BlackBerry: "we are more than just a device company"

BlackBerry's CEO has claimed that "reports of our death are greatly exaggerated", as the mobile firm looks to reassure enterprise customers amid sliding device sales.

John Chen was named as interim CEO last month, after BlackBerry opted not to sell out to Fairfax Investment in favour of investing to rebuild the struggling firm.

In an open letter to enterprise customers, Chen stated that BlackBerry is "here to stay", adding "the investments you've made in BlackBerry infrastructure and solutions are secure".

"In short, reports of our death are greatly exaggerated," he said, in a section of the letter titled "We are very much alive, thank you".

The Kantar Worldpanel stats revealed that Android handsets were continuing to post growth at the expense of iOS. 

However, the latest sales stats from Kantar Worldpanel suggest BlackBerry devices are all but dead in some markets. Across the five largest EU countries, BlackBerry sales slid to 1.8% of the market in October from 5.1% last year, slipping below 1% in Japan, the US, Germany and Spain.

BlackBerry "not for everyone"

The CEO acknowledged that device sales were stalling, but hedged his bets by stressing that BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) can be used to manage rival handsets, such as those running iOS or Android.

"We know that BlackBerry devices are not for everyone," he said. "That's okay." He continued: "We are more than just a device company."

He also hinted at the route BlackBerry intends to take to rebuild. "We're going back to our heritage and roots - delivering enterprise-grade, end-to-end mobile solutions," the letter reads.

Chen said BlackBerry will focus on handsets, enterprise-management mobility solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems, as well as security-related R&D.

This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk