A new BlackBerry smartphone with a physical keyboard is going to be announced soon. The Canadian smartphone maker stopped manufacturing its own mobile devices and currently only sells software. It recently announced an all touchscreen smartphone called the BlackBerry DTEK 60.

BlackBerry's recent smartphones have not been doing very well, but despite bad sales, the company will try its luck again. So far, all of the new smartphones launched by BlackBerry have had a touchscreen, except the BlackBerry Priv. This new device will be the second BlackBerry device to run Android and have a full sized keyboard.

New BlackBerry Smartphone

In an interview with Bloomberg, BlackBerry CEO John Chen confirmed that the company will release a smartphone with a keyboard by the end of year. This new smartphone, like the DTEK 50 and DTEK 60, will be outsourced from other manufacturers. BlackBerry's last phone, the DTEK 60, was manufactured by Alcatel and BlackBerry only provided the software.

The new keyboard phone will either be made by a company in India or China, but BlackBerry did not mention any names, according to PhoneArena. It is possible that the new BlackBerry smartphone could be a successor to the Priv. An updated device with the latest Snapdragon processor, more RAM and bigger battery. BlackBerry fans will surely like that, as long as it is not priced very high.

BlackBerry admitted that the pricing for its smartphones were pretty high, which is why it did not appeal to a lot of users. Hopefully that will not happen with the new upcoming smartphone.

Last BlackBerry Smartphone?

It sure looks like that, what with the company announcing that they will focus on software services only. This could very well be the last BlackBerry handset for all the loyal fans. The Priv was a hit with BlackBerry lovers, but it lacked certain essential features. A new BlackBerry smartphone with a physical keyboard could either help sales or will cause more damage.