The company's CEO hints at a radical change in business

Oct 8, 2015 23:32 GMT  ·  By

Everyone expects to see how BlackBerry's first Android smartphone will be received by consumers, including the Canadian company, which hasn't sold too many BlackBerry-powered handsets this year.

In a recent interview for The Verge, BlackBerry's CEO John Chen has stated that his company needs to sell 5 million devices each year in order to remain profitable. That's not going to happen this year unless BlackBerry Priv sells by the millions.

According to Chen, BlackBerry devices only sell well among businesses and government institutions, which rarely upgrade their devices. This means that this isn't a market that BlackBerry really wants for its smartphones, but rather for its services.

On the other hand, customers who upgrade their smartphones often will think twice before getting a BlackBerry device, since the Canadian company has not managed to release a real flagship smartphone that could be on par in terms of hardware with the competition.

Competition is tough, but BlackBerry still has a few aces up its sleeve

Surely, the company's fans understand that getting a BlackBerry device is not about hardware, but about security and services offered.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many BlackBerry fans left in the world, and consumers who are not thinking to upgrade to a new smartphone do not even take into consideration the devices launched by the Canadian company.

But BlackBerry hopes to change that with the Priv, which will be launched on the market by the end of the year. In this regard, John Chen has confirmed that his company is working directly with carriers in the US and the rest of the world to make the Priv available through their official retail channels.

He has also stated that carriers are excited to offer the BlackBerry Priv, since the smartphone is powered by Android and their staff is already accustomed to the operating system, so they can help customers with it.