BlackBerry thinks Chinese smartphone-makers could benefit from its security expertise, and CEO John Chen has been calling on the leaders of China’s biggest handset-makers. According to Bloomberg, Chen has met with Lenovo’s Yang Yuanqing and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun.
Lenovo and Xiaomi are the two largest smartphone-makers in China. Xiaomi is the current leader in the Chinese smartphone market. Lenovo has just completed its purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google, which will make it the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor by market share. Chen also met with HTC CEO Cher Wang, chair of Taiwanese handset-maker HTC.
Chen took over as CEO of BlackBerry about a year ago, and the company’s stock price has almost doubled in value since that time. Chen says BlackBerry has completed the first phase of a two-year turnaround, and that going forward the company will limit the number of devices it launches.
A partnership with a strong Chinese manufacturer could be a good way for BlackBerry to increase its software market share without investing in new devices. Software is also the business that Chen knows best. The Hong Kong native led the turnaround of Sybase, a database software-maker, before taking the helm at BlackBerry.
The Mobile Minute is sponsored by Juniper Networks.
Other top stories:
Sprint discounts per-line access on a pair of data buckets
Sprint continues to press the pricing issue with the rollout of a new promotion that trims access charges to a pair of its shared data plans. The offering … Read More
Veterans find fresh start in wireless industry
Wireless industry leaders are stepping up to bridge the gap between what veterans bring to a job and what a wireless infrastructure company needs. … Read More
EMEA: Carrier earnings show signs of European recovery
Several of Europe’s biggest carriers reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations. Sara Zaske has the details. …Â Read More
SpaceX plans satellites for Internet access:
