BlackBerry on Tuesday said tha tit will stop making its Classic smartphone, 18 months after launching it in an effort to entice users who prefer physical keyboards. The Classic was launched early last year, with a physical keyboard in the vein of its Bold predecessor and powered by the BlackBerry 10 operating system.

BlackBerry has since launched a phone powered by the Android software and plans several more, and BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen last month expressed confidence the company's trimmed-down handset business can turn a profit by a self-imposed September deadline.

The company will no longer manufacture the Classic as it updates its device lineup "to keep innovating and advancing our portfolio," Ralph Pini, who joined BlackBerry in May as its new chief operating officer and devices head, said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The Canadia company, which has shifted focus from its once-dominant smartphones to the software that companies and governments need to manage their devices, also said on Tuesday it was on track to deliver an updated version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system next month, followed by another update in 2017.