It is a good thing that some
people cannot buy BlackBerry's Passport phone, the company's chief
executive officer, Mr John Chen, said. That means it is popular.
Shortages of the business-focused smartphone show that efforts to
turn around the unprofitable company, formerly known as Research In
Motion, are taking hold, the 59-year-old told an MIT Enterprise Forum
event last week in Hong Kong.
Demand for the phone - the first major new device released globally
since he took charge last November - has exceeded the Canadian
company's expectations.
"I'm glad to have inventory issues. It shows that people want the
phone," he said. "We took a very conservative approach and didn't order
too many."
In his attempt to return the company to profitability by 2016, he is
focusing on products, such as the BlackBerry Blend feature, which
appeals to corporate customers because it helps them merge work and
personal information.
BlackBerry's smartphone shipments sank to 13.7 million units last
year from 52.3 million in 2010, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg, as it struggled to compete with touchscreen devices produced
by Apple and Samsung.
The Passport pre-sold 200,000 units in the first two days, selling
out in six hours on BlackBerry's website and within 10 hours on Amazon.
The square-screen smartphone is designed for business users who
write e-mail messages, study spreadsheets and read documents on their
phones.
BlackBerry was focused on the 30 per cent of the market, who see
their phones as a tool, not as an entertainment portal, Mr Chen said.
"That is not a space that we can afford to be in now. Being sexy and being a workhorse are two different things," he said.
The company got 16 per cent of its sales from the Asia-Pacific
region during the fiscal year that ended in March, compared with 19 per
cent from the United States, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Mr Chen said he hopes to get ideas when he attends the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, China, next month, his first
trip to the country as CEO.
"China is too big a market to ignore," he said. "It is clear that
BlackBerry needs to and should be in that market." Shares of BlackBerry
rose 2 per cent to US$9.49 (S$12) at the close in New York.
