Once the most sort after phone and feeling the heat from a market dominated by Android and iOS, BlackBerry has set itself a challenge to sell five million smartphones a year or stop producing any more phones.
In short, sell or be sold off is the ultimatum BlackBerry has put itself.
According to industry reports, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in an event on Saturday that the company needs to sell at least five million smartphones a year in order to make the business profitable. If it fails to do so, the company will quit the handsets business.
In order to give a fillip to the sales, the company will launch first Android phone BlackBerry Priv towards the end of this year.
The device supports all the Android apps and services, and would compete with Android smartphones in the market which cast dark clouds over the BlackBerry sales.
The BlackBerry Priv, with its better battery and antenna technology, and other high-end specs is likely to compete with Samsung and other devices.
Chen further reiterates that the market for BB10 devices is limited to the high-security business like governments and hospitals, where strongly encrypted devices are required.
In a market where consumers do not even think of BlackBerry, Chen says he is working directly with carriers to sell the latest Prive to engage with the larger Android consumer base and consider the switch.
Consider this, if BlackBerry fails to reach its target by end 2016, BlackBerry Priv will be the last BB device.