BlackBerry CEO: if Priv and other phones can't turn a profit, we're done with handsets

[wickedplayer494]

[url]http://mobilesyrup.com/2015/10/08/blackberry-will-stop-making-handsets-within-in-a-year-if-the-priv-fails/[/url]

[quote=MobileSyrup]At the Code Mobile conference in California today, guest speaker John Chen, BlackBerry’s president and CEO, told the crowd that the company would be out of the handset business in a year if it can’t make a profit from it. He said that the company needs to sell approximately five million devices per year to turn a profit.

The company, which sold 800,000 handsets last quarter, has been teasing its exit from the smartphone business for some time, with Chen himself admitting that it is a very difficult market in which to thrive, but until now hadn’t given any timelines.

A lot rests on the success of the Android-powered Priv, which is expected to be released sometime in November. The phone, which Chen haphazardly revealed during its recent earnings call, runs what appears to be a pure version of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with some of BlackBerry’s own security enhancements. It also has a keyboard that sits underneath the screen, accessed by sliding up the front of the unit.[/quote]

[Sableye]

Microsoft would do good to buy BlackBerry just for its security reputation

[Awesomecaek]

That's a weird statement to make publicly.

If you are a big handset animal like Samsung or Apple, it's a signal to cut your margins a little bit for a year to ensure one of the (formerly) big players just bites the dust.

It seems like a rather counter-productive message.

[pentium]

[QUOTE=Amiga OS;48900649]They have made a fatal mistake, they are gunning for the high end of the market that's completely saturated, and they are selling the damn thing for an obscene price.

If they were smart, they would make their first push into the Android space with a mid-low range handset with razor thin margins. They have absolutely 0 mindshare right now.[/QUOTE]

Their target market was never the mid-range. Secure business phones for businessmen. People these days however can't seem to justify the premium and end up getting fucked over on an iPhone/'Droid.

[meppers]

so a phone company that doesn't make phones?

[Thomo_UK]

Blackberries were pretty popular when I was in school but then on screen keyboards became the norm and other android devices and the IPhone took over.

[Kuiper]

[QUOTE=Amiga OS;48900766]That market is absolutely tiny now, they need the normie crowd to claw back any kind of income.
And I personally want the only manufacturer putting proper keyboards on phones to stick around.[/QUOTE]

That's not even it, their phones ran a shitty OS that when it did work, it didn't work well.

I can't wait for the priv, cause I like blackberry phones, I just can't stand that they don't run a more open OS.

[jamzzster]

I own a blackberry passport and its fantastic. However even though they've redone and made a decent OS now they would do so well if they switched to android.

[proboardslol]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;48898872]That's a weird statement to make publicly.

If you are a big handset animal like Samsung or Apple, it's a signal to cut your margins a little bit for a year to ensure one of the (formerly) big players just bites the dust.

It seems like a rather counter-productive message.[/QUOTE]

what they're really saying is "PLEASE BUY US!!!!!"