BlackBerry CEO John Chen says his plan for a turnaround includes a yet-to-be revealed machine-to-machine offering that he says will be a “major playâ€Â.
In an interview with the Economic Times, Chen talked about his ongoing turnaround of BlackBerry. He reiterated his dominant themes of late; that BlackBerry must focus on its core strengths of enterprise and security. But he also revealed that the company is working on a longer plan that goes beyond simply returning the company to profitability, which he expects will happen next year.
“a turnaround isn’t just about being cash flow positive or creating a near-term strategy, he said. “It’s thinking long-term and identifying what will help us leapfrog current trends and to be a leader and not a follower.
We also see long-term value in BlackBerry and in five years, we expect to have a major play in the M2M space. BlackBerry is well positioned to lead this charge as it looks to unite people and machines across the Internet of Things – from smartphones to in-vehicle telematics system.â€Â
M2M might offer BlackBerry a place where it has a lot of runway. According to research firm Markets and Markets, the worldwide M2M market is expected to reach $85.96 billion by 2017, a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 26.1% between 2012 to 2017. Cisco says the number of connected devices exceeded the world population by late 2012 and will rise to 15 billion by 2015 and 40 billion by 2020.[signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]
