.jpg "Clicks Communicator")
When Clicks first announced its intention to graduate from keyboard cases to keyboard smartphones, it positioned the BlackBerry-inspired Clicks Communicator as the perfect second smartphone. To the company’s surprise, some of its fans disagreed.
Speaking with WhistleOut Australia at this year’s Mobile World Congress, CEO Jeff Gadway admitted the company didn’t fully appreciate just how many consumers might want to use a productivity-oriented device like the Communicator as their daily driver.
Even if Gadway isn’t expecting that every Clicks customer will look to go all-in, he said that it’s cool that some are.
“We’re totally in support of that, but we recognise that it's a very competitive market and a lot of people are very passionate about their flagships."
“If what you want is a phone that focus on helping you stay in touch and being really efficient and is super-pocketable and you don’t care about a triple-element camera system and playing AAA games on your phone then it’s absolutely a great primary phone, but we didn't’ design it to be a flagship [or] to replace your flagship,” he said.
Another thing that separates the Communicator from more mainstream devices is the software. Instead of developing its own in-house take on Android, Clicks has opted to use Niagara Launcher for the native skin for the device.
Gadway said that the two parties are very aligned when it comes to the philosophy of smartphone experiences.
“For us, partnering with someone like Niagara has a lot of benefits. They’ve done a lot of the deep thinking around UX, and it allows us to accelerate speed to market. They obviously have a very beloved user base, which we think would love Communicator and vice versa, so there are a lot of strategic reasons from a market perspective.
“We can bring a lot of value in the hardware experience, the industrial design experience, the overall, you know, operating system experience. We don’t have to also own the launcher layer too, when we can partner with somebody who is an expert in that field.”
“We looked at all the options: you can build, you can buy, you can partner. We’ve been in this game a long time, and so you know we use those different strategies in different places, and this was one of those ones where when you find a partner that has the expertise and audience that Niagara does, you know, partnering is definitely the right path,” he said.
Asked whether the rise in the cost of components like memory represented an advantage or opportunity for the existing Clicks Keyboard case and the upcoming Clicks Power Keyboard to compete against the small number of smartphones that feature a physical keyboard and target a similar segment of consumers, Gadway gestured at recent shifts in consumer behaviour.
"Many customers that used to upgrade every 24 months are now deferring their upgrade and holding on to their phones longer."
"If smartphones prices rise as many people suggest them to because of the increase in memory and component costs, a Clicks Keyboard Case or Power Keyboard could offer customers a way to get more value out of the phone they already own," he said.
The Clicks Communicator is expected to launch later this year. If you're interested, the company is offering “early bird” pricing for those who reserve their unit ahead of time via the Clicks website. Those who take advantage of this offer before March 15 2026, will save $100 on the usual USD $499 (approximately AUD $600) price.
Disclosure: WhistleOut Australia's coverage of Mobile World Congress 2026 is supported by OPPO.
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Fergus Halliday
Digital Content Editor
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