Most major OEMs host their annual conferences which are attended by a wide variety of people, including developers, analysts, journalists and more. Apple hosts the Worldwide Developers Conference whereas Google hosts the I/O every year. BlackBerry, the once iconic Canadian smartphone manufacturer, has hosted its own annual event since 2012 under different monikers, most recently under the BlackBerry Live branding. The company has confirmed that it will not host BlackBerry Live 2014. Instead, BlackBerry says, it will continue to host smaller and targeted events in various regions around the world next year.
The decision to cancel BlackBerry Live 2014 certainly deals a blow to the company’s device plans. They have always served as the perfect platforms for building hype about an upcoming device. It goes without saying that the company has suffered monumental losses due to deteriorating performance of its hardware division. It also clears the air about the direction that BlackBerry is going to take under new CEO John Chen, which seems to be moving away from devices and focusing on its core strengths that lie in security and enterprise solutions. BlackBerry isn’t shutting down its hardware division immediately, it probably can’t afford to right now, but it has made some changes. Foxconn has been brought onboard as partner for developing low-end devices, whereas the folks back at Waterloo are going to focus exclusively on high-end devices that are favored by its loyal user base as well as enterprise customers.
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