and since we are able to make a very secure Android, we think there are a lot of opportunities. We have a very specific plan and we are working to that plan. Indian market is very exciting and competitive. With huge potential users in the subcontinent, it’s the market we are very interested in.” said Alex Thurber, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry.
Apart from this, the company also has plans to foray into the Enterprise of Things (EOT) segment to offer their secure OS for TV, wearables and more.
