Verizon Chief: Mobile Industry Needs a Healthy BlackBerry
Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead is rooting for a BlackBerry comeback. In his view, the Android-iOS duopoly that Google and Apple have established is begging for disruption, and BlackBerry is potentially one company to provide it.
“We think that there is an important place for BlackBerry,” Mead told attendees of the Jefferies 2013 Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week. “Three to four operating systems is good for the industry and good for us,” he concluded, noting that Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS is another good candidate.
No disputing that; more diversity in the smartphone market would also benefit consumers. Trouble is, consumers seem pretty happy with the current duopoly. According to recent research from Canaccord Genuity, Apple and Android juggernaut Samsung captured about 100 percent of global smartphone industry profits in the March quarter.
Not that those companies’ domination of the market is unassailable. Mead said Verizon is seeing decent customer interest in BlackBerry’s new handsets and thinks it will only improve with the launch of the QWERTY-keyboarded BlackBerry Q10. “We have a lot of BlackBerry customers on our network,” he said. “There seems to be a hunger for the QWERTY keyboard.”