BlackBerry said Friday that, thanks to new agreements with licensing partners, there may soon be opportunities for BlackBerry branded "tablets, wearables, medical devices, appliances, point-of-sale terminals and other smartphones."
BlackBerry said this is the next stage of its licensing strategy, following a September 2016 agreement with TCL, a company that has already developed three new smartphones with BlackBerry branding. The latest such smartphone, the BlackBerry KeyOne, is expected to launch in May.
BlackBerry Ltd., the company that used to make phone hardware under the same name, now simply provides the end-to-end security and software for smartphones build by its partners. If its plan is successful, it'll also provide that software for plenty of additional "Enterprise of Things" devices.
"We have taken a long-term and thoughtful approach to our licensing strategy, which includes an expansive view of the entire Enterprise of Things ecosystem," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Friday. "As part of this strategy, we will work with a wide range of manufacturers to integrate BlackBerry Secure software into both BlackBerry-branded and co-branded devices."
BlackBerry didn't provide any additional information on devices that may actually be in development
Watch: BlackBerry's KEYone
