BlackBerry CEO: we're focused on enterprise services, messaging, growing QNX adoption
BlackBerry CEO: Here's our new strategy — By: John Chen, executive chair and CEO of BlackBerry — It's been easy for competitors to promote negative stories about BlackBerry, focusing on the business of the past.
Context & Ripple Effects
John Chen's CNBC op-ed is the third move in a December communications blitz: after a 'We're Not Dead' notice homing in on enterprise earlier this month, Chen followed with a commitment to avoid further layoffs and reach profitability by fiscal 2016. The op-ed now supplies the actual strategy behind those reassurances — enterprise services, messaging, and growing QNX adoption beyond phones.
First-order effects
- Chen is publicly reframing BlackBerry as an enterprise software-and-services company, which de-emphasizes the handset business that defined the company and shifts internal priorities toward QNX licensing and messaging.
- The piece directly answers what Chen says is a competitor-driven narrative about 'the business of the past,' putting the burden of proof on upcoming execution rather than product launches.
Second-order effects
- Enterprise mobility rivals now face a BlackBerry competing on managed services and embedded software rather than devices, forcing them to contest deals on security and service contracts instead of hardware specs.
- QNX's expansion beyond automotive into broader adoption gives OEM partners a reason to treat BlackBerry as a supplier relationship rather than a declining phone vendor, changing how the brand is valued in procurement.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, BlackBerry completes the transition from handset manufacturer to embedded-systems and enterprise-services vendor, with its valuation resting on recurring software revenue rather than unit sales.
- The episode is a test case for whether a storied hardware brand can survive by selling trust and infrastructure after losing the consumer market — a playbook other legacy device makers will be measured against.
The trend: Legacy mobile hardware companies are pivoting from device sales to enterprise services and embedded software licensing, with profitability timelines replacing market-share targets as the public metric of credibility.