BlackBerry’s Open Letter: You Can Continue to Count on Us!

The struggling BlackBerry has made a rather unusual move: to set the record straight on a few things and reassure customers, as well as investors that the company is still standing strong. It wrote an open letter to its customers, partners, and fans. The letter is due tomorrow; it will appear in over 30 major news publications across 9 countries. The message: “BlackBerry is here to stay!”

As the struggling Canadian company’s chief marketing officer, Frank Boulben, said speaking with the Washington Post, BlackBerry’s message is two-fold: it wants to reassure customers and investors that the company is in good standing, it has plenty of cash in its hands and no debt; also, it wants to highlight the outstanding products it has.

You’ve no doubt seen the headlines about BlackBerry. You’re probably wondering what they mean for you as one of the tens of millions of users who count on BlackBerry every single day.

Regarding the outstanding products, the letter gets interesting: it doesn’t highlight the handsets it launched this year, but puts an accent on software for business and government users. In fact, this is what makes BlackBerry stand out from the rest of the pack. Some may disagree, though.

The letter also highlights that the forthcoming BBM for Android and iPhone sparked interest from many smartphone users: according to BlackBerry there are 6 million users subscribed to notifications when the service goes live. The latest update about BBM for other platform was published two weeks ago, through the official BBM Twitter account, with a similar message.

BlackBerry has recently accepted FairFax’s bid on the company, but rumour has it other companies are interested in parts of the struggling Canadian star.

BlackBerry: To our valued customers, partners and fans by Istvan Fekete