Canadian handset maker, BlackBerry Limited (BBRY) has recently filed a patent lawsuit against Typo Keyboards for infringing its popular keyboard design. The newly designed keyboard is priced at $99 and will be available with iPhones 5 and 5S.
Typo Keyboards is taking preorders for the keyboard and it is expected to be available by the end of this month.
Typo Keyboards has already invested nearly $1 million for developing the keyboard and is expected to inject an additional $5 million for manufacturing other components.
In 2002, BlackBerry also sued PDA-maker Handspring for copying its keyboard design. However, the charges were dropped and the keyboards were licensed.
Earlier, BlackBerry, the market leader in the smartphone business, had failed to upgrade its operating platform. It led to loss of market traction to Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iOS and Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating systems during the past few years.
Despite launching operating platform BB10 and LTE-based high-end touch screen smartphones, the company has failed to recoup its smartphone business. In the third quarter of fiscal 2014, it sold a mere 4.3 million smartphones as compared with 81.2 million and 33.8 million sold by Samsung and Apple in the same period.
Such disappointing performance has compelled Blackberry to enter into a 5-year agreement with the world’s leading developer of electronic products and components, Foxconn. Such a strategic decision will help the Canadian device maker to target the smartphone market of Indonesia and other emerging nations. Foxconn will supply inventories for the smartphones.
Currently, BlackBerry carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
A better-ranked stock to consider in this sector is Nokia Corporation (NOK) with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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