BlackBerry

Mission complete - John Chen successfully turned around BlackBerry

by Luis D. / Apr 04, 2017, 3:46 PM

Mission complete - John Chen successfully turned around BlackBerry

We always knew the calm, collected John Chen (pictured) has what it takes to lead BlackBerry out the financial swamp it had found itself in before he took the reigns. About four years after his appointment as CEO, Chen's disciplined strategy of playing to the company's strong sides has paid off remarkably and BlackBerry has opportunities to increase its profits. Essentially, the company's turnaround has been completed.

Equity analyst Paul Treiber has removed it from his risk watch, explaining that BB is no longer dependent on outside cash flow (such as Service Access Fees) and is no longer losing money on hardware production. Rather, it's growing its software business and directing its efforts towards the 'Enterprise of Things' market.

This includes new handsets developed under license by contractors like TCL and Infracom, along with products like tablets and wearables – all based on Android, rather than BB 10, which the company abandoned long ago.

Chen believes there's a place for BlackBerry's Secure software into all kinds of devices, including BB-branded and co-branded ones. Security is the name of the game with BlackBerry, and the company can further strengthen its foothold there as it improves its financials and benefits from newfound investor interest.

It's too bad not that many people want a QWERTY keyboard phone nowadays, but such is the state of things. At least Chen is aware of BlackBerry's handset opportunities in developing markets, hence a solid strategy for developing low-risk, high volume phones has been put in place and working out fairly well.

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source: Business Insider via MobileSyrup

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79 Comments

1. SleeperOne

Posts: 370; Member since: Feb 25, 2017

Gotta give it to Mr.Chen, he's a good role model for picking a company back up...

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 3:52 PM 15

2. hwb01

Posts: 355; Member since: Apr 17, 2014

Much better than that Nokia guy

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 3:55 PM 16

28. nokia12

Posts: 610; Member since: Nov 19, 2013

you mean to say , the old Nokia guy - Stephen Elop because the new Nokia guy Rajeev Suri is awesome ...

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 7:07 PM 4

51. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

What about that Thorton guy they had?

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 12:18 PM 0

54. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

What about him? Thorton meant well in most cases, but he was still part of the problem.

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 12:29 PM 0

3. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

Congrats to John Chen and BlackBerry! The turnaround was successful, and now BlackBerry can look forward to concentrating on maintaining positive growth and expanding on it. And it's all been done without hardware sales. Hopefully, this shows people who are still harping on hardware the reality of things going forward for BlackBerry.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 3:58 PM 19

4. Bankz

Posts: 2550; Member since: Apr 08, 2016

While recent offerings have being decent, however, i'm still awaiting that killer flagship from blackberry. That flagship that truly makes a statement. Lg had it with the g2, samsung had it with the s3, apple had it with the iphone 4, htc had it with the m7, moto had it with the moto x, lumia had it with the 1020, microsoft is about to have it with the surface phone and nokia are also about to have it with the nokia 9. C'mon bb, i know you can do it.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:01 PM 2

7. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

The DTEK60 certainly fits that description, imo. Unless you're referring to one with a physical keyboard.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:11 PM 7

10. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Blackberry has only had two flagship phones in recent years, the Priv and the Passport. Honestly, they were devices that could have been done better, which is especially true for the Priv imo. Passport was good overall, just the design wasn't for me.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:15 PM 0

15. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

The DTEK60 is the most recent BlackBerry flagship, btw. It's a phone with their branding and software.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:22 PM 5

18. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Not made in house by blackberry, remember?

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 5:13 PM 0

21. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

You never mentioned "in-house" in your previous comment, remember? And what I said is still valid. The DTEK60 is BlackBerry's most recently released flagship.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 5:18 PM 5

30. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Blackberry doesn't make devices in house anymore, remember? So what I said is still valid.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 10:22 PM 0

36. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

You just contradicted yourself. And what I said about the DTEK60 being BlackBerry's most recent flagship is an indisputable fact.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 10:44 PM 1

57. Mxyzptlk unregistered

How did I contradict myself? You're the one who said it, and now you're backtracking and moving the goalpost back yet again. The fact is that the Priv and the Passport are the last two flagship phones from BlackBerry.

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 5:46 PM 0

69. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

You contradicted yourself because whenever I've said that BlackBerry doesn't make handsets anymore, let alone in-house, you've called it a copout answer. Now you're saying the same thing that I've been saying. The fact is, the DTEK60 is the last and most recent BlackBerry flagship. That's a verified fact, whether it was built in-house or not. To say otherwise is just you being ignorant.

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 6:03 PM 0

41. Podrick

Posts: 1285; Member since: Aug 19, 2015

"Mxy: So what I said is still valid." Hahahhahahahaha! It is always.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 11:18 PM 2

43. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

Lmao! Ikr? Even when he's wrong (which is usually) his point is "valid" to him. What a joke.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 11:24 PM 1

45. Podrick

Posts: 1285; Member since: Aug 19, 2015

He has his own little world in his mind and he's always right there lol.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 11:39 PM 1

59. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Bumburned because the truth hurts I see.

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 5:47 PM 0

70. meanestgenius

Posts: 22276; Member since: May 28, 2014

Talking about yourself again, I see.

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 6:03 PM 0

58. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Who asked you?

posted on Apr 05, 2017, 5:46 PM 0

5. shihte

Posts: 61; Member since: Sep 02, 2013

blackbry with android is not blackberry alias they could earn more money

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:01 PM 1

9. MDCHO

Posts: 769; Member since: Jul 28, 2016

BlackBerry with its own secure Android os is a BlackBerry.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:15 PM 6

6. Plasticsh1t

Posts: 3109; Member since: Sep 01, 2014

John Chen is a leader and a visionary. Congratulations.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:08 PM 2

8. MDCHO

Posts: 769; Member since: Jul 28, 2016

This is a great news about BlackBerry. Congratulations.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:13 PM 6

11. Mxyzptlk unregistered

Time will tell if Chen continues to win.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:16 PM 0

12. Dr.Phil

Posts: 2451; Member since: Feb 14, 2011

I think a couple of years from now we may be looking towards Chen as being one of the great CEOs of our time. What's interesting is that he has come up against a huge array of bad media coverage and analysts that were trying to put words in his mouth that he never uttered. Every time they would post a quarterly result and it showed things going in the right direction, but still in the red, the media was quick to say that Blackberry was failing. Then, there were those that said the company was failing because it couldn't make it in the hardware business and that if it couldn't do hardware then it might as well be bought out by a company like Samsung. However, through it all, the guy has remained optimistic and realistic in his assessment of where things should go from here. He never over promised and he never let people get to him when they would try to make it seem like he was the captain of a sinking ship.

posted on Apr 04, 2017, 4:19 PM 4

27. SleeperOne

Posts: 370; Member since: Feb 25, 2017

Yeah people bring up the Android vs. iOS as childish, but I've never in my life read so much personally overblown animosity towards a BlackBerry OS or hardware platform some college burnout 'tech journalist' doesn't have to use. I loved Blackberry's software since the beginning, and even their most flawed products exceeded more than well enough in important categories.