BlackBerry Achieve Global Coverage In Licensing Deal With India's Optiemus
The Canadian company BlackBerry reportedly recently announced it has entered into a long-term licensing agreement with Optiemus of India to license BlackBerry software and services thereby allowing the Delhi-based telecom company to design and manufacture handsets carrying BlackBerry's Android-based security software. The new agreement supposedly follows BlackBerry 's recent global licensing agreement with TCL and PT BlackBerry Merah Putih in Indonesia.
According to the Telecom, with the latest signing, the once dominant smartphone maker BlackBerry has now achieved full global coverage for licensees in all markets to manufacture BlackBerry-branded devices. In conjunction with this latest regional deal, BlackBerry will still continue to control and develop its security and software solutions.
It is further reported that BlackBerry will also continue to maintain reliable BlackBerry security software, including regular Android security updates to the platform. Furthermore, the agreement is said to be an accomplishment of the company's prolonged turn around towards becoming a software and services-only firm.
In a post by Techcrunch, it is reported that BlackBerry has previously announced that the company is transitioning its handheld devices strategy to concentrate on sustained software innovation that will eventually provide the most secure and wide-ranging software for devices around the world. It is said that the company will now be just leveraging third parties to develop hardware, distribute and market the BlackBerry handset brand.
Accordingly, it is said that India has previously been a solid market for the BlackBerry. A previous transaction was apparently forged with Optiemus to sell the DTEK50 and DTEK60, the final two phones under the BlackBerry banner. Both phones are apparently designed by TCL, a BlackBerry future licenser.
It is also said that certainly India is a market of growing importance, that is poised to surpass the US as the second largest smartphone market. This is the growth surge that many manufacturers lately have been looking for to capitalize on.
