John S. Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, admitted that its recent handsets have not sold as well as he hoped.
“By any definition it is not a runaway success,” said Chen to Re/Code of BlackBerry’s smartphone business. Chen put some of the blame on the lack of apps. The Blackberry World app store “[is] not competitive to Google Play or the iTunes store,” said Chen. “We’re working hard at that.”
BlackBerry handsets are able to run Android apps, but even that doesn’t help. Recent reports have suggested the company is preparing a BlackBerry handset with Android on board, but Chen said, “It is a little more complex [than that], which is why it is not done.”
BlackBerry has already made significant cuts to its hardware business this year and plans to release just one or two handsets per year. Even so, the company may consider exiting smartphones altogether.
“If I can’t make money on the phone, I will be out of that telephone handset business. There is a timeline; I won’t tell you when.”
