BlackBerry’s CEO assured us that his company isn’t dead yet

You’ve gotta hand it to John Chen, he’s able to remain confident that his company will once again return to the realm of profitability and success, despite the fact that he’s the CEO of BlackBerry. His strategy is to focus much less on regular consumers, as they’ll undoubtedly go for Android or iOS devices, and instead focus on enterprise and governments who want the kind of security that a smaller platform like BlackBerry can provide. 

You may have written off BlackBerry’s smartphone business, but its CEO John Chen hasn’t. BlackBerry’s global smartphone market share has dwindled dangerously close to 0%, and the company only sold 1.6 million phones in the last quarter it reported. Compare that to the 61.2 million iPhones Apple sold last quarter. In an interview with Business Insider, Chen said he’ll make BlackBerry’s smartphone business profitable again. Under Chen, who took over as CEO about 18 months ago, BlackBerry has refocused its business toward enterprise and governments instead of normal consumers. You can still go into your carrier’s store and buy a BlackBerry phone, but most are being sold to large organizations. If things are so bleak, then why does BlackBerry continue to make smartphones at all? Chen says BlackBerry phones are the entry point for customers into the company’s security business. BlackBerry can still provide a secure backbone for other devices like iPhones and Android phones, but Chen says you get the most security with a BlackBerry phone. There are a lot of important customers that still need that level of security.