BlackBerry is struggling to stay alive, but its new CEO might just have the recipe for success. Speaking to Bloomberg TV's Jon Erlichman at CES, John Chen confirmed that BlackBerry will focus on government business and devices with physical keyboards. BlackBerry reached its highest highs with the famed BlackBerry keyboard back in the day. When the iPhone was launched the company was caught off guard and has been trying to play catch up ever since. That was obviously the wrong call.
As successful as the iPhone has been, not everyone is comfortable with touchscreen devices. Instead of trying to be an iPhone knock off, BlackBerry will go back to being the best email device on the planet. By giving up the consumer market and focusing on enterprise, BlackBerry has a chance to get its feet under it again and grow the company slowly. Will BlackBerry ever dominate the mobile market again? No. But, they might be able to carve out a nice niche market for themselves. Their biggest competitor in this endeavor will be Microsoft. This should be fun to watch.
“I personally love the keyboards,” Chen said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg Television’s Jon Erlichman at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In the future, the company’s phones will “predominantly” have physical keyboards, he said, rather than touch screens.
As successful as the iPhone has been, not everyone is comfortable with touchscreen devices. Instead of trying to be an iPhone knock off, BlackBerry will go back to being the best email device on the planet. By giving up the consumer market and focusing on enterprise, BlackBerry has a chance to get its feet under it again and grow the company slowly. Will BlackBerry ever dominate the mobile market again? No. But, they might be able to carve out a nice niche market for themselves. Their biggest competitor in this endeavor will be Microsoft. This should be fun to watch.