BlackBerry was once a heavyweight in the mobile market and used to be the choice handset to own. Now those fortunes are polar opposite as its CEO has announced it will cease making any more hardware if it isn't profitable by next year.

Speaking at the Code/Mobile event BlackBerry CEO John Chen said the company would "never say never" to completely shutting down the production of its hardware devices, which consists of a range of smartphones, unless it starts to see sales picking up.

BlackBerry sales and market share

As of 2015, its OS market share accounts for a mere 0.3% − with Android dominating at 82.8%. It managed to shift just 1.1 million smartphones in the first fiscal quarter of 2016. To put that in perspective Apple sold 13 million iPhone 6s units in its first weekend.

Should BlackBerry decide to pull the plug on its hardware, Chen said the company would instead focus on providing security services to other platforms, something it clearly takes seriously after announcing its Priv mobile. This latest handset is a make-or-break attempt to shake things up that sees the first BlackBerry smartphone to run Android (or any OS other than its own) and it claims to be one of the most secure mobiles around.


The Priv is the BlackBerry's first handset to run Android and boasts strong security featuresBlackBerry
Could the Priv save BlackBerry?

With an increasing number of security breaches hitting smartphones this may well be a timely roll of the dice for BlackBerry, but ultimately it could be its last. "We want to bring security knowhow to Android," Chen states and this is something that certainly appeals to enterprise customers like banks or governments who rely on secure devices. "Android in the enterprise is a very under-served space," he said. "With our connections, our accounts, our security knowhow, this has expanded our market."

Chen isn't the only CEO feeling the strain of a top-heavy mobile market as Sony's CEO Kazuo Hirai publicly admitted his company's smartphone woes and announced 2015 would be a pivotal year for the company.

To give BlackBerry its due, it isn't going down without a fight and we are poised for the arrival of the Priv in November. It's the most exciting BlackBerry product for years and could finally solve the issues that have held its devices back by finally coming with a user-friendly OS, a proper catalogue of apps and its enhanced security credentials.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/blackberry-stop-making-phones-next-year-1523317

The end is near

My brother come and see wetin blackberry messenger don cos

Long overdue

willian10:
My brother come and see wetin blackberry messenger don cos

It is not because of their messenger, I believe that messenger even help them into software world.

BlackBerry would have survived if they had danced along with technology advancement but they held on to their old ineffective, bulky and buggy technology. The same mistakes Nokia made, Nokia would have been at the level of Samsung and Sony esperia by now if they had not allow window os to draw them back.

Oga lalasticlala, I hope u are not using BlackBerry?

If the Nokia ship could sink,there's nothing that will stop BlackBerry from going out of business except they urgently restrategize and dump the BB OS.

Nobody needs to own a blackberry device to use the Blackberry Messenger and that was their strong point.

Long overdue.

seunfly:


It is not because of their messenger, I believe that messenger even help them into software world.

BlackBerry would have survived if they had danced along with technology advancement but they held on to their old ineffective, bulky and buggy technology. The same mistakes Nokia made, Nokia would have been at the level of Samsung and Sony esperia by now if they had not allow window os to draw them back.

So, what are you trying to tell me that they lack technology advancement?_What about the BB10 series, is that not a good device? it downloads android app, some has upto 2gb RAM, 8mp quality camera
....BBM has approx 100m downloads on Android not to talk of iPhone and Windows

To simplify the long story

Android murdered them✔

aieromon:
If the Nokia ship could sink,there's nothing that will stop BlackBerry from going out of business except they urgently restrategize and dump the BB OS.

Nobody needs to own a blackberry device to use the Blackberry Messenger and that was their strong point.

They are sinking already b4 they released bbm to other devices. They released bbm as a desperate attempt to stay afloat. Their intension was to stay relevant through software and hopefully bounced back but it did not workout good.

Other messengers tried to displace bbm as the most popular mobile platform messenger and RIM's response was to launch bbm on other devices.

willian10:

So, what are you trying to tell me that they lack technology advancement?_What about the BB10 series, is that not a good device? it downloads android app, some has upto 2gb RAM, 8mp quality camera
....BBM has approx 100m downloads on Android not to talk of iPhone and Windows

It was already too late b4 they danced to the latest technology, Nokia also tried to change but it was too late for them.

