BlackBerry expands India channel ecosystem with six new partners

Toronto: Canada-based tech giant BlackBerry announced on Tuesday it has added six new partners in India to design, implement and support its solutions in the country.

The company has added ACPL Systems Pvt Ltd, Galaxy Office Automation Pvt Ltd, Jainam Technologies Pvt Ltd, Meta Infotech Pvt Ltd, Nucleus Software Exports Ltd and XSAT India Services Pvt Ltd.

"BlackBerry is committed to helping enterprises in India, one of the world`s largest mobile-first nations, to secure against the ever-increasing data leaks and security threats," said Richard McLeod, Vice President of Global Channels at BlackBerry, in a statement. 

"By joining BlackBerry`s Enterprise Partner Programme, these companies will now have access to secure software solutions that will address today`s complex and sophisticated business environments," McLeod added.

BlackBerry has made a comeback as a software solutions company focused on security under the leadership of CEO John Chen.

The company reported a revenue of $249 million in the second quarter of 2017. The surge was led by record software revenue, which came in at $996 million -- a year-over-year (YoY) increase of 26 per cent, TechCrunch reported late on Thursday.

BlackBerry suffered a major fall as it struggled to adapt to the smartphone revolution. In 2009, the company controlled the smartphone market with 41.6 per cent share. 

BlackBerry has now redefined itself as a software company and it does not make its own phones. 

The company outsourced manufacturing to China`s TCL to manufacture and sell BlackBerry branded phones in December 2016 and also embraced Android platform.

Chinese electronics company TCL will launch a full-touchscreen smartphone under the BlackBerry name in October.

BlackBerry `KEYone`, introduced earlier this year by Chinese firm TCL, was recently launched in India by the homegrown Optiemus Infracom -- one of the three licensees of `KEYone` devices across the world.

BlackBerry "Priv", "DTEK60" and recently-launched "KEYOne" all run on Android OS. "KEYOne" comes with both touch-screen and old-school physical QWERTY keyboard.