BlackBerry is finally giving up on smartphones and focusing on enterprise software

By Christian de Looper April 25, 2016

blackberry physical keyboard john chen version 1475159978 priv update ces 2016 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The BlackBerry we know and love may be well and truly dead. It seems as though the company is finally turning away from the smartphone business, which it has been flailing in for some time now, and focusing its attention on enterprise software.

In fact, according to global sales chief Carl Wiese, BlackBerry is more than hitting its goals in the enterprise software market, making the shift one that makes sense for the company.

“On conference calls last year almost all of the questions from financial analysts would be about the phones. And when people said we wanted $500 million revenue from software they were crazy,” said Wiese in an interview with The Register. “Now we’ve made that target and half the questions are about enterprise software.”

Of course, much of the attention shift to enterprise has to do with BlackBerry’s acquisition of rival company Good, which will be used for software development going forward. Not only that, but Good’s proprietary network will be folded into BlackBerry’s own network, giving it a serious boost.

BlackBerry is continually adding acquisitions to its list of companies, hoping to boost its standings in the enterprise software business and offer an increasing number of products for its customers. Not only that, but its BES12 software has been gaining quite a bit of traction among corporate clients.

It makes sense for BlackBerry to turn its focus away from the smartphone market. The company, which was once the king of the smartphone, has been struggling to meet sales goals of any kind over the past few years, ever since the 2007 launch of the iPhone. One thing is for sure — while BlackBerry may still be releasing smartphones, the dream of clawing its way back into the smartphone industry seems to be dying. It’s well past time that BlackBerry look for other options.

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Christian de Looper

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Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

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