BlackBerry announced today that the number of BlackBerry-branded gadgets might soon expand. Although the company doesn’t release much of its own hardware anymore, its name still appears on new smartphones, and now, its licensing practice will apply outside of mobile devices. This could mean the eventual release of branded tablets, wearables, medical devices, appliances, and point-of-sale terminals, all of which will have a touch of BlackBerry DNA. A spokeswoman confirmed to The Verge that every product will feature tech or code from BlackBerry, likely in the form of its security-minded version of Android or enterprise services. In fact, it’s calling this strategy an expansion of the “Enterprise of Things,” which might be the only thing worse than the actual Internet of Things.
So what does this all mean for the once-prolific brand? Well, things are pretty much just keeping on like they have been. The company announced in December that TCL had acquired the global rights to brand its phones with the BlackBerry name. The most recent BlackBerry phones, the DTEK50 and DTEK60, were already made by TCL using parts from the Alcatel Idol 4. With BlackBerry holding such a small share of the smartphone market, it wasn’t a surprise it decided to get into licensing. Now we just have to get used to the idea of seeing the company’s name on everything, like Polaroid.
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