John Chen was really making the rounds at CES. My buddy Kevin at CrackBerry sat down with the new CEO of BlackBerry and had some frank discussions with him. Chen once again re-enforced that BlackBerry is focused on enterprise for the next year or so with different strategy plans in each country and continent. They plan on decoupling the BlackBerry solutions from the devices so iPhone and Android users are also BlackBerry users on BES and BBM with the software driving hardware sales.
Check out the great write-ups from the same interview at the links below:
- Part I: BlackBerry CEO John Chen: You can be an iPhone or Android customer, and also a BlackBerry customer
- Part II: Five Important Observations from having lunch with BlackBerry CEO, John Chen
Chen also confirmed why he decided to cancel the BlackBerry World Conference to focus on smaller events. Its sad but understandable:
“For 2014 we decided to spend the money differently and focus on a more targeted audience – CIOs of the regulated industry that we talk about, or hosting a symposium on Wall Street. We’ll do those types of things and support maybe some CEO conferences like the Fortune, the Gartner, something of that sort. This is so we can speak directly to the people that need to learn, "Oh wow, they’re doing this end-to-end and stuff." That’s part of how the marketing will support the sales, support the strategy, and that technology needs to complement it.”
PS: I am liking Chen’s frank style of interviews throughout CES. Less flashy statements and denials of the past and more substance.
