According to a British media report, on June +654381October +02, 5438, BlackBerry sold 90 US-registered security-related communication technology patents to Huawei, a China company. This news was confirmed by Steve Rai, the financial officer of BlackBerry.
The news sent a signal and caused a question mark.
One signal is that BlackBerry has finally begun to deal with the assets related to its interrupted mobile phone business. A brand that once won 20% of the global market and 50% of the North American market with full keyboard mobile phones stopped its mobile phone business a few years ago, but its pre-planned acquisition at its peak allowed it to make great strides in smart devices and network security business. Especially before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, BlackBerry, which made a big bet on corporate network security, caught up with the trend of telecommuting. After the sale of nearly 100 mobile phone patents, BlackBerry is considered to be "soft" and closer to enterprise-level business and services.
Another question mark is that Huawei, the key enterprise in the Sino-US game, purchased 90 patents from a company that once provided dedicated mobile phones for the US president. What does this mean? How will these 90 patents work? Could it have something to do with the HarmonyOS system?
In this regard, Zijinshan Technology consulted several people in the industry, but opinions were different.
1999 The first BlackBerry device "Blackberry 850" launched by RIM, although it does not support the call function, is favored by business people who travel frequently because of its convenient and real-time mobile email service and ultra-low energy consumption. Throughout its history, it is not difficult to find that its first big customers, Merrill Lynch (one of the world's famous securities retailers and investment banks) and salomon brothers (a famous investment bank on Wall Street), have played an important role in opening up a bigger market.
By 2000, RIM had raised more than $654.38 billion with this mobile email service, and began to invest in the research and development of mobile phones. It has been reported that even in the event of 9 1 1 in 2002, in the face of the complete collapse of some mobile phones and pager networks, BlackBerry terminals were able to maintain mail service slowly but steadily.
Since 2003, a series of BlackBerry have appeared. Its iconic full keyboard design and real-time and convenient e-mail function have become the two most prominent features of BlackBerry. With these two characteristics and safety and reliability, it even became a dedicated mobile phone when Obama was president of the United States.
Thanks to the president's influence and unique positioning, BlackBerry once won 55% and 20% of the US mobile phone market and the global mobile phone market respectively.
After Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, the era of smart phones quietly opened, which was at the peak of BlackBerry. In foreign media reports, the management of BlackBerry thinks that the battery life of iPhone and the full-screen virtual keyboard are not as good as that of BlackBerry, and it also consumes power (less than 24 hours of charging, far less than the battery life of BlackBerry), which will lead to a great increase in network traffic (even think that the operator's network will be overwhelmed), so it does not pay attention to the trend of smart phones.
In the following years, based on iOS and Android systems, the rapid growth of smart phones turned the traditional mobile phone market upside down, and various apps emerged one after another. Mobile networks with higher bandwidth and more convenient app experience will crowd out blackberries with full keyboards and mobile emails as housekeeping skills.
In 20 12, the share of blackberry in the global mobile phone market has dropped from 20% to 5%. So that in order to reverse the performance decline, BlackBerry had to give up the iconic full keyboard design and switch to the Android camp.
The most famous Android model in China is BlackBerry KEY2, and its main feature is "the safest Android phone". Users can encrypt and store all the account information on the mobile phone in a high-strength local password box, and enter the fingerprint adjustment password in the password box, which can be used conveniently in applications. The keyboard adopts a redesigned and efficient QWERTY keyboard, and even introduces the Xunfei voice input method, so users can input voice only by holding down the MIC key.
But its low price combined with other comprehensive performance is considered to be more suitable for professional business people and loyal fans of BlackBerry.
Obviously, the small market failed to support the big ideal of BlackBerry. After licensing the mobile phone brand to TCL, BlackBerry shifted its focus to the fields of enterprise, Internet of Things and security software.
During the period, the acquisition of QNX was regarded by the industry as the smartest move of BlackBerry. QNX was originally used in industrial control systems, and later became the basis of many electrical systems in automobiles, supporting applications such as entertainment systems and driver assistance systems, as well as air traffic control and medical equipment.
With the continuous investment in network security, Cylance, an artificial intelligence network security company, was acquired for $65,438.04 billion in 20 19, and the total revenue of BlackBerry in the second quarter of 2020 reached $244 million.
Today, BlackBerry has become an intellectual property and Internet of Things software company, and is trying to become a giant in the field of network security.
In the public news, it is not mentioned that the 90 communication technology patents purchased by Huawei this time will be related to the development of its system in HarmonyOS. But in private, many people think that BlackBerry once "put down its posture" and took compatible Android applications as a transitional stage in the process of building its own ecosystem, "similar to Huawei's HarmonyOS system".
Regarding whether these patents will be used for the development of HarmonyOS system and the technical route of Huawei's HarmonyOS system, Purple Mountain Technology consulted several different people inside and outside the circle.
In the view of Sun, a well-known person in charge of KOL's "Teach an Axe", BlackBerry and Huawei do have similarities in "one-click transplantation". Like BlackBerry, HarmonyOS gives Android developers the function of "developing Android applications can be compatible with this system in only one or two or three steps", but if there is no source code, it remains to be considered whether such a large number of transplanted Android applications will involve intellectual property issues. The acquisition of blackberry patent can reduce this risk to some extent.
He explained that on the developer side, BlackBerry's support for Android applications is achieved through repackaging. When BlackBerry provides Android runtime to developers, the APK package should be recompiled into a BAR file and submitted to App World. This process needs to be completed by the developer himself, and he also owns the copyright of the source code, so it is not illegal to transplant what he developed.
But BlackBerry's support for Android applications is realized through virtual machines, which inevitably means sacrificing performance. For example, in applications directly related to user experience, such as games, the user experience will be somewhat different or even significantly reduced. "Since users want to buy Android phones, why not buy phones that support Android native applications?"
In addition, most hardware functions, such as Bluetooth, microphone, camera, NFC, VoIP and so on. , the Android application will be lost after it is converted into a BlackBerry application. It is not excluded that Blackberry's improved technology can map the above interfaces to its own devices, but the process will be very difficult.
"Unless the result of conversion or compatible results, vendors can achieve the same experience or better functions as Android native, but this is almost impossible. For example, the four-camera function supported by Android system is difficult to support in a ported or compatible system. I think this is also a key to whether the ecology of the HarmonyOS system can grow bigger. "
However, according to the technical director of Baiyou Factory, the main target customer of HarmonyOS system is not the mobile phone manufacturer, the technical route is the second, and it is more important to gain a foothold in the business first.
This is also a realistic consideration that HarmonyOS system is led by the marketing department instead of the development department. On the one hand, if it is the development process and route led by the development department, the cost is very, very high. Prior to this, Zhongmin had not made any achievements in the operating system for many years. The main reason is that this process is difficult to complete. No matter what kind of investment needs this process, at most, several prototype versions will be produced, similar to college students' homework or research projects, "and then there will be no more."
Therefore, in order to make a high-tech product successful, we must first aim at the target customers, sell it, get back the money and continue to develop it. Only in this way can this high-tech product survive and grow up gradually.
"If Huawei compares with foreign open source foundations, Google and other companies in operating system development capabilities, the gap may still be relatively large (although Huawei is now an important developer of Linux), but Huawei can at least draw a tie with them in terms of market layout, market sales execution and market share operation."
As for how Huawei started from the home appliance operating system market, how it has been impacting the mobile phone operating system market, and how to go in the middle process, this is probably a market problem.
"At least, this is not an absolute technical problem."
Just as HarmonyOS system will use dozens of patents of BlackBerry to arouse curiosity and heated discussion in the industry, in 2020, there was also a news that was "turned over" by netizens:
In August 2020, Onward Mobility, which took over the BlackBerry brand after TCL, announced that a BlackBerry brand smartphone supporting 5G network would be born in 20021year, running Android system and even retaining the iconic physical keyboard.
It is said that this BlackBerry, which still focuses on safety and faces business people, will be produced by FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, and it is expected to be listed in North America and Europe in the first half of 2002/KLOC-0.