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TCL Outlines Alcatel and BlackBerry Handset Strategy

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Jan 4, 2017, 11:15 AM by Eric M. Zeman

TCL, the parent corporation of Alcatel, unveiled its new handset strategy moving forward. The company will continue to build its Alcatel-branded smartphones that target the low/value end of the market. These devices will run Android and will generally be sold via carriers and the open market. The company will also work closely with BlackBerry to design BlackBerry-branded handsets for North America and other markets. TCL will make the hardware, but it will rely on BlackBerry's hardened version of Android with government-grade security and business software on board. TCL sees its new partnership with BlackBerry as a way to get its phones into the high-end and enterprise segments of the market. BlackBerry and TCL hope to regain the trust of corporations that have in recent years turned to Apple and Samsung for employee devices. TCL plans to work with BlackBerry's sales team to sell BlackBerry-branded handsets directly to businesses, but it also intends to forge new carrier deals to reach consumers via carrier stores over time. TCL's Steve Cistulli says the BlackBerry DTEK50 and DTEK60, which are rebranded variants of the Alcatel Idol 4 and 4S, are performing well and have helped level off the decline of BlackBerry sales in North America. TCL believes it can reverse that decline over time with a range of unique BlackBerry handsets. The company also revealed its first entirely new BlackBerry smartphone that is scheduled to debut later this year. The phone is a slab with a physical QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. TCL did not announce the phone's name, nor its specs. BlackBerry said it will continue to support BBOS 10, and pointed out that it recently released BBOS 10.3.3 for older phones such as the BlackBerry Classic.

TCL / Alcatel »

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BlackBerry DTEK50

5.2" display FHD+ resolution
Snapdragon 617 processor 3 GB RAM
2,610 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm), NFC

BlackBerry DTEK60

5.5" display QHD+ resolution
Snapdragon 820 processor 4 GB RAM
3,000 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm), NFC, Fingerprint Reader

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