BlackBerry has appointed Ralph Pini as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for Devices. Ralph Pini will replace Ron Louks who has exited the company.
Ralph said that he will focus on customers, carriers and partners as all of them are crucial components to achieve device profitability. He also wants to expand distribution beyond BlackBerry’s traditional channels. He will be working on broadening the appeal of BlackBerry devices powered by the company’s BB10 operating system and Android. This will be possible via development of device hardware, software and design.
Prior to joining BlackBerry Ralph was working as as the President and CEO at Paratek Microwave which was acquired by BlackBerry in 2012. He has spent 28 years at Motorola before he left in 2004 and was once chief technology officer of its Mobile Cellular Group.
Speaking about BlackBerry’s plans besides smartphones, Ralph Pini said,
We are focused on meeting current demands in the marketplace such as the most secure end-to-end mobile platform; and anticipating new demands before they emerge such as securing all the endpoints in an Internet of Things world. Device profitability will follow but devices themselves will be only one driver in this strategy. The technologies we are innovating to propel new facets of IoT, such as the BlackBerry Radar device, together with the enormous opportunity we see in licensing our software technologies, which could include everything from the VKB (virtual keyboard) to a more secure Android operating system, will greatly expand on the definition of “device,” and enhance the value we bring our customers.
Last month, BlackBerry reported $238M loss in Q4 FY 2016 and sold 600,000 units of its first Android smartphone, BlackBerry Priv in the quarter which was down from 700,000 in the third quarter.