From InfoWorld: The end of the BlackBerry handset is nigh -- or at least it will be if the company can't get its phone business in the black before 2016 is out. BlackBerry CEO John Chen already said he'd think about giving up on handsets if the company's situation didn't improve. At Code Mobile on Thursday, Chen added a loose deadline for the end of BlackBerry phones.
"Sometime next year we have to make our device business profitable, otherwise I have to rethink what I do there," Chen said. "My job is to make sure the value of the company is protected and increases...Even if I'm not in the handset business, getting into providing security for Android lets us provide solutions via software."
That's not an outright declaration of "2016 or bust," but the suggestion is clear.
Prior to the iPhone debut in 2007, BlackBerry was the most prominent smartphone maker in the world. However, the company was never able to adapt to the new generation of smartphones and has been in decline ever since. In September 2009, BlackBerry's U.S. market share was 42.6 percent, according to comScore. As of August, a little less than six years later, BlackBerry laid claim to just 1.2 percent of the U.S. market. Under Chen, who was named CEO in November 2013, BlackBerry is finally confronting the not-so-promising future of BlackBerry handsets.
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