In addition to revealing that the next BlackBerry flagship model will be waterproof, maintain a full-screen touchscreen and have a battery life of up to 26 hours, TCL also revealed earlier that it will re-launch the Palm series of phones under its Alcatel One Touch brand.
At an earlier event before IFA 2017, TCL Marketing Manager Stefan Streit revealed plans to relaunch a Palm-branded device before 2018. While Streit didn't provide specifics, it's possible the device will largely adopt the Android operating system, similar to the BlackBerry line, and may not be built on webOS.
Palm, the first brand to launch PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) models, was once owned by HP to develop its mobile phone business. However, HP eventually sold the webOS that Palm later adopted to LG, and the Palm brand fell into the hands of Alcatel One Touch, which was acquired by TCL.
TCL's decision to leverage the Palm brand's appeal to redesign its phones is expected to differentiate them from BlackBerry-branded devices, potentially targeting handwriting applications, large screens, and personal information management. Furthermore, with webOS now under the LG umbrella, the new Palm phone is likely to be primarily Android-based.
TCL also revealed that a new BlackBerry flagship model is scheduled for release in October, featuring waterproofing, a full-screen touchscreen design, and up to 10 hours of battery life. TCL stated that the new model will not only utilize BlackBerry encryption technology and the Android operating system, but will also have the potential to attract iPhone and Samsung users.
