BlackBerry continues to be here

John Chen can be the CEO of BlackBerry, but even he has to every now and then remind individuals the enterprise continues to be in company.

Why it concerns: BlackBerry now not manufactures phones, nonetheless it makes greater than $1 billion in income per year selling issues like safety application, an working equipment familiar in automobiles and patent licenses.

short recap: BlackBerry purchased embedded working device QNX in 2010, exited the smartphone enterprise in 2016 and began letting chinese language phone maker TCL sell BlackBerry-branded telephones. on the grounds that then, it has been a utility-most effective company.

by using the numbers:

BlackBerry gets about $600 million from its so-referred to as platform business, which includes the business's protection and enterprise equipment management software efforts.

The app aspect of issues, which comprises QNX, generates around $four hundred million per year.

Licensing its portfolio of greater than 38,000 patent households earns BlackBerry round $200 million–$250 million per 12 months.

In an interview at CES remaining week, Chen talked in regards to the business, its ultimate groups and why he thinks BlackBerry needs to be extra aggressive.

The business is producing nice money movement and eking out a small income, but the naturally impatient Chen desires it to do more advantageous.

"We truly do need to execute," Chen informed Axios. "We may basically do more desirable."

Between the traces: Getting a bigger area in the vehicle is a key priority for BlackBerry. The business's QNX working system has been used basically for in-automobile infotainment programs, however this is rapidly declining in cost and now amounts to best $2–$5 per vehicle.

but software for automobiles typical is a boom company as automobiles stream towards autonomy and add features like automatic braking, parking and lane detection. these sorts of systems can produced within the $10–$20 in application profits per automobile.

"A vehicle goes to turn out to be with 100 million lines of code," Chen noted. "or not it's excellent. that's plenty bigger than the traces of code in an F-14 fighter."

sure, however: Getting automakers to undertake new know-how is hard work and infrequently takes years, Chen mentioned.

Go deeper: BlackBerry drives into linked motor vehicle market