In the past, BlackBerry dominated the American smartphone market. BlackBerrys were utilised by almost half of U.S. smartphone subscribers in 2010, according to Comscore.

The phones were well-known for their tactile keyboards and for BlackBerry’s cutting-edge cybersecurity, which made them popular with enterprises and governments.
But as people stopped buying its phones, BlackBerry changed its strategy, taking several of the company’s pillars with it.
According to John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, “after a few years, we understood that we would never get the volume up – because it’s a volume game.” Therefore, we made the crucial decision to become a software-only business with a focus on cybersecurity and related issues.

Even though it stopped making phones, the company stayed close to the sector.
According to BlackBerry’s chief technology officer Charles Eagen, the company currently has two main business units: a cybersecurity business unit and an IoT business unit within the cybersecurity business unit.

Its cybersecurity division focuses on safeguarding items like mobile banking websites and smartphone applications. Its internet of things division focuses on the technology communication in linked and autonomous vehicles.
In the majority of the cars today, “we have the lion’s share of embedded software,” Chen claimed.
According to the company, BlackBerry technology is present in about 215 million cars and is still expanding in this area.

According to Luke Junk, senior analyst at Baird, “If we look at the industry opportunity itself, it’s our assumption that the automotive software industry would roughly triple in size from 2020 through 2030.”
BlackBerry does, however, facing competition in the cybersecurity sector, and in 2021, its cybersecurity sales was $500 million.

According to Junk, “I believe that the company can achieve a lesser peak than we’ve seen in the past, but a more sustainable growth trajectory and possibly more profitable future as well,” he added.
In order to learn more about BlackBerry’s future plans, CNBC visited the company’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Center and spoke with Chen.