BlackBerry eyes wearables, tablet, appliances in software licensing expansion
WATERLOO, Ont. — BlackBerry’s logo may soon appear on more than just smartphones as CEO John Chen says the company is expanding its software licensing business.
The former smartphone leader said last year it was exiting the hardware business in favour of focusing on its growing software division. It has since inked licensing deals to put its hardware into phones manufactured by partners and opened a research centre for autonomous cars to help it capitalize on the burgeoning self-driving vehicle market. It is also in talks about a new BlackBerry-branded tablet.
While the potential tablet deal is the closest to coming to fruition, Chen said in a media roundtable that he’s looking into putting BlackBerry software into wearables, appliances and medical devices.
“We (would) actually like to have our software technology and secure technology embedded into everything,” he said.