BlackBerry partners with Indian firm for manufacturing and selling smartphones in local markets

BlackBerry has partnered with a New Delhi-based company for manufacturing and selling its smartphones in India and neighbouring countries.

BlackBerry-branded Android smartphones sold in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh will be manufactured by Optiemus Infracom, the Canadian company said today, as it continues to outsource smartphone designing and manufacturing tasks to other firms.

Once an iconic name in the mobile business, BlackBerry said last year it would cease designing smartphones. The company now fully focuses on software and services business.

BlackBerry has since also inked a global licensing agreement with Chinese company TCL Communication. The new agreement with Optiemus allows BlackBerry to ensure "full global coverage" for licensees in "all markets" to manufacture devices that carry its brand name, it said Monday.

As part of the partnership, BlackBerry will also provide Optiemus Infracom with security software and service suite. Optiemus Infracom will take care of the customer service for all BlackBerry-branded smartphones in the aforementioned regions.

Optiemus Infracom has bagged several big smartphone manufacturing jobs in the last few years. Its joint venture with Wistron produces smartphones for LG, HTC, Oppo, and OnePlus in India.

John Chen, the CEO of BlackBerry, cheered die-hard fans of the company last month when he announced the Mercury, the last smartphone designed in-house by the company. The BlackBerry Mercury will launch at some point later this year.