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Technology Lab / Information Technology

BlackBerry tells customers that it’s not dead—yet

"We are here to stay," promises CEO John Chen.

No longer known for its hardware.

Things must be getting grim in Waterloo. BlackBerry has taken the unusual step of e-mailing its "valued enterprise customers and partners" an open letter to tell them that "reports of our death are greatly exaggerated" and that its mobile device management platform has a long future ahead of it. The company is alive and well, the letter says, so could people please stop listening to BlackBerry's competitors and switching away from BES?

After its past flirtations with the consumer space, BlackBerry wants to position itself as a company that's "going back to [its] heritage and roots" as an enterprise firm. The letter hits all the buzzwords and bullet points you'd expect of a company promoting its enterprise cred: BlackBerry is the solution trusted by governments and global organizations; it's the vendor that has Department of Defense certification; it's a trusted name when it comes to securing your devices.

In the letter, BlackBerry CEO John Chen also seeks to distance BlackBerry from new entrants into the mobile device management/enterprise mobility management sector, writing that his company has "substantial cash" and is not some "VC-backed" startup that's desperately seeking money each year.

The letter does contain one important concession to the new mobile computing landscape—the recognition that BlackBerry hardware is no longer the must-have accessory for every C-level exec. Acknowledging that its hardware is "not for everyone," Chen says that the Canadian firm is now "more than just a device company" and that BES10 is the solution for iOS and Android devices, too.

Finally, the CEO promises an "open conversation" with BlackBerry's partners and customers in the coming weeks, and interested parties have a bunch of webcasts to look forward to.

Whether the letter provides BlackBerry's users with the reassurance they seek—or instead convinces them that the company is in dire straits—remains to be seen.

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