Everything Old is New Again for BlackBerry

We have seen a lot of changes from BlackBerry (News - Alert) in the past couple of years. Sometimes it seems like you can go from one extreme to the other and then just a little too far. In January 2013, BlackBerry introduced the Z10. This was BlackBerry’s first foray into the world of a completely touchscreen device.

At the same time a brand new operating system was also introduced, BlackBerry version 10. Unfortunately, even with the combination of a very streamlined smartphone along with a new OS didn’t offer enough to entice enough interest.

Many changes have taken place since that time. A few new devices made it to market, several updates to the new OS came out, BBM went cross-platform and, oh yes, the company got a new CEO along with most of its senior executive staff.

We have more news that comes to us from the Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona. BlackBerry unveiled a new and cheaper touchscreen smartphone. As the headline reads, old is new again. The new device will be a classic.

What do I mean by “classic?” Do you remember what made BlackBerry so popular? In addition to the older, very secure operating system, the smartphone with the keypad that felt like you were holding an old friend was the classic BlackBerry device. It looks as if BlackBerry is listening to what the people want.

The new smartphone will be a lower end device named the Z3. It also has a code name of Jakarta. The price tag (News - Alert) will come in at under $200. The market region will be Indonesia. Apparently, Indonesia is quite taken with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). According to CEO, John Chen, it is proving to be very popular.

In describing the device, Chen said, "It's a 3G phone and we have a plan to expand the phone to different parts of Southeast Asia after Indonesia. We have a plan to go global with an LTE (News - Alert) (high speed 4G) version of it sometime in the future."

One of the major changes that took place under Chen’s leadership is the fact that BlackBerry would no longer be making its own handsets. The Z3 will be built by Foxconn. It will actually be manufactured by a Foxconn’s Hong Kong listed unit called FIH Mobile. I will mention that Foxconn is the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry.

The lower end smartphone will be available in Indonesia sometime in April. In addition, BlackBerry is also said to be working on a high end version of the classic device. This will be called the Q20. If all goes well, the expected release date for this device is sometime before the end of the year.

Basically, this is a re-introduction of the traditional BlackBerry keyboard that everyone was very comfortable with. Chen admits that the return of the keyboard was at the top of customers’ wish list. It is also obvious that this is Chen’s direction in his attempt regain the government and enterprise customers that have always been the core group in the past.

Since the re-branding of BlackBerry in January 2013, I have been saying that everything that I have seen and heard leads me to believe that the company was focusing on software and working on cross-platform products. It seems that this is exactly what the new CEO has in mind.

Chen said that BlackBerry would focus on the 30 percent of the enterprise market where the strength of BlackBerry's operating system in terms of security played best. He stated that the company had begun to spread itself too thin.

All that has been happening at BlackBerry since Chen took hold of the reins seems to be leading the company back to its old ways. There is still a vision of the future like but to get there the company is going back to its roots.

Strong secure software that was appreciated by governments and corporations alike is what built BlackBerry, along with that keyboard that felt so good in your hand. Chen said, "We don't want to lose the rest of the market ... but for the next 18 months I think you see us very much intent on going back and winning the regulated industries."

While it is true that these announcements have helped to boost BlackBerry’s shares by about 10 percent, hitting $10.78 on yesterday’s Nasdaq, analysts still remain skeptical as to the company’s future.

In a research note, GMP Securities analyst Deepak Kaushal said, "In our view, BlackBerry has yet to prove that it can stabilize its subscriber base and cost structure, before establishing a baseline profit level and new path to growth."