NEXTY Electronics Corporation of the Toyota Tsusho Group (“NEXTY Electronics”; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Atsushi Aoki) and BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”; Headquarters: Ontario, Canada; Executive Chairman and CEO: John Chen　NYSE: BB,TSX: BB) announced that we have entered into a BlackBerry QNX Distributor and Value-Added Integrator (VAI) partnership agreement in Japan. This agreement will enable NEXTY Electronics to participate in the VAI program offered by BlackBerry QNX, utilize the training from BlackBerry’s QNX and Certicom technology experts to provide related technical support to NEXTY Electronics' customers.

1. Background

The automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation in every area including connected technology, autonomous driving, ridesharing services, and electrification, and the remarkable evolution of these technologies has prompted the need for swift response. Amid this environment, software continues to grow in scale and complexity as vehicles continue to become more sophisticated. As a result, development time and costs are also rising in development settings, which has led to demand for ways to keep these under control while also maintaining quality levels.

2. Purpose of the agreement

NEXTY Electronics,core company of the Toyota Tsusho Group’s electronics business, NEXTY Electronics is top-class in the car electronics field, offering autonomous driving technology cultivated in the field. The company also provides innovative, connected technology solutions for application to industry peripherals, such as agricultural machinery to address technology challenges.

The BlackBerry QNX Distributor and VAI program provides partners with access to its broad portfolio of trusted software, cryptography solutions and engineering expertise, which allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to accelerate the design, development, integration and testing of mission-critical systems in, automotive, manufacturing and other industries, ultimately increasing time to market. 

By entering into this partner agreement, NEXTY Electronics will acquire BlackBerry QNX's technical knowledge, provide reliable QNX technical support, enhance its technological capabilities, and harness these advantages to continue pursuing the expansion and popularization of next-generation mobility systems.

■ NEXTY Electronics Corporation

NEXTY Electronics is expanding its business at a top-class scale in the automotive electronics sector, whose market is expanding via developments such as advanced safety vehicles and autonomous driving.

By drawing on the collective capabilities of Toyota Tsusho Group, NEXTY is leading the automotive electronics sector, and through its specialties of technologies and commercial products, it is responding to customer and global needs in a wide range of fields that include autonomous driving, IoT and industrial equipment, thereby providing solutions the challenges faced by today's society.

For more information, visit https://www.nexty-ele.com/

■ About BlackBerry Limited

Based in Waterloo, Ontario (Canada), BlackBerry is a security software and services company that provides enterprises and governments with the technology they need to secure the Internet of Things. The company is unwavering in its commitment to safety, cybersecurity and data privacy, and leads in key areas such as artificial intelligence, endpoint security and management, encryption and embedded systems.

For more information, visit BlackBerry.com