The end of Blackberry may be on the horizon
JOBURG - According to Blackberry Ltd CEO John Chen the company would consider exiting its handset business if it remains unprofitable.
“If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business,” John Chen said in an interview, adding that the time frame for such a decision was short.
He would not be more specific, but said it should be possible to make money off shipments of as few as 10 million a year.
At its peak, BlackBerry shipped 52.3 million devices in fiscal 2011, while it recorded revenue on less than 2 million last quarter.
Chen was made CEO of the struggling company in November.
He said BlackBerry was also looking to invest in or team up with other companies in regulated industries such as healthcare, and financial and legal services, all of which require highly secure communications.
“We are building an engineering team on the service side that is focused on security. We are building an engineering team on the device side that is focused on security.”
He said security had become more important to businesses and government since the revelations about US surveillance made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Chen said long-term plans included competing in the burgeoning business of connecting all manner of devices, from kitchen appliances to automotive consoles to smartphones.
