According to the latest data released by International Data Corporation (IDC), “Blackberry OS, which saw a small increase in some regions, continued to decline in growth globally. The bulk of its volume shipments came from the Blackberry Classic.” In August 2015, Blackberry OS reportedly had a worldwide market share of 0.3%, which is lesser that individual market shares of iOS, Android and Windows Phone. However, Blackberry Ltd. has been taking a number of initiatives to boost the market share of its mobile operating system. In addition releasing regular updates for Blackberry 10, the company is also launching new models of Blackberry smartphonees. There are still a number of factors that will have a direct impact on the future of Blackberry OS and smartphones.

Factors that will affect the Future of Blackberry OS and Smartphones

Blackberry 10 OS

Often the updated version of a mobile operating system boosts the sale of smartphones and tablets powered by it. Blackberry 10 OS comes with a number of new features and enhancements. The users can further download the version 10.3.2 of the mobile app development platform to avail enhanced security and privacy through the anti-theft protection feature. Further, the latest version of Blackberry OS enables users to download and run both Android and Blackberry apps. The users can further use Blackberry Assistant to access emails, calendar, contacts and other features through both voice and text commands. These features enable Blackberry 10 OS to challenge the latest versions of iOS and Android effectively.

Switching to Android Mobile Platform

Recently, Blackberry Ltd. announced a new smartphone called Priv which runs on Android OS. The company is also betting heavily on Priv to regain its lost market share. Many websites have already reported a very good start for Blackberry Priv. However, the smartphone is expensive, and designed by targeting corporate customers and government agencies. The success of Priv will encourage the company to launch new devices powered by Google’s mobile operating system. The Android-powered smartphones launched by the company will affect the worldwide market share of Android OS adversely and drastically.

Number of Devices to be Sold

To quote from a report posted on MobileSyrup.com, “At the Code Mobile conference in California, guest speaker John Chen, BlackBerry’s president and CEO, told the crowd that the company would be out of the handset business in a year if it can’t make a profit from it. He said that the company needs to sell approximately five million devices per year to turn a profit.” But the company sold only 800,000 handsets during the second quarter of 2015. The decline in sales also reduces the company’s revenues by 46% to $490-million. Thus, the future of Blackberry OS will directly depend on the number of handsets sold by the company in 2016.

Diverting Focus to Internet of Things

After acquiring QNX real-time operating system in 2010, Blackberry Ltd. built Blackberry 10 OS on top of it. At CES, John Chen revealed the company’s plan to push QNX for Internet of Things. However, Chen did not mention anything specific about pushing Blackberry OS for Internet of Things. Blackberry Ltd. repeatedly earned more revenue by licensing QNX to companies manufacturing car entertainment systems, self-driving cars and various in-car applications. With the company pushing QNX for Internet of Things, the development of Blackberry OS will be impacted adversely.

An Aggressive Media and Marketing Campaign

Many analysts have highlighted the inadequacy and ineffectiveness of media campaigns launched by Blackberry Ltd. So it is time for the company to launch an aggressive media campaign to make people recall Blackberry. The campaign must focus on making Blackberry 10 OS and smartphones synonymous with enterprise and work. Likewise, the company will also need to hype its mobile operating system by distributing seducing content and HD images. The aggressive marketing campaign will help Blackberry to achieve the five millions sales targets, and rebrand the OS in the longer run.

On the whole, the future of Blackberry OS and smartphones will depend on the number of devices sold by the company in 2016. However, the company must take several initiatives to boost the popularity of its mobile operating system, and make it profitable by selling five million devices next year.