BlackBerry Licensing Its Security Technology For Third-Party Devices

BlackBerry has changed its business model over the past few years. It’s no longer a hardware company even though BlackBerry was one of the most popular smartphone manufacturers only a decade ago. It’s more of a software company now that licenses its technology to other companies and BlackBerry today announced that it’s going to license its security technology for third-party smartphones and smart devices.

The company has signed a technology and brand licensing deal for “BlackBerry Secure” with Swiss-based Punkt. It has already signed a similar deal with Chinese company NTD in September last year.

This licensing agreement will allow Punkt to launch “highly-secure” products that come embedded with BlackBerry’s security technology. Its devices will be certified as BlackBerry Secure.

“By incorporating BlackBerry’s security technology into our premium products, we can now offer customers the highest level of security, without compromising on the simple, modern design they love,” said Petter Neby, the CEO and founder of Punkt.

Product manufacturers get a deeply embedded security solution with a BlackBerry Secure license that includes the company’s proprietary software and applications.

For those who are wondering, BlackBerry is no longer making its own hardware. It has licensed its brand to China-based TCL which is the company that’s now making and selling BlackBerry-branded smartphones. The company decided to exit the handset market after it saw the writing on the wall and has been relatively successful ever since its shifted its focus to software licensing.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: BlackBerry