They both join when competition was too stiff while others (Samsung, Sony etc) have carved market for themselves.

The next inline to fall is one of the three main OS with any vulnerability. Right now iOS is flying high and it has the least vulnerability while Android is very popular with little vulnerability. Window OS is the next likely victim but they have a deep pocket and expertise to to support it to the end.


Let's watch as the drama unfold.

They shouldn't..o! Abeg for the sake of simple server guys.

Hmm that will be something else o www.berrynigeria.com

While some people are happy the world shouldn't be. Power houses are going down and they are happy

Nokia went down
Blackberry would like follow but that's only if "priv" doesn't sell.
Sony and HTC would most likely follow that same path

People shouldn't be joyous over it at all

I know this will happen soon, thankfully, I have never spent my penny on their phone. Adieu RIM

Symbian noni

ollah1:
While some people are happy the world shouldn't be. Power houses are going down and they are happy

Nokia went down
Blackberry would like follow but that's only if "priv" doesn't sell.
Sony and HTC would most likely follow that same path

People shouldn't be joyous over it at all

nobody makes money from Android, except Samsung

martineverest:
nobody makes money from Android, except Samsung

Their choice not to make money on Android.
They chose not to market well
They chose to skyrocket their prices
They chose not to target main markets
Blackberry would be making a mistake if they choose to charge extremely for priv

oga Samsung profit keeps nose diving,htc and sony plottingto backout, Chinese oems are yet to break even and Android is not profitable.i doubt if Android will last for 10 year.

ollah1:


Their choice not to make money on Android.
They chose not to market well
They chose to skyrocket their prices
They chose not to target main markets
Blackberry would be making a mistake if they choose to charge extremely for priv

price will be the major determinant to bb's success. their selling point is knox security, while their stronghold is enterprise. Lenovo, Samsung and Microsoft were bidding for bb months ago. doubt if Sammy and Lenovo can acquire bbi
...

martineverest:
price will be the major determinant to bb's success. their selling point is knox security, while their stronghold is enterprise. Lenovo, Samsung and Microsoft were bidding for bb months ago. doubt if Sammy and Lenovo can acquire bbi
...

People ready to give bb a trial(last trial). The phone is coming with a diff thing which is the keyboard and it's promising security too, only if they can price it well. It should sell.

Those companies intend acquiring bb primarily cos of its patents. It's stronghold in the enterprise market shouldn't be left out too but I doubt they will again but never say never.

It would be disastrous seeing BB die and BB10 buried.

Btw, it's my birthday

martineverest:
oga Samsung profit keeps nose diving,htc and sony plottingto backout, Chinese oems are yet to break even and Android is not profitable.i doubt if Android will last for 10 year.

Their profit keep nose diving but they make more money than all major OEMs in Android combined. What are u talking about? Why would u think Android would last for another 10 years?

What do u even know about tech? How many open source projects have died ? Google makes money through ads,store et al on droid, Microsoft makes money thru patents on Droids and u think it will die. Microsoft even makes more money on droid than their very own devices sold combined. You shouldn't be talking tech

ollah1:


People ready to give bb a trial(last trial). The phone is coming with a diff thing which is the keyboard and it's promising security too, only if they can price it well. It should sell.

Those companies intend acquiring bb primarily cos of its patents. It's stronghold in the enterprise market shouldn't be left out too but I doubt they will again but never say never.

It would be disastrous seeing BB die and BB10 buried.

Btw, it's my birthday

haha..
happy b'day, dude.. blessings, prosperity, enjoyment and grace be unto u.ijn..... long life bro enjoy yasef

pardon my exaggeration on Android extinction, but don't forget that the world is going back to x86 architecture. which Google does not have a stronghold. it's already affecting Android tablets
and partially affecting iPad. only low end Android tablets are booming. but the high end market belong to iPad and windows tablet s. nobody buys high end Android tablet anymore, thus, Samsung throwing the towel on note 12.2... should Microsoft release x86 phone(rumored surface phone), high end Android phones will be in serious jeopardy

martineverest:
haha..
happy b'day, dude.. blessings, prosperity, enjoyment and grace be unto u.ijn..... long life bro enjoy yasef

