BlackBerry to Stop Making Mobile Phones?

We may be saying farewell to BlackBerry phones soon.

“If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business,” said John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry Ltd.

In March, the company experienced a quarterly net loss of $423 million and a 64% drop on revenues, TIME reports. Shen says if BlackBerry does not start making adequate revenue soon, the company will consider exiting the mobile phone market.

In preparation for its potential departure from the handset industry, the company is increasingly starting to diversify its operations – focusing more on providing high-level security communications services as well as legal and financial services to regulated industries and governments around the world.

Hopefully, the company will start making money soon. It would be sad to see BlackBerry phones vanish forever.

Update:

CEO of BlackBerry Ltd John Chen, has released a statement refuting the report that the company may stop making mobile phones due to low revenue. Here’s what he said:

Yesterday, Reuters published an article  that said I would consider selling our Devices business. My comments were taken out of context.

I want to assure you that I have no intention of selling off or abandoning this business any time soon.‎ I know you still love your BlackBerry devices. I love them too and I know they created the foundation of this company. Our focus today is on finding a way to make this business profitable.

BlackBerry is not a handset-only company. We offer an end-to-end solution and devices are an important part of that equation. That’s why we’re complementing our Devices business with other revenue streams from enterprise services and software, to messaging. We’re also investing in emerging solutions such as Machine to Machine technologies that will help to power the backbone of the Internet of Things.

We will do everything in our power to continue to rebuild this business and deliver devices with the iconic keyboard and other features that you have come to expect from this brand.‎

Rest assured, we continue to fight. We have not given up and we are not leaving the Devices business.

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