BlackBerry Earns 'Tier One' Supplier Status With Ford
October 31 2016 - 5:20PM
Dow Jones News
BlackBerry Ltd. is now a "Tier One" supplier for Ford Motor Co.,
a designation that cuts out the use of a middleman in supplying
products or services to the auto maker.
The move, announced Monday, represents an "inflection point"
taking place in the global car business, said John Wall, head of
BlackBerry's QNX Software Systems. BlackBerry, a once-dominant
smartphone maker, has increased its focus on software development
after losing significant market share to Apple Inc., Samsung
Electronics Co. and others in the global handset wars.
Being recognized as a Tier One supplier, rather than having to
go through other suppliers to sell to companies like Ford, is
important for BlackBerry's future in the automotive industry. The
Canadian company is developing software for several challenges
facing car companies, including helping to coordinate functions for
autonomous vehicles.
Ford, which is being lapped on self-driving car testing or
electric cars by some tech companies and startups, including Tesla
Motors Inc. and Google's car project, aims to have a fleet of
autonomous test-vehicles next decade. BlackBerry aims to offer
products that can enable so-called connected cars but faces a
barrage of competition both from the traditional auto-supply base
and tech firms.
BlackBerry's QNX Software is already in tens of millions of
cars, spanning Volkswagen AG to General Motors Co. Its relationship
with Ford dates back several years and relates to software needed
as an operating system in the auto maker's SYNC infotainment
service.
In an interview, Mr. Wall said BlackBerry typically deals with
auto makers early in vehicle development, but then works through an
auto supplier that is supplying a component to the auto maker with
BlackBerry's product embedded in it. The transition comes as auto
makers are continually adding lines of software code to their
vehicles and scrambling to boost the security and capability of
systems ranging from mapping to vehicle-to-vehicle
communication.
Apple, Samsung, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and other tech
companies are looking to ink supply agreements with auto makers or
are developing their own systems for autonomous vehicles and other
services. At the same time, Apple's iOS mobile operating system and
Google's Android are becoming more ubiquitous in light vehicles due
to new systems being installed by auto makers that allow occupants
to plug in their smartphones so that the device's operating system
can take over.
Mr. Wall said working as a Tier One supplier likely will lead to
more BlackBerry QNX deployment in cars. Mr. Wall didn't comment on
how the arrangement will affect BlackBerry's pricing power with
companies like Ford.
Write to John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 31, 2016 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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