BlackBerry Keyone Release Gets Delayed Until May, New BlackBerry Tablet is Expected

One of BlackBerry's imminent Android smartphone, Keyone, which was expected to be released this month, unfortunately, has been delayed. This smartphone was announced officially at MWC 2017 and it was represented as a mid-range handset with a physical keyboard on it.

Being a highly appreciated phone by other Blackberry users, this device is said to determine the company's future. Though the recent FCC approval of the Keyone device has stated that everything was on track, but in the earnings call of company's fiscal Q4 2017, the company CEO John Chen has announced the unfortunate delay of the phone. He noted that it is still under production process and will get released in May, as reported by Gizbot.

"The second one that TCL announced at Mobile World Congress that is the physical keyboard on an Android, which one is not going to be slated to ship until most likely the May timeframe. I think the first manufacturing production run is at the end of April. So the worldwide availability is going to be later than May," Chen was quoted as saying. This information has also been posted on Twitter. Steve Cistulli, the president and general manager of TCL Communication's North American division has tweeted to share the additional details.

According to Crackberry, CEO Chen has also mentioned an interesting prospect, he has mentioned about a new BlackBerry-branded Android tablet being a option for the future. He said that, "One of our partners is very excited to build a tablet based on Android, and so they wanted us to give them the portfolio rights to do that."

Chen also admitted that he is interested in this project since he will be going to get royalties for every tablet they ship. So while it's not a certainty right now, it's clearly something that very well could happen. Fans of both BlackBerry's software suite and Android tablets will definitely be excited for this one.