On Feb 5 the NY Times published an article by Ian Austen, “Blackberry Lays Off 200, Pointing to Shift Away from Phones”.

I’m skeptical about “pointing to” on anything. Show me some hard facts. John Chen has head faked in the “Software” direction numerous times over the last 3 years.

The real story as I see it is, is this action clearly reveals John Chen as hard-core entrepreneur. He will do ANYTHING he has to do to keep Blackberry going forward (even if it means building an Android phone, or giving their EMM app away at no charge, or, in this case, laying 200 people).

Better to keep “John Chen the entrepreneur” in mind when looking at the actions Blackberry takes. If you agree, then you may get a feel of how their prod dev and marketing has a very narrow (and short term) window.