14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry’s most recent hardware efforts have more or less failed, but the company’s CEO knows exactly what the market needs right now: a modern version of the Blackberry 900 Bold.
And while John Chen believes this model would sell like crazy, he won’t be launching such a device. Instead, he thinks “somebody should make that,” Chen explained in a recent Recode Decode podcast.
Chen says the security of such a device, as well as the basic functionality that enables making phone calls, sending texts and emails, and browsing the web securely is what could turn such a device into a really successful product.
“I would never say never,” he said. “For the foreseeable future, I think our strategy works really well. But I think there might be a need in this world for a phone that is very simple and just focused on secure email, secure texts and a basic browser. You remember the 9900, the Bold? It fits right in your palm. I think somebody should make that.”
$150 phone
The CEO went on to explain that while the typical phone buyer might not be interested in such a device, professionals who bet big on data security, including here doctors, lawyers, government employees, and bankers, would be more than happy to purchase this kind of smartphone.
“I’m making this up as I go: Let’s say $199 or $150 a phone,” Chen said. “You could make it a very nice phone if you had very limited functionality, but it’s highly secure.”
BlackBerry 9900 was released in 2011 and was considered a pure businessman’s phone, coming with a QWERTY keyboard, a small 2.8-inch display, and the highly-secure BlackBerry OS 7. The growing popularity of smartphones with bigger screens and touch, like Samsung’s flagships and the iPhone, pushed more and more customers off BlackBerry, especially as the Canadian firm failed to keep up with its rivals.