BlackBerry has signed its first BlackBerry Secure licensing deal with Yangzhou New Telecom Science and Technology Company (NTD), a Yangzhou and Beijing based electronics design firm that develops and manufactures smartphones and IoT devices. A BlackBerry Secure license provides smartphone, IOT, and other product manufacturers with an embedded security solution that is comprised of BlackBerry’s proprietary software and applications, according to the company.

NTD will develop devices that will be branded by OEMs, carriers and local smartphone brands, and marketed as “BlackBerry Secure” due to the use of BlackBerry’s security software. This builds on agreements with BB Merah Putih, Optemius and TCL, which enable those companies to bring to market BlackBerry-branded devices to the market.

The first product from this partnership will be an all-touch smartphone, which will use BlackBerry’s suite of device software security technologies and secure enterprise collaboration technology from Equiis Technologies, says the company. The device is expected to ship early in 2018.

[Image courtesy: BlackBerry]