Chen denies Blackberry could ditch handset business

The boss of beleaguered smartphone company Balckberry has denied telling a news agency that it could quit the handset business.

Reuters yesterday quoted John Chen as saying that "If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business".

However, in a personal blog post Chen has said that his comments were taken out of context, adding: I want to assure you that I have no intention of selling off or abandoning this business any time soon.‎

I know you still love your BlackBerry devices. I love them too and I know they created the foundation of this company. Our focus today is on finding a way to make this business profitable.

BlackBerry is not a handset-only company. We offer an end-to-end solution and devices are an important part of that equation. That’s why we’re complementing our Devices business with other revenue streams from enterprise services and software, to messaging.

We will do everything in our power to continue to rebuild this business and deliver devices with the iconic keyboard and other features that you have come to expect from this brand.‎ Rest assured, we continue to fight. We have not given up and we are not leaving the Devices business.”

In fiscal 2011 Blackberry shipped 52.3m devices. In its last quarter it shipped just 2m.