BlackBerry officially announced at the recent MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2017 that the release of the BlackBerry KEYone will be on April. Its FCC approval made the preliminary plan's assurance of being on the right track but unluckily, the handset's release has been delayed.
BlackBerry KEYone is reported to be a mid-range handset that has a physical QWERTY keyboard which has been the company's asset for the past years. It is also considered as an alluring factor for BlackBerry fans. The device is previously named as the BlackBerry Mercury, according to Ubergizmo.
According to the announcement of the CEO of BlackBerry, John Chen, during the company's previous fiscal earning's call, the BlackBerry KEYone is said to be released this May instead of April. The production of the handsets will start only at the end of the month.
Chen also added that they just released two mobile phones; one is in Indonesia and its already started shipping. The other one is what TLC announced at the recent MWC which also came with a physical keyboard. This will probably start shipment on May.
Furthermore, General Manager of TLC Communication's North America division Steve Cistulli made a tweet that said that production is already on its way. He also confirmed about the delay in release of the handsets and hopes that it will be launched this May in US and Canada.
One of the probable cause for the delay of its release is the launch window of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. The BlackBerry KEYone has still a huge job waiting in the future. It is still early though to say the least that the latest from Samsung would be a great hit in sales. However, it's definitely safe to say that the KEYone will not get near the numbers of Samsung's flagship devices. Although the QWERTY keyboard will surely have an impact to some, but the high price number and the medium range specs will be its major drawbacks.