BlackBerry CEO Chen says the company needs to return to the days when owning a 'Berry was a 'badge of honor'

BlackBerry CEO John Chen is close to making one of the biggest announcements in company history. Sometime over the next few weeks, we should see the BlackBerry Venice (or whatever the device will be named) unveiled. This is a major step for BlackBerry because the phone is powered by Android. And judging from leaked images of the slider, this is one gorgeous piece of kit.

Some of what Chen said at the Waterloo Innovation Summit seems to tie in with the idea of releasing a handset that captures a big buzz from consumers. A video of the executive answering a question at the summit shows Chen talking about recovering the "sexiness" that BlackBerry was known for back in 2007. Noting that it is the "in thing" to buy a product from Apple (which he referred to as "the other fruit company"), Chen recalled how back in 2007 it was a "badge of honor" to own a BlackBerry. He added that it was sexy to "type underneath a table while you're talking to somebody else." While the executive was talking about the past, his mind was squarely on the future. "So we kind of lost that sexiness. So the question is how do we recover that?," he asked. Perhaps acknowledging that the Android slider is really coming would be a good start.
 
But Chen also wanted to let the BlackBerry faithful know that BlackBerry 10 is not being replaced by Android. "We don't comment on rumors and speculation, but we remain committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which provides security and productivity benefits that are unmatched." This comment should soothe BlackBerry users worried that the company is about to make a full conversion to Android.
 
You can check out Chen's comments by clicking on the video below.



source: UniversityofWaterloo via Crackberry