What are the remaining cards for the BlackBerry, which is about to cut its hardware business?

BlackBerry CEO Chen Shouzong once said that he will make a decision this month whether to shut down the hardware sector, seeing the coming of October, sources revealed that BlackBerry has been determined to close its hardware department.

It is reported that BlackBerry's investment in hardware is up to 65% of the company's R&D expenditure, and BlackBerry smartphones account for only 1% of the global smartphone market. According to statistics, BlackBerry sold only 500,000 mobile phones in the last quarter and the sales situation was rather bleak.

Daniel Chan, an analyst at TD Securities, an investment bank, believes that by completely and quickly exiting the hardware business, BlackBerry will likely transition to an enterprise software company with an annual revenue of US$1.4 billion and a profit margin of 33%. It will also cut a large part. Daniel Chen points out that abandoning the hardware business will make the BlackBerry better off than it is today.

Chen Shouzong was open to the public and BlackBerry was transformed into a software company. The complete shutdown of the hardware department allowed BlackBerry to focus more on software development:

Blackberryâ€™s cash reserves also exceed US$3 billion. We are investing more and more money in software development. Our goal is to reach $17.6 billion in BlackBerry software business revenue by 2019.

Â Software business

In 2013, after becoming the CEO of BlackBerry, Cheng Shouzong gradually led the transformation of BlackBerry from a mobile phone manufacturing service provider to a company focused on enterprise market solutions. The company's main business will also be based on hardware and software services, and the company will focus on software services. At the same time, Blackberry completed its corporate restructuring and was divided into four business units: enterprise business, communications business, equipment business, and QNX business, of which only equipment business is hardware.

The gem of the BlackBerry crown: QNX

QNX was acquired by Blackberry in 2010. QNX's solution is to provide operating systems, software development tools and engineering services for automotive, medical equipment, appliances and control systems. Among them, the automotive industry holds a large market share. Customers include more than 40 automotive companies including Audi, General Motors, BMW, Porsche, Land Rover, Toyota, and Volkswagen, providing vehicle-mounted system technology. In addition, Apple's CarPlay also uses their technology, Ford also abandoned the Microsoft system to switch to QNX. BlackBerry CEO Cheng Shouzong once called QNX â€œa jewel on the crownâ€ on the earnings conference call.

In addition, Blackberry is still developing a vehicle-mounted radar system. Yesterday, Blackberry installed the BlackBerry tracking radar system on 500 vehicles and plans to install it on more vehicles in the future. The system assists transportation companies in the deployment of routine tasks by monitoring the position of trailers and containers, providing real-time data to increase supply efficiency and reduce irregular loss of goods.

Open important applications: BBM, Blackberry Hub+

As a conservative technology, most BlackBerry software can only be used in their own devices, criticized by users. In recent years, Blackberry gradually took the route of technological openness and gradually opened its own applications to iOS and Android platforms. For example, the killer instant messaging application BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) has more than 100 million downloads. BBM is known for its security. Some governments use this application to send sensitive information.

At the same time, last month Blackberry announced the opening of Blackberry Hub+ features to more Android devices, giving Android users who do not have BlackBerry devices the opportunity to experience BlackBerry software solutions and optimize their social experiences. Blackberry Hub+ is a tool that can integrate user emails, text messages, and social media notifications. Helps users simplify communications, allowing people to quickly watch notifications or reply to emails and SMS messages without jumping to the app. The Hub+ service includes Hub, Blackberry Calendar, and the company's password manager, as well as subscriptions such as Contacts, Notes, Device Search, and Tasks.

Maintain BlackBerry BES/BIS Service

The Blackberry Enterprise System business has also made some progress, including the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, which is adopted by firewalls from a large number of enterprises and governments around the world. At the same time, BlackBerry also maintains BIS and BES, two years of operating software services.

BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) is a BlackBerry web service that is aimed at e-mail push services by individual users or companies that cannot deploy BES servers.

BES (BlackBerry Enterprise service), BlackBerry BES service can achieve PUSH information function. Enables mobile users to access communications and information wirelessly, including e-mail, corporate data, instant messaging, telephone, Internet and Intranet access, text messaging (MMS and SMS), travel calendar, etc.

The essential difference between BIS and BES is that the former is faced with the opening of individual users, while the latter is facing the opening of enterprise users.

Promote cyber security services

This year, Blackberry acquired Encription, a network security service provider, and launched a new business, Professional Cybersecurity Services.

It is not difficult to understand that Blackberry launches professional network security services. BlackBerry has a large customer base in security-focused organizations such as the government, financial services, healthcare, and petroleum industries:

BlackBerry now has more than 70 government certifications and licenses, and is the most certified mobile phone manufacturer, all G7 national governments, 16 G20 national governments, top ten global multinational banks and law firms, and top five global healthcare and investment services. Both oil and gas companies are its customers.

The security business includes the following areas:

Strategic Security: Best IT Operations Practices in Enterprise Mobility Management and Cloud Services.

Technical security: Technical assistance for infrastructure and product development cycles.

Automotive and IoT Security: Security consulting services for security and privacy issues related to the rapid commercialization of Internet of Things solutions.

Detection, Testing, and Analysis: Threat detection and intrusion prevention testing, vulnerability assessment, and emergency response analysis, including legal services, through IT health testing to understand business security status, training, regulatory compliance, and security vulnerability management through emergency response.

To this end, Blackberry acquired Watchdox, a cloud document security solution company, voice encryption company Secusmart, mobile security company Secusmart, and GoodTechonology.

Over the years, Blackberry's hardware and software products have been able to stand for a long time in the industry with huge changes in the pattern. Undoubtedly, it is inseparable from the core advantage of â€œsecurityâ€. It is a bold and correct decision to choose a strong man's wrist in the event of hardly any counterattack on the hardware, and to make a desperate move in the software field. In the future, as corporate customers demand more and more security for their networks, communications, and on-board systems, the advantages and importance of Blackberry are constantly being magnified. Looking around, it seems that there are not many opponents that face positive competition with it.