According to a report on the tech website PocketLint, the deal to license the BlackBerry name to Onward Mobility has fallen through.
The report comes a month after Onward Mobility posted an update entitled “contrary to popular belief, we are not dead.” It also comes on the heels of Blackberry selling off $600-million worth of patents from its phone business.
In the post, Onward Mobility claimed it still planned to release a smartphone with a physical keyboard aimed at enterprises. It also continued to promoting itself as being set to bring a 5G BlackBerry to market.
Onward Mobility acquired the license to produce BlackBerry handsets in 2020 after BlackBerry’s parent company gave-up developing its own devices in 2016. Despite promises to bring out at a new BlackBerry in 2021 the year came and went with no sign of the device.
In its recent post the company vowed to provide more regular updates on its progress after experiencing “various delays that prevented us from shipping in 2021″.
But reports citing multiple sources claim the company’s has now lost the right to the Blackberry name. If the reports are true it could spell the final nail in the coffin for Blackberry phones.
The news comes just a few weeks after the parent company for the iconic Canadian smartphone maker sold off patents for its smartphone business totaling $600 million in value. The deal signaled the end of Blackberry’s mobile phone business, which at one time held a 43 percent share of the global handset market.