Even tho we disagree on sooooooo many matters , we both agree on this. Amen to this and thanks bud

martineverest:
pardon my exaggeration on Android extinction, but don't forget that the world is going back to x86 architecture. which Google does not have a stronghold. it's already affecting Android tablets
and partially affecting iPad. only low end Android tablets are booming. but the high end market belong to iPad and windows tablet s. nobody buys high end Android tablet anymore, thus, Samsung throwing the towel on note 12.2... should Microsoft release x86 phone(rumored surface phone), high end Android phones will be in serious jeopardy

Forget this your x86 architecture. The only reason ipad still got a strong hold is cos of its fan Base. Surface sweeps every tablet off its feet. Surface is more than a tablet which gives it the advantage.

Note tablet markets is really down thanks to the rise of phablets. So it's not just Android tab that's affected. Did you the travel to see the future of these things cos I'm really wondering

martineverest:
oga Samsung profit keeps nose diving,htc and sony plottingto backout, Chinese oems are yet to break even and Android is not profitable.i doubt if Android will last for 10 year.

Who says profitability is Android's selling point? (pardon the pun)
If Android was meant to be profitable it wouldn't be open source.
Most people I know use android because it is open source and even build their own Roms from the AOSP source code and buy a phone only for the hardware.
Even if Android, as you say, won't last for ten years the source code will still be there, people will still be able to use the Android OS.

martineverest:
pardon my exaggeration on Android extinction, but don't forget that the world is going back to x86 architecture. which Google does not have a stronghold. it's already affecting Android tablets
and partially affecting iPad. only low end Android tablets are booming. but the high end market belong to iPad and windows tablet s. nobody buys high end Android tablet anymore, thus, Samsung throwing the towel on note 12.2... should Microsoft release x86 phone(rumored surface phone), high end Android phones will be in serious jeopardy

Nigger, what?
What are you smoking?
>The world is going back to x86 architecture
Really?
>no one buys high end Android tablets
Maybe where you're from the people can't afford it.
Also,
>Samsung is giving up on Note 12.2
What?
Youre the new Ceo of Samsung?

ollah1:


Forget this your x86 architecture. The only reason ipad still got a strong hold is cos of its fan Base. Surface sweeps every tablet off its feet. Surface is more than a tablet which gives it the advantage.

Note tablet markets is really down thanks to the rise of phablets. So it's not just Android tab that's affected. Did you the travel to see the future of these things cos I'm really wondering

check most of Android and IOS blog site and see how Android and Apple fans are clamoring for surface phone. surface brand is the only brand that can eliminate Apple monopoly is high end devices

Karmanaut:

Who says profitability is Android's selling point? (pardon the pun)
If Android was meant to be profitable it wouldn't be open source.
Most people I know use android because it is open source and even build their own Roms from the AOSP source code and buy a phone only for the hardware.
Even if Android, as you say, won't last for ten years the source code will still be there, people will still be able to use the Android OS.

if u watch closely it's only Asia and third w world countries that enjoy Android open 'sourceness'. majority of high users in western countries go for IOS, which is close source. poor security, poor updates, poor operating system, fragmentation and and unreliable oems are killing Android

ollah1:


Their choice not to make money on Android.
They chose not to market well
They chose to skyrocket their prices
They chose not to target main markets
Blackberry would be making a mistake if they choose to charge extremely for priv

you guys should stop saying rubbish.
who told u OEMS doesnt make profits? u pple been reading american (apple) fabricated news. when the note3 was realeased it costs samsung 285USD to make one unit of the note 3 which was sold for almost a thousand dollars. so what happens to the rest of the cash after some miscellenous of maybe additional 150 USD per unit, u can imagine how much they are making una dey here dey talk rubbish.

martineverest:
if u watch closely it's only Asia and third w world countries that enjoy Android open 'sourceness'. majority of high users in western countries go for IOS, which is close source.

There will always be people that use Android.
What kind of phone do you think someone like Edward Snowden would use?

poor security,

Nicely meme'd :^)

poor updates,

Don't get a Tecno.

poor operating system,

Now you're trolling.

fragmentation

Get a nexus device then, if you don't mind being Google's guinea pig.
The "fragmentation" is because Android is free, I don't see how that's a bad thing.

and and unreliable oems are killing Android

Again, do not get a Tecno device.