BlackBerry COO Marty Beard has today released a statement clarifying the company position on a number of areas including device strategy and their commitment to BB10.
Beard went on record to say that after ‘misinterpretation’ surrounding the company’s stance, they want to reassure BlackBerry users that BB10 will still be supported.
“We are committed to not just maintaining BB10 software, but advancing it to be even more secure and provide even greater productivity. You’ll see that with the next 10.3.3 update coming within the next month.”
The BB10 update has been gradually pushed back since first appearing on servers in December, while reports of a late June release turned out to be false. The update isn’t expected to include any huge changes for the platform but will carry NIAP certification, meaning it’s passed the strictest government-grade security tests. Business users rejoice. Beard also said that the company was committed to further updates in the future, with updates for 2017 “already in the works”.
Further to the operating system itself, Beard also seemed keen to stress that physical keyboards were a big part of the BlackBerry image. The company promised continued support for the feature, stating that customers wanted the feature to remain a key part of current and future devices.
“We’ll continue to make our iconic BlackBerry keyboard. We have four physical keyboard options that we currently offer: Passport, Passport Silver Edition, Classic and PRIV. There is solid demand for physical keyboards – and as long as that’s the case, we’ll continue to make them.”
In terms of device strategy, Beard made a small comment on the future of the company. Focusing mainly on the internet of things (IoT) and security, she argued that the strategy was much more than mere hardware. BlackBerry’s handset device division has been rapidly declining in the past few years, with market share hitting zero percent in some markets. The company has also been slated by numerous industry figures recently, with some saying that it has only a year left to survive.
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