BBM is dead. Long live BlackBerry... The iPhone victim quit making its own smartphones in 2016. And on Friday, shares jumped after BlackBerry beat expectations with 9% quarterly sales growth. But it was words from the CEO that made the stock win: "We're done rebuilding. We're looking to invest."
The Batman of tech... Under new CEO John Chen, BlackBerry pivoted to become a "security company" — A watchful guardian for big business and government. It's designed cybersecurity services to stealthily protect your digital life:
- Your connected car: Blackberry's QNX software is there so that the tech-y features of your car are safe, secure, and actually work.
- Your money: It just dropped $1.4B for Cylance, a buzzword-packed, AI-powered, predictive analytics cybersecurity firm protecting financial institutions from hackers (ATMs = the front lines).
- Your connected home appliances: Later this year, BlackBerry's unveiling Spark, its major move into the internet-of-things. Its software connects household-anything with your phone's app-everything.
Services are the new black... Selling electronic gadgets includes expensive manufacturing and fickle consumer tastes. The software business model can be less costly and more scalable, with recurring monthly money coming in. And Apple's pulling the same move — With iPhone sales down, it's nudging you to Apple Music/TV+/News+ (AKA, monthly subscriptions).