BlackBerry has reached the end of the line for handset revenue.

Well, sort of.

The company’s CEO told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Thursday that revenue from its iconic handset devices was zero in the quarter that ended Nov. 30.

“There was one quarter in the last three that was low - like $5 million or something of that sort… This is the quarter where we had zero,” John Chen told BNN Bloomberg.

However, he clarified that the revenue hasn’t dried up, but has simply been re-directed into the company’s licensing categories, since it has outsourced production of its devices amid the company’s refocused efforts on software.

“Everybody needs to know: BlackBerry will still have handsets, but we’re going to get the handset revenue through royalties because we have licensed both some of our technologies, our operating systems, as well as our brand to a number of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) out there,” he said. “They will be building BlackBerry phones and they will be responsible for addressing the market that way.”

“When they sell those phones, I’ll get the royalties on that, as arranged. We expect to continue in the phone business, but not taking the hardware.”