程守宗：黑莓要回归企业用户

    智能手机是一个消费品。苹果（Apple）从2007年推出第一代iPhone时就教育了我们这一点。但是随着越来越多的员工坚持携带自己的数码设备来工作，企业的信息总监们现在也默认了这种现状。

    过去五年里，黑莓（BlackBerry）和其他厂商一样使尽浑身解数想要赢得消费者的芳心，不仅不惜血本搞名人代言，还打了不少电视广告。去年，这家公司决定在全球范围内统一更名为“黑莓”，而且还重金聘请R&B天后艾丽西亚•凯斯担任全球创意总监。（我去年春天去看了凯斯的一场演场会，顺便看到了她在台上照本宣科认真代言黑莓手机的模样。）

    但是黑莓CEO程守宗却认为这家公司的这些路子都走错了。这些法子只注重年轻人和他们的“新玩具”，忽略了黑莓最有优势的企业用户基础，而现在是黑莓在企业领域收复失地的时候了。程守宗表示他会让公司稳定下来，而且要在2016年前扭亏为盈。

    程守宗在1月7日的专访中向《财富》勾勒了未来以黑莓企业服务器为中心的路线图。黑莓企业服务器是一款让企业用来管理移动设备的软件，具有超高的安全性。他还强调，人们现在已经可以在任何移动设备上使用黑莓的即时通讯软件BBM，还说黑莓的QNX操作系统有潜力成为一款真正能让机器实现相互交流的软件工具，而且有望从“智能汽车”领域——也就是QNX系统已经占据半壁江山的车载信息娱乐系统领域发展到未来的智能家庭领域。

    那么手机呢？当然，黑莓还会继续卖手机。程守宗表示，公司与富士康（Foxconn）签订的代工合同将降低黑莓手机的生产成本，从而创造出一些利润空间，但这并不是主要的增长点。

    黑莓现在已经濒临崩溃的边缘，两年来没有任何好转，能否咸鱼翻身就在此一役。上个季度，黑莓巨亏44亿美元，尴尬地反映了黑莓10手机上市一年来几乎无人问津的事实。（差不多就在一年前，《财富》就曾刊出《黑莓背水一战》一文，而现在我们又在讨论什么才是真正的背水一战。）

    虽然现在看起来让黑莓起死回生几乎已经是不可能的事了，但程守宗还是很有信心。首先，投资者们迫切地愿意支持任何一家能打破谷歌（Google）和苹果在智能手机市场的垄断地位的公司，以便竞争能够变得更均衡。其次，有整整一代智能手机用户都是先在黑莓手机上学会了发电子邮件，这些人仍然非常喜欢实体键盘。因此程守宗表示，他会把实体键盘带回来。

    Smartphones are a consumer business. Apple (AAPL) taught us this truth back in 2007 when it introduced the iPhone. Chief information officers are now acquiescing to it as their employees insist on bringing their own devices to work.

    For the last five years, BlackBerry (BBRY) has tried to win consumers over, too. It spent money on celebrity endorsements. It ran TV commercials. Last year, the company rebranded itself to take the name of its well-known device. And it hired R&B star Alicia Keys as global creative director. (This reporter went to one of her concerts last spring and had to witness her over-scripted, non-ironic onstage embrace of her device.)

    BlackBerry chief executive John Chen thinks the company got it all wrong. All that focus on the kids and their toys? It distracted BlackBerry from its enterprise roots. It's time the company reclaimed them. Chen says he will stabilize the company and make it profitable by 2016.

    In a Jan. 7 interview with Fortune, Chen mapped out future opportunities for the company centered around the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the ultra-secure software that companies use to manage their mobile devices. He reiterated that people can now use the company's instant-messaging product, BBM, on any device. And he highlighted the potential for BlackBerry's QNX operating system to become the de facto software tool for helping machines talk to each other, and thus powering everything from "smart" cars -- where it already has a strong foothold -- to "smart" homes.

    Oh, and phones? BlackBerry sells them, too. Chen suggested that his company's handset business could make some money once partnerships like its recent five-year manufacturing deal with Foxconn bring down the cost of manufacturing. But that's not where the growth is.

    It's a last-ditch effort to save a company that has been on the verge of collapse for nearly two years. BlackBerry lost $4.4 billion last quarter, mostly reflecting the fact that almost no one bought that snazzy new BlackBerry 10 device it debuted a year ago. (Yes, it was nearly a year ago that Fortune took readers "Inside Blackberry's Last Stand." And here we are again, discussing what is really the last stand. Really really.)

    Despite the seeming improbability of bringing BlackBerry back from the dead, Chen has a lot of goodwill behind him. For one, investors are anxious to support any company that can disrupt the stronghold that Google and Apple have in the smartphone market, making the competitive dynamics more equitable. And a generation of smartphone users who first learned to send e-mail on the go with a BlackBerry still miss the physical keyboards. Chen has said he'll bring them back.