Blackberry unveils IoT play
Struggling device vendor Blackberry has announced a new collection of initiatives targeting the Internet of Things, which the firm hopes will enable it to exploit the QNX operating system it bought in 2010. The vendor, which recorded a $5.87bn loss for the 2014 financial year, described the new campaign—dubbed Project Ion— as “a cornerstone of BlackBerry’s vision to offer end-to-end solutions for the Internet of Things.”
The QNX OS is embedded in a wide range of sectors, including automotive, energy, medical and air traffic control. With QNX systems already generating high volumes of data from vertical deployments, Blackberry is now looking to develop services that collect, process and apply that data to provide “deeper insight.”
Project Ion will feature a three-pronged go-to-market strategy. First, Blackberry will develop an application platform to enable access to all of the data it believes can be collected, second it aims to build an ecosystem around that platform, in particular targeting cellular networks, and third, it will look to strike strategic partnerships in the field.
“No other company is in a better position than BlackBerry to provide the technological building blocks, applications and services needed to enhance productivity, improve real-time decision making and deliver on the vision of the Internet of Things,” said Blackberry CEO John Chen.
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It’s an area that BlackBerry is rarely acknowledged for. In the context of an industry that pays $19bn for a messaging platform, the $200m BlackBerry paid for QNX 4 years ago seems like a shrewd move. QNX has become almost uniquitous across car manufacturers. Ford dropped MSFT for BB QNX this year and (I could be wrong), but I believe that even Apple CarPlay runs on the QNX platform.