Reports of the death of the BlackBerry appear to be premature with the company announcing a new phone which will be made under licence.

The phone, which will be called the BlackBerry KEYone, will have physical keyboard as it did during its heyday.

In September it announced it was stopping making mobile phones after 14 years. Unable to keep up with Apple and Android, it appeared that the company had thrown in the towel.

The raised keyboard, once a selling point, was seen as an anachronism as consumers opted for touch screen devices.

It marked the end for a device which was once the must have for young urban professionals.

However, the Canadian company has licensed TCL Communication of China to produce the new phones.

The new device, which was showcased in Barcelona, will operate on the Android operating system.

TCL, the manufacturers, said the KEYone will be a “flagship device”.

The raised keyboard will also enable individual keys to be used as customisable shortcuts. F, for example, could be used to launch Facebook.



Source: The Telegraph