It’s was an announcement that many BlackBerry die-hard have been waiting for.
“Our ‘for sale’ sign has been taken down and we are here to stay,” declared John Chen, newly named BlackBerry CEO, in an open letter on the Canadian smart phone maker’s Web site today. “…We’re going back to our heritage and roots – delivering enterprise grade, end-to-end mobile solutions.”
As the company refocuses on its roots, he said, BlackBerry will target four key areas:
- Handsets
- Enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions
- Cross-platform messaging
- Embedded systems
He said BlackBerry will continue to invest in enterprise and security related research and development and for good measure add: “In short, reports of our death are greatly exaggerated.”
Chen said that BlackBerry is intent on managing all devices.
“We’re serious about multi-platform MDM and even more serious about multi-platform EMM,” said Chen.
The executive said that making the switch to the BES10 platform enables BlackBerry to “manage all devices, turbo-charge BYOD initiatives and provide the very best management experience.”
A letter from BlackBerry in October, then under now ousted Thorsten Heins, mentioned similar points and touted the company’s debt free balance sheet and substantial cash on hand. Around that time, BlackBerry was looking for a buyer.
The takeover bid by Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings fell through. Fairfax instead masterminded a $1-billion recapitalization of BlackBerry and installed Chen as Hein’s replacement.
