BlackBerry has finally entered a long-term licensing agreement with Optiemus Infracom Ltd for the production of future BlackBerry Android handsets in India. Under the licensing terms, the company will also manufacture, design and sell future handsets neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh as well.
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BlackBerry will license its security software and services suite, as well as related brand assets to Optiemus Infracom Ltd. The Indian-based manufacturer will design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices in the country. Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will continue to control and develop its security and software solutions and maintain trusted BlackBerry security software, including regular Android security updates to the platform.
“India is a very important market for BlackBerry, so we are delighted our latest licensing partnership will extend the BlackBerry software experience to more customers and support the Indian government’s ‘Make In India’ agenda. This is an important milestone in our strategy to put ‘the smart in the phone’, providing state-of-the-art security and device software on a platform relevant to mobile customers, with more localization,” said Alex Thurber, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry.
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To recall, BlackBerry selected TCL as a global distributor to sell, manufacture and design all future BlackBerry products around the globe expect in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The company recently inked a deal with PT BlackBerry Merah Putih in Indonesia and the Canadian giant has now achieved full global coverage for licensees in all the markets. For the uninitiated, BlackBerry in November 2016, chose Optiemus Infracom Ltd for the distribution and sale of the DTEK50 and DTEK60 by BlackBerry. These devices will continue to be available through the company’s distribution network.