BlackBerry partners with Optiemus to manufacture handsets in India

Canadian mobile maker BlackBerry on Monday announced its partnership with Optiemus, a Delhi-based telecom enterprise to licence software and services for the production of Android handsets in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Canadian mobile maker BlackBerry on Monday announced its partnership with Optiemus, a Delhi-based telecom enterprise to licence software and services for the production of Android handsets in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

An Android mascot is seen in front of a logo of Blackberry in this photo illustration taken in Zenica.(Reuters)

Under the terms of the agreement, BlackBerry will allow Optiemus Infracom Ltd to design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry devices.

“With its infrastructure and experience in manufacturing, and proven success as our distribution partner, Optiemus Infracom Ltd is the ideal partner to design and manufacture trusted BlackBerry secure Android handsets for customers in India and neighbouring markets,” said Alex Thurber, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry, in a statement.

BlackBerry will continue to control and develop its security and software solutions and maintain trusted BlackBerry security software, including regular Android security updates to the platform.

“With our strong end to end play in the mobile ecosystem in manufacturing, retail, distribution and support, we are confident that our journey with BlackBerry will be a long and successful one,” added Ashok Gupta, Chairman of Optiemus Infracom Ltd.

Apart from manufacturing BlackBerry devices under the new deal, Optiemus Infracom also manufactures HTC phones in India.

The agreement with Optiemus Infracom Ltd expands on an existing relationship announced in November 2016, for the distribution and sale of the BlackBerry’s DTEK series of Android smartphones.

These devices continue to be available through the company’s distribution network.