The time has finally come for the launch of the next generation of BlackBerry phones: the device known as the Blackberry Mercury. BlackBerry Mobile took to Twitter to announce February 25 as the official announcement date, which is also the beginning of this year's Mobile World Congress, a huge tech show that will overtake Barcelona each year.
New BlackBerry phone
CNET had the chance to take a good look at a pre-final version of the Mercury earlier this month and also taking some time typing on its physical keyboard, which is a BlackBerry hallmark from way back. With the upcoming Mercury, the BlackBerry brand now faces an uphill battle as all but its most faithful and trustworthy fans have turned to other brands of phones.
It's all up to TCL, a Chinese company that recently licensed the BlackBerry name - as well as also operating the Alcatel brand - to make, promote, and distribute the BlackBerry hardware. BlackBerry itself remains as a software entity that works with TCL to add its unique custom layer over an Android software.
TCL's goals for BlackBerry
Right now, TCL has ambitions to build out a BlackBerry profile of devices that will span the high-end to more affordable entry-level phones, and the Mercury is going to spearhead this goal into reality.
Nokia also making a move
According to SlashGear, the brand isn't alone in its aims of reigniting some glory from its heyday. Nokia Mobile is also aiming to use the giant Mobile World Congress show to globally announce its upcoming Nokia 6, a phone that is currently sold exclusively in China.
But that brand is taking a different path. Although the first Nokia phone of the current generation will also run on Android, the Nokia 6 is very much a low-cost medium-range phone, which is a foil to the BlackBerry Mercury's high-end ambitions.
It will be interesting to see which of the two appeals better with buyers when they both officially roll out.
