BlackBerry’s CEO, John Chen, just took to the BlackBerry blogs to announce a new group at BlackBerry. The new Cloud Business group is a part of QNX Software Systems and is intended to be the solution to “power the internet of things.” That is nice and vague but Chen goes on to explain:
In this growing, connected world, it’s more important than ever to create technologies that not only connect people to people, but that connect to machines and devices for greater communication and interaction. BlackBerry and QNX have a long history of developing solutions that do just that. Solutions that connect and support the Internet of Things, including embedded platforms, networks and devices, are at the heart of what QNX delivers. Consider this – while there are 5 billion handsets in the world that we want to connect to, there may be 500 billion devices out there that present a tremendous opportunity for an organization with the experience and track record of QNX. I’m thrilled to create a group within QNX that will be dedicated to bringing these solutions to market in a timely and cohesive manner. This business is being established alongside our existing organizations that serve the embedded market (including general embedded and automotive).
In other words this is a group dedicated to getting QNX working to connect the multitude of devices out there. Chen also announced that former head of developer relations, Alec Saunders, is heading the new business as the VP along with Marty Mallick. Details below
Alec Saunders will lead this new group as Vice President of the QNX Cloud business. I am confident Alec will be successful in his new position given his previous experience in helping to build BlackBerry’s dedicated developer community and growing the BlackBerry application ecosystem as Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development. Alec is returning to his roots, as he previously held the VP Marketing role at QNX from 2001 to 2002.
In addition, Marty Mallick has been appointed Vice President, Global Alliances and Ecosystems, which combines Developer Relations with his current Business Development and BlackBerry World responsibilities. Having worked closely with Alec on the evolution of our ecosystem, there is no better person than Marty to continue to advance this work. Marty’s expertise will allow him to work with partners and developers to make BlackBerry 10 users even more productive and efficient.
