BlackBerry’s Renewed Enterprise Focus

BlackBerry has been moving its attention from devices to the enterprise — by necessity.

As reported by Financial Post on Tuesday (March 29), the fact that the company did not debut a lower (relatively) cost Android device at the Mobile World Congress that was held earlier this year in Barcelona speaks volumes about where the company is headed. In short, said the publication, Blackberry may be eyeing an exit from hardware altogether.

That Android offering was widely expected, and according to at least one sell-side analyst — Daniel Chan, a TD Securities analyst — a change in direction may be in the offing. The analyst said that if such a move does materialize, the firm could make the leap towards becoming a software company with $1.4 billion in sales, with operating margins of about 33 percent and net cash on the balance sheet of about $1.4 billion.

There have been numerous shots across the bow against the BlackBerry operating systems, among them the fact that WhatsApp has said that it would stop supporting BlackBerry devices by the end of this year and Facebook’s apps will not function on BlackBerry devices after the end of this month.

The company would have the benefit of paring down its research and development operations, which have been traditionally geared toward the handset businesses.

There may be more hints as to what is to come, as BlackBerry is slated to have its conference call with analysts at the end of this week. It is also possible that convention-goers will get a glimpse of the firm’s Internet of Things offering, Blackberry Radar, an integrated trailer management service.