Blackberry CEO John Chen recently hinted that they are very open to discontinuing the smartphone line, if it proves unprofitable in the long run:
I don’t have a plan to get rid of handsets, I have a plan to not be dependent on handsets. All I need to do is replace the handset revenue, and this company will be very different. – Chen
If you think about it, he’s making a lot of sense. John Chen took over the helms at Blackberry last November. One of the first things he did: make it clear they were no longer selling and sharing his plans for restructuring the company around 4 distinct divisions: Enterprise (BES), Messaging (BBM), Embedded Systems (QNX) and Devices (Blackberry 10). If they can’t make steady revenue from the smartphone division, then it makes no sense to continue it at the expense of the others. Blackberry Enterprise Service is still largely being used by businesses the world over and they are already looking to expand the QNX platform beyond just cars. BBM too has already been setup for monetization, with the addition of channels and, just recently, stickers.
