‘BlackBerry does not want to release too many devices’

BlackBerry does not want to release too many new smartphones, director John Chen has announced. Now that things seem to be improving, the Canadian smartphone maker wants to focus on making a profit and, in its own words, wants to run less risk by manufacturing fewer devices.

The Canadian smartphone maker has not been doing so well for years due to fierce competition from, for example, Apple and Samsung, but since Chen took office, the company seems to be picking up something. BlackBerry still sells fewer smartphones, but makes less loss. It now derives most of its revenue from services such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server and chat service BBM. A new version of the chat application has recently appeared with privacy-conscious features.

Chen believes that the worst period for BlackBerry is now over. “We will survive as a company and I’m pretty sure of it now,” he said. “We’re managing supplies, inventories, money and we have expenses that are very manageable now. BlackBerry has survived. Now we can look at growth.” The director is referring, among other things, to the German security company SecuSmart, which it took over in July.

Also, according to Chen, BlackBerry should be careful with the resources the company has. “We are not going to produce a smartphone because it simply has to have a 5″ screen,” he told Reuters news agency. “The Chinese can build one for $75. We don’t get those parts for that money.”

Finally, the BlackBerry CEO said that no decision has yet been made on the devices that the Canadian company will release next year, but he does let go that it will be ‘not too many’ smartphones. According to Chen, the focus remains on ‘refreshing’ the smartphones that are already there. In any case, this concerns the Passport, Classic and the Z3. In addition, according to Reuters, there would be one more radically different device, but which one is not yet known.

According to the latest information, BlackBerry is now working on its second tablet, after the 7″ tablet Playbook from 2011, with an operating system that was the predecessor of the current BlackBerry 10. In addition, the manufacturer is developing a smartphone with a large screen and physical keyboard, which is probably a slide-out keyboard.