BlackBerry will refocus on the enterprise as it looks to recover from declining sales of its handsets, but the firm is also looking to expand into the Internet of Things with its real-time operating system.
Speaking at the BlackBerry Experience event in London, BlackBerry’s managing director for Europe, Markus Mueller, told an audience of customers that the firm is “re-pivoting to the enterprise” with its strategy, building on the existing security and management capabilities in its BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES).
“Enterprise is our heritage. That’s where security matters, and that’s where trust matters,” he said, conceding that BlackBerry had lost some of its focus in previous years in order to pursue the consumer smartphone market.
However, the firm is now “returning to its roots” and will “re-establish its leadership”, he said, with more features and broader enterprise support, such as opening its APIs to other mobile management vendors and the addition of Windows Phone support in BES 12.
Mueller said that BlackBerry’s strategy will comprise three parts: supporting enterprise mobility; enabling productivity; and in the future expanding into the Internet of Things through its QNX platform, which already underpins the BlackBerry 10 operating system in the firm’s smartphones.