Blackberry announced, almost a year ago, that it would not be producing any hardware, but would instead enter licensing agreements with other companies. Under such an agreement, TCL produced the KEYone which was released into the market carrying the BlackBerry name. The Canadian company has now entered into a licensing agreement with watch maker Timex. This has led to the assumption that a BlackBerry branded smartwatch may soon be released into the market by Timex.
What does this licensing agreement mean?
Unfortunately, the contract did not reveal the product or patents involved in this licensing arrangement.
However, it shows that Timex will be paying royalty to BlackBerry. The handset company has more than 40,000 registered patents to its name. These patents are related to a wide variety of technologies, such as cyber security, wireless communications, operating systems, messaging, and more.
Even though fans will hope for a BlackBerry branded smartwatch to be launched in the market, there is a possibility that Timex may be working on a different product. The watchmaker has yet to confirm or deny the existence of such a smartwatch. However, some hint of the arrangement was revealed by Jerald Gnuschke, BlackBerry's senior director of IP licensing.
Gnuschke said that the licensing arrangement with Timex indicated BlackBerry's entry into the mobile communications market.
This means that a smartwatch based on BlackBerry's software may indeed be in the works. Corporate communications officer at BlackBerry, Sarah McKinney, was also questioned about the patent licensing contract, but she refused to comment on the subject.
What else does BlackBerry have in the pipeline?
A FCC filing revealed that BlackBerry may soon release a new device, codenamed Krypton.
The handset, which is being developed by TCL, cleared the FCC certification process and may be on its way to being unveiled soon. It is speculated to be a mid-range handset and may ditch the QWERTY keypad, which is iconic to BlackBerry devices.
Other specs of the Krypton device may include a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display.
The handset is also believed to be powered by the Snapdragon 625 chipset. Being a mid-range device, the purported handset may also sport 4 GB of RAM.
It is also rumored that following the release of the Krypton smartphone, BlackBerry will also reveal another handset, codenamed Juno. Very little is known of this device, but it is rumored to sport a physical QWERTY keypad. These specs and features are all based on rumors at the moment and must be taken with a grain of salt.
