News + Trends
TCL wants the OLED market: Does LG have to dress warmly?
by Luca Fontana
Blackberry: 5G comes, TCL goes and OnwardMobility assumes control
24.8.2020
The Chinese licensee TCL is selling Blackberry. A new American company is launching a 5G Blackberry next year. The physical keyboard remains – thank goodness.
Whatever happens, one thing is certain: the new 5G Blackberry will have a physical keyboard. This removes the biggest concern of Blackberry fans. But that's all the good news they're going to get. It seems like Blackberry's on thin ice in general. They better make sure they don't go under in the economic clash between the USA and China.
In recent years, Blackberry, still its own company, granted a license for hardware manufacturing to Chinese manufacturer TCL. The latter now hands this responsibility over to a new company – OnwardMobility. The new company used this opportunity to announce a new smartphone. It should support the 5G standard.
Worries regarding China? Or the price? Or both?
The articles sure seem chipper. Words such as «thrilled» and «excited» are being quoted. Managers definitely didn't use these terms. The press release doesn't provide a specific reason, but it does provide background information on the new licensee OnwardMobility, including a LinkedIn company profile.
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Government expertise? Blackberry seems to be inching ever nearer to the government. This leads me to the following assumption: Blackberry is withdrawing from the Chinese market in order to maintain an uncritical position of security. This is despite the fact that FIH, a subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, is involved.
Alternatively, TCL could be divesting a business that isn't providing the group with the returns it hoped for.
One thing is certain, however: in 2021, a new Blackberry will be on the market. Its specs aren't yet known, except for one: 5G. But this raises new concerns, even if I'm getting flagship vibes. The question: how expensive will this new Blackberry be? In the past, Blackberries were far removed from flagship specs and relatively expensive.
TCL carves a path of destruction
TCL's current efforts suggest that Blackberry has withdrawn from China due to tensions between the USA and China in the current trade war. After all, would a company that is currently trying to conquer the TV market in Europe simply give up an indestructible cult brand like Blackberry?
TCL is the third largest manufacturer in the world in terms of television sets sold. And thus the probably fastest growing TV brand. Only Samsung and LG currently sell more televisions per year. TCL's great pride and joy is its Vidrian Mini-LED technology. In short: Mini-LED stands for thousands of closely spaced LEDs that provide background light. The only difference to Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) is the number of dimming zones: FALD top models have about 500 dimming zones. TCL's first generation of mini LED TVs creates about 1000.
Despite advanced back light technology, TCL apparently doesn't want to leave the OLED market to its competition. The Chinese tech company is planning to produce large-area OLED panels in the near future. This has been revealed by TCL's partner JOLED, a joint venture founded in 2015, which includes well-known brands such as Sony, Panasonic and Japan Display.
The novel production process is particularly exciting: the OLED layer is to be printed on a wafer-thin glass sheet, comparable to ink on paper in an inkjet printer.
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