John Chen stays on as Blackberry CEO after he turned company around

John Chen can keep his job of chief executive officer(CEO) of Blackberry until at least November 2023. Chen is given the credit for rescuing the company when Blackberry appeared to be doomed when he came on as CEO in 2013.

Chen changed focus of Blackberry

Blackberry was once famous for the quality and security of its mobile phones but was unable to keep up with the competition and lagged behind as companies such as Apple and others were thriving in the mobile market. Chen decided simply to ditch the mobile phone business andlicensed Telephone Communications Ltd. (TCL) to use the Blackberry name on mobile devices. He shifted the company's focus to "investments in cybersecurity and embedded software that today are delivering the vast majority of the company's revenue and growth".

Blackberry board praises Chen for company turnaround

In its press release, the Blackberry board of directors expressed tremendous confidence in Chen saying: “John engineered a successful turnaround and has the company repositioned to apply its strengths and assets to the Enterprise of Things, an emerging category with massive potential.”

Chen himself it would seem also believes the company has completed its turnaround phase. Recently the company has exceeded expectations and it shares have risen as reported in a Digital Journal article in December.

Chen said: “I would not call us in a turnaround mode anymore. We make money, we generate growth in the right areas. Those areas are primarily cybersecurity and enterprise. We’re very good in the cybersecurity, enterprise for regulated industries in particular like the banks and the governments and the healthcare.”

Blackberry's deal with Baidu

In January the company announced a deal with the Chinese company Baidu. The two companies will collaborate to hasten the development of connected and autonomous vehicle technology. Blackberry's QNX platform will serve as the foundation for Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving platform.

Baidu is a huge multinational Chinese company headquartered in Beijing.

It specializes in internet-related services and projects but also in artificial intelligence (AI).

Baidu has its own autonomous driving platform called Apollo. Some of its features are described in a techcrunch article. Blackberry will provide QNX an operating system for the Apollo. QNX is described in a Wikipedia article.

Chen wants to go beyond auto applications

Chen claims: “We’re going to go beyond auto and go into the embedded world — what I call the EoT or IoT world. It’s a huge market, and it’s growing, and we’re very fortunate that we can play well in it.” Given Chen's success so far in completely turning around the fortunes of the company and changing its focus entirely the company could do well in the future as it enters new emerging technology markets.

The new Blackberry KeyOne

The Blackberry name is now used by Telephone Communications Limited (TCL). It recently launched the KeyOne shown in the appended photo and was reported on in a recent Digital Journal article.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Blackberry KeyOne said to receive a positive reception

Telephone Communications Limited (TCL), which attended the 2018 Mobile World Congress (MWC) had a positive message about the response to the BlackBerry KeyOne, which was launched at last year's MWC.

TCL, the Chinese budget phone maker purchased the right to use the Blackberry label back in 2016, after Blackberry Ltd. transformed itself into a software services company. Blackberry software is used by carmakers, businesses and government agencies.

TCL officials claim KeyOne launch a success

Francois Mahieu and Alain Lejeune both praised the launch of the KeyOne as an unqualified success. LeJeune is global general manager of Blackberry Mobile and Mahieu is in charge of marketing. Lejeune said that Mahieu had done a good job as the new phone has been made available in 50 countries and is sold by 110 carriers.

International Data Corporation (IDC) shows weak sales of KeyOne

IDC is described by Wikipedia as follows: "International Data Corporation (IDC) is a provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC is a Chinese owned company that offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. "

Francisco Jeronimo of IDC claims that only 850,000 shipments of Blackberry devices were made last year. This includes not just the KeyOne but all Blackberry devices. Blackberry's share of the mobile market is minuscule. It does not even show up on any lists of top-selling devices.

HMD Global the Finnish company which took over Nokia-brand phones in 2016 has done better selling a total of 4.4 million Nokia phones in just the last quarter of 2017.

Blackberry has developed good distribution channels

While BlackBerry sales may be low the company has developed many channels for marketing the product, This should result in more sales in the future and is a reason why it makes some sense for officials to claim that their mission is accomplished. However so far, the consumer reaction to Blackberry's wide availability has not resulted in a large sales volume.

Educating consumers about the KeyOne could boost sales

While customers claim the they respect the Blackberry name and reputation for security they worry that the operating system has no popular apps associated with it. However the KeyOne does not use the earlier Blackberry operating system but an Android system for which popular apps are available.

There has been a strong response to the KeyOne in China. The appended video shows some of its features. Only time will tell if sales will pick up sufficiently to brand the phone a success. TLC plans to launch two more Blackberry phones this year.

Previously published in Digital Journal