Tag: blackberry technology

CEO John Chen unwavering in BlackBerry smartphone profitability goal

| May 22, 2015

He believes that the enterprise security features will set these handsets apart from the competition.

CEO John Chen has revealed that he is still pursuing his goal of returning BlackBerry smartphone sales to profitability, despite the fact that the company has only just managed to escape from the brink of complete disaster.

It is Chen’s belief that the mobile security in the company’s handsets are head and shoulders over other manufacturers.

Chen explained that when it comes to mobile security, there simply isn’t any comparison to a BlackBerry smartphone He said that they offer far greater security features on enterprise devices than is available on any other manufacturer’s gadgets. The CEO also went on to state that the smartphones made by BlackBerry function as a jumping off point for the company to be able to market its other broad range of security options.

While the company can secure Android and iPhone devices, Chen says that there is nothing like a BlackBerry smartphone.

Blackberry Smartphone - Profitability GoalThe CEO explained that Android smartphones and iPhones can have their mobile security levels enhanced through BlackBerry technology, but that when it comes down to it, the highest level of protection is available through one of the company’s own handsets. This belief helps to explain why Chen has chosen to adhere to his intentions of moving forward within the device business in order to focus on other components of the mobile industry.

He also explained that the U.S. Army is continuing with “rolling out all BlackBerry,” and he added that if he should “tell them there are no more phones, I lose that account. The question is how do you make phones profitable at the volume those people represent?”

During the most recent quarterly earnings announcement, the handset maker from Windsor, Canada, revealed that it had 1.6 million devices within that span of time. Though this number is certainly only the smallest sliver of the mobile technology market as a whole (Apple’s equivalent figure was 61.2 million), it does help to show that the BlackBerry smartphone does appear to be hanging in there when compared to previous recent quarters.

Smartwatch in the works at BlackBerry

| September 16, 2014

Though the device may be in the company’s labs, there is no guarantee that it will ever hit the market.

Not a full week after the Apple Watch was unveiled to a very mixed response from the technology world, BlackBerry has now revealed that it has been looking into its own smartwatch possibilities.

John Sims, the enterprise head at Blackberry, revealed that it has been experimenting with wearable tech.

Sims explained that it would be very interesting to make it possible to run BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on a smartwatch or other wearable technology device. That said, he also pointed out that “We’re not releasing anything at the moment, but it’s a definite area of research for us.” Much of the “internal experimentation” that is going on with this type of device, at the Canadian device maker has been centered around an effort made by Sims’s team as they look into the way that they work from the perspective of mobile app use.

The experimental smartwatch would work with a smartphone and would use a “voice interface” for communication.

Blackberry Smartwatch in the worksThis wearable technology announcement was made during a roundtable which had been assembled in order to provide an introduction of the company’s new technology assets head, Sandeep Chennakeshu. Previously a Sony-Ericsson CTO, Chennakeshu is now running the QNX OS department, the acquisition of Paratek antenna, the Certicom cryptography lab, and the platform for the Project Ion Internet of Things.

Among the assets currently under Chennakeshu’s control are some highly unique and cutting edge options. For example, the Paratek antenna technology functions by making sure that a smartphone antenna does not become “detuned” when the device is held in the user’s hand or up against his or her face. It also makes a difference in the improvement of signal strength and the device battery life.

The elliptic key cryptography from Certicom provides considerably greater efficiency than the current RSA standard, and several security certificates have been issued by BlackBerry for the Zigbee connected home standard. QNX has become the in-car system OS standard in the industry. It is clear that the company is moving toward software and services and away from a focus on devices, but at the same time, it isn’t stopping them from looking into the possibilities of a smartwatch.