BlackBerry Unveils Their Last In-House Phone

BlackBerry showed off the last phone it will market itself before completely outsourcing design, production and distribution to partners, according to Bloomberg. It's a 5.5-inch touchscreen device that rivals the size of the iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel XL, but at a lower price.

The DTEK60 isn’t exactly a full BlackBerry phone. Like the DTEK50, which BlackBerry released in July, it was partly designed and manufactured by Chinese electronics company TCL Corp. and uses BlackBerry’s version of Alphabet Inc.’s Android software. It’s geared toward companies and government departments that don’t want their employees using personal phones for sensitive work business.

BlackBerry has been winding down its shrinking smartphone unit ever since Chief Executive Officer John Chen took over three years ago and began focusing more on software. Last month, BlackBerry said it would completely stop designing its phones and instead license out their brand to other manufacturers.

BlackBerry is still working on forging licensing deals with other manufacturers and so far only has an agreement with an Indonesian telecommunications consortium to build BlackBerry-branded phones. Last month, Chen said he was working on other deals in China and India.