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John Chen interview @ Code Conference 2014

] Chen is interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Ina Fried at Recode.net's Code Conference 2014.

] Discussing the state of Blackberry today, some upcoming products, his plans for the company

[25:00] VIDEO - Chen discusses the state of blackberry today and some of the companies plans going forward

raises prognosis for survival from his previously stated 50/50 to 80/20 now,
some parts of the business were in better shape then he expected(IP behind security,QNX,)
some parts were worse ( device positioning, app shortage, supply chain )
most important thing is - design, we have a # of new designs,
many have been leaked, seems thats a thing in the industry today, people are building accessories for our devices before we've even decided on the dimensions of the device

new designs "the classic", along the lines of the bold 9900, bigger screen, full touch screen, fast internet, physical QWERTY keyboard, i returned the toolbelt buttons (answer, home, trackpad)

another "new design" in the works, a lot of the telecoms really like it and i am not announcing it, is targeted more to enterprise use, tied to health care applications, for conferencing between doctors, exchange xrays, charts, medical images in a secure fashion, can be targeted to a # of vertical markets, will probably arrive around 2014-11

WM] how important is the handset business, IDC says current share already below 1%, predicts that by 2018 bb share will be down to .03%,

i know a plan to make devices business work BUT i am not emotionally tied to it, we will put it out there and if the market accepts it
believes we have potential to come back
we have a lot of great designs on the drawing board, we are making a few of them.
we lost it (their marketshare) on the last cycle
"] WM - you lost it starting in 2007

] should see BES support income from 2015-01
] BES 12 - will handle BES 5 & BES 10 and IOS and android and windows phone devices
will provide free licence as trade in, for those who already bought a licence

WM] blacberries future direction? - what contributed to the 'precipitous decline' of comany - there became some confusion as to who the customer was, previously you got your bb from your work IT dept, had your server system, it was all protected(secure), AFTER iphone came out blackberry changed marketing to consumers, ads on TV similar to ..., where are you going?

] going back to my enterprise roots
] i don't want to comment on past management decisions, we cast our net a little too broad, at the same time we haven't added value in the enterprise spice, we were unconsciouly fighting the BYOD movement, you cant fight anything, its about a segment or market you want to add value too.

***
] we are
] future phones and servers , go into IOT world and securely communicate with everything,
] the IOT is not about handsets,
] focus on apps and apis and
] IOT - everyone is going after that space - why blackberry?
] security is a value we have, know how, ip, we have a strong lead,
] we are not selling to consumers, ex QNX and audi TT, we sell to audi, audi sells to consumers
] BBM - small services have grown up and taken huge market share, whats working with BBM
] virtualized goods, stickers, movies,
] easier to make money in consumer space, bigger play is in the enterprise
] make it as an extension to my server
] BBM protect - secure multi user
WM] i dont know anyone that uses BBM - anecdotally - checks with audience, a few hands go up ..
] yes, its meeting expectations, more so on android,
] very pervasive in developing markets, South Africa, malaysa,
] what about patents & licensing - ex keyboard technology to Ryan Seacrest and his iphone keyboard
] Q+A with audience
?] what about canada and security, as not usa
] we have to be very careful,
?] secure messaging, email
] we are heading in that direction

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