BlackBerry squashes plan to spin out its IoT biz

BlackBerry has decided its plan to split into two separate companies is not a good idea and will instead reorganize itself into two independent divisions. The former smartphone champ has two businesses: cyber security and IoT. Neither has thrived in recent years so, in pursuit of greater shareholder value, the Canadian biz …

[Anonymous Coward]

BlackBerry is in the final stages of selecting a ...

... random vandal's Bramble gamble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats more business speak than Im used to in one single pressrelease/article

And all the business language sounds like early 2010s as well...

Maybe all the people that could produce anything have left the company, and all that is left are the managerial skeleton, still producing soundbites and trying to create value out of nothing.. in a corporate body that hasnt quite realised yet that it is dead?

I mean, going forward, obviously.

[itbod]

QNX

Is QNX in the IoT division?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Downfall of BlackBerry: What Went Wrong?

The Downfall of BlackBerry: What Went Wrong?

“Considered to be the pioneer of smartphones on a global scale, it wasn’t hard for Blackberry to find groundbreaking success .. But their popularity soon took a downward spiral where the stock prices dropped from $147 Million to $4! So what happened? How did a company that was considered a high-flying revolutionary fall down face first? Most importantly, they had the opportunity to avoid this collapse by taking some simple measures. Well, let’s elaborate.”

[Stuart Castle]

I think that one thing (in the UK at least) that contributed to the downfall of Blackberry is the 2011 riots, and the fact that not only did several gangs of rioters use Blackberrys to organise their part, but that the police were able to get hold of their chats, on a supposedly secure server. I think the fact the rioters used them made companies a little nervous, not really wanting their staff or management to use the same make/model of device that some scrote used so he and some mates could meet up, smash up a footlocker and get some free trainers.

But the main problem world wide were the coming smartphones. While these didn't support the secure messaging and push email offered by Blackberry, they supported apps (after a few months). There was no reason the Blackberry services couldn't be provided by an App, and it had the bonus that the user didn't need to keep multiple devices. So, the secure messaging wasn't really a selling point, and initially at least, Blackberry didn't offer apps. They did after a while, but I think it was already too late. Google and Apple had established their own App ecosystems, and were already making inroads into Blackberry's enterprise customers.