BlackBerry CEO John Chen says his company is not dead, but then that’s not really saying a whole lot.
Speaking at re/code’s Code Conference, a retread of the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D Conference, Chen conceded that BlackBerry has a lot of problems, but he also thinks he’s just the man to fix them.
When asked just how important BlackBerry’s handset business was to the company’s overall success, Chen seemed to retierated the company’s new direction.
“I’ll be able to create a lot of value for our shareholders without the handset business,” Chen said in a video of talk posted to ReCode’s website. “But I think there’s a chance to create even more.”
That said, Chen admitted it will be the market that would decide the fate of BlackBerry’s handset business.
Chen declined to comment on whether BlackBerry would consider making Android handsets in the future.
When asked whether BBM on Android and iOS was meeting expectiations, Chen said less in North America, but the messaging app was seeing heavy use in emerging markets.