Over the last couple of years, BlackBerry‘s fall from grace has been extensively documented, with the once world leader in smartphone technology now garnering a very small, dedicated following but unable to crack the larger market. Their biggest problem has been reluctance to change with the times and subsequently they were left behind.
Their goal is to sell at least 5 million phones a year for the company to be profitable. At a panel interview at Code/Mobile, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said that the company might quit the hardware business if it isn’t profitable by next year.
He said that he “never says never” to shutting down its device business and could perhaps focus entirely on providing security services to other platforms. That said, Chen is bullish on trying to make the hardware business work. On stage, he showed off the new BlackBerry Priv, which isn’t only the firm’s first ever Android product, but also BlackBerry’s first ever device that uses an operating system that isn’t its own.
The Priv, Chen says, stands for privacy and privilege. It addresses three key factors that Chen believes is necessary for BlackBerry to succeed. First, is that he believes BlackBerry needs to go cross platform and accommodate all ecosystems. Second, the Priv helps to solve the lack of apps that BB10 has historically been plagued with. And thirdly, it leverages BlackBerry’s strength in security solutions, which is something that Chen says he’ll never let go of.
“We want to bring the BlackBerry security knowhow to Android,” he said, adding that the Priv will likely be one of the most secure Android phones on the market, with possibly only the Blackphone being equally or more secure.
Even though he says that BlackBerry’s hardware business is in a make-or-break phase, he is confident that it’ll succeed. “Android in the enterprise is a very underserved space,” he said. “With our connections, our accounts, our security knowhow, this has expanded our market.”
Source: The Verge
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