OnwardMobility, the brand’s latest owner, has officially confirmed that it is shutting down.
US start-up OnwardMobility, which had been promising to launch new 5G BlackBerry phones at some point last year, has now confirmed that the project has ground to a halt because the company itself will be shutting down.
The company had recently reaffirmed that it still had every intention for a delayed device launch.
However, OnwardMobility has now posted an official notice on its website, confirming that it has shelved the project and that it will be shutting down. This completely scraps the development of a new smartphone under the brand name, which was expected to be released along with the classic physical keyboard users were so fond of.
“We want to thank you all for the tremendous amount of support that you have given us since we first launched OnwardMobility. However, it is with great sadness that we announce that OnwardMobility will be shutting down, and we will no longer be proceeding with the development of an ultra-secure smartphone with a physical keyboard,” said the official statement from the company in its farewell notice on its website. “Please know that this was not a decision that we made lightly or in haste. We share your disappointment in this news and assure you this is not the outcome we worked and hoped for.”
The company had clearly been struggling when the 5G BlackBerry phones were repeatedly delayed.
The original launch of the smartphone with a physical keyboard was slated for 2021. It was promised at a price that would be competitive against some of the top Android smartphones. That said, the year came and went without a single OnwardMobility update as to what was going on with the project or when the device could be expected to launch.
Earlier this year, BlackBerry itself announced that it had shut down the final support it was providing to the people who were still out there and using its old classic devices. OnwardMobility took that opportunity to draw the spotlight, denying rumors that it had abandoned its promised 5G smartphone. It promised that the BlackBerry phones were still in the works and that updates would be coming soon. Not a few weeks went by before the new farewell message has been placed on the website, replacing all site content that had previously existed.