In an interview with Engadget, Franklin was envious of addressing some of these questions. And even when he refused to provide specifications, he laid out an ambitious – and somehow surprising – vision for the BlackBerry of the very future.
The original plan, according to Franklin, was to build “the safest phone out there.” That’s the kind of corner that opens doors, but does not normally translate to mass march success. Over time, however, the team’s priorities came to include productivity, as evidenced by the number of times the word was posted on the OnwardMobility website. For now, the specifications are still shrouded in secrecy; Franklin would not expand the features of the new BlackBerry, except that he noted that the phone will pack “tons of unique experiences” and “security features.” However, that newfound focus on getting things helped increased the scope of the project considerably.
While OnwardMobility is eager to push new hardware among companies and government customers, Franklin is committed to building this new phone with normal consumers in mind. “The only way to be successful with government and enterprise is if consumers want to use it too,” he said. “If your company makes you use this phone and you do not like it, then this is not where we want to be.”
OnwardMobility
But here’s the thing: OnwardMobility’s definition of a phone that consumers want to use looks completely different from TCLs, than one of BlackBerry’s former licensing partners. Franklin describes the device the company plans to ship in the first half of 2021 as a consumer-first “global flagship” (his words, not mine) with a “world-class camera” and support for both sub-6 and mmWave 5G networks. And then there’s the keyboard. OnwardMobility confirmed in its press release that the new BlackBerry would indeed have a physical keyboard, but Franklin – a fan of the classic Bold 9900 – would not elaborate much on the design of the phone.
Of course, this can be because the design is not set in stone. According to Franklin, the team works closely with its partner FIH Mobile and has strong opinions about the device it wants to make, but still craves feedback. “We want to hear from users,” he said.
With all that said, there’s at least one aspect of BlackBerry’s production that Franklin seems particularly adamant about. Security remains the top priority for OnwardMobility, and a big part of fully securing a smartphone by 2020 is securing its supply chain. That’s an exceptionally tough achievement when you consider that the lion’s share of the world’s hardware production takes place within Chinese borders. FIH Mobile, Onward’s production partner, knows this all too well. While parent company Foxconn is headquartered in Taiwan, most of its smartphone production takes place across multiple factories in Shenzhen.
Not so for the BlackBerry: Franklin notes that the company’s upcoming phone will be produced entirely outside mainland China. If so, the most likely candidates would be FIH’s facilities in Vietnam as well as India; the company has improved its production capacity there, as trade between the US and China continues to build. Producing a phone outside of China is one thing, but Franklin seems to be chasing an even more ambitious goal. “We want to be the most American-made phone,” he said. “The specifications of it and how we can enable that come to mind.”
