Once Canada’s most valuable company, BlackBerry has carved itself a new niche that can’t be upended by the iPhone.
What happened: The Waterloo company has closed a landmark US$100 million-plus deal to supply its new automotive software, Alloy Kore, to trucking software platform Coretura. The company says it’s planning to roll out the new software to customers later this year.
Catch-up: BlackBerry once commanded 20% of the smartphone market, but after the iPhone took over the world, it struggled to redefine itself. Since peaking in 2008, its stock has plummeted over 95%.
After several devices flopped, BlackBerry gave up on the smartphone market entirely and has refocused, quite successfully, on its in-car software business, QNX.
Since new vehicles these days are essentially computers on wheels, they all need some version of the digital cockpit software that BlackBerry supplies.
Why it matters: BlackBerry’s automotive software is in roughly one in seven of the world’s vehicles, but only generates about US$10 per car that it’s in, sources told the Globe and Mail. The company says that with Alloy Kore, it could triple revenue per vehicle.
Overall, BlackBerry’s QNX system is projected to control over 38% of the US$72 billion automotive operating software market over the next decade, per one estimate.
It also has a foothold in the commercial trucking sector following the Coretura deal. According to one analysis, commercial vehicles make up ~30% of the total vehicle software market.
Bottom line: The glory days of the BlackBerry as a status symbol aren’t coming back, but with a pivot to a less-sexy — yet fast-growing — sector, the Canadian company has paved the way for a comeback.—LA
