It's official. BlackBerry Ltd, the Canadian company that invented the smartphone and addicted legions of road warriors to the "CrackBerry", has stopped making its iconic handsets.

Finally conceding defeat in a battle lost long ago to Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, BlackBerry is handing over production of the phones to overseas partners and turning its full attention to the more profitable and growing software business.

It's the formalization of a move in the making since Chief Executive Officer John Chen took over nearly three years ago and outsourced some manufacturing to Foxconn Technology Group.