The first step on the road to recovery is admitting that one has a problem. While BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins hasn’t been shy in making clear that BlackBerry is in the midst of rebuilding as the company does its best to recover, some of Heins’s executives are apparently still experiencing some degree of denial. BlackBerry shares plummeted 17% late last month after the company posted a surprise loss. Several noted industry watchers have stated repeatedly that the company desperately needs low-end smartphones to compete in key emerging markets, but the mid-range BlackBerry Q5 is the closest it will come in 2013 — a recent BGR exclusive report revealed that the only additional BlackBerry 10 phone set to launch this year is the high-end BlackBerry A10. As dire as things might look to some right now, BlackBerry India’s managing director Sunil Lalvani said in a recent interview that the company isn’t in any trouble.
“BlackBerry is not in trouble,” Lalvani stated bluntly in a recent interview with The Indian Express. “I would be candid to admit that yes indeed, we have had one tough last year or little over the year. But if you analyse historically, there are two reasons to it. BlackBerry was one of the pioneers in the smartphone era with the revolutionary feature of having your e-mails on the move. But the entire mobile industry has evolved and it is evident by the huge influx of new smartphones in the market.”
He continued, noting that BlackBerry 10 is a revolutionary mobile platform that took a lot of time to develop. During that time when BlackBerry was building its new platform, Lalvani said that some market share losses were inevitable.
“So these 15 months of turnaround might have been a little tough for us but we are beginning to turn that around,” Lalvani said. “During this period, we have seen that our cash reserve has only grown. Though we had this quarter ritual stuff and we had some loss in that but that’s part of the business because you always have challenges in the transition phase. Despite having some challenges in this quarter, if you see the overall financial foundation of the company, it is still very strong.”
