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BlackBerry: Foxconn phone will be sub-US$200

BlackBerry CEO John Chen says the Foxconn-built phone will be touchscreen and low-price, but the company has more to come.

Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
Nic Healey

Late last year BlackBerry said it would enlist Chinese manufacturer Foxconn to assist in cutting production costs.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen at a press roundtable session at the Consumer Electronics Show. (Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)

Now, at CES 2014, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said that Foxconn will produce a sub-US$200 touchscreen phone, but Chen also teased that BlackBerry is working on a higher-end, keyboard phone being produced in-house.

"For emerging markets, BlackBerry will let Foxconn take a bigger role," he said. "But we will do the next set of cool phones."

It means that BlackBerry isn't quite ready to leave the consumer market, despite speculation that the company might pull back to a pure enterprise roll.

"We're not retreating from the consumer business," Chen said.

However, BlackBerry will focus on enterprise in the main part for the next 18 months or so. In addition to devices, Chen told CNET that he wants to shore up the enterprise service and mobile device management business, build upon the momentum of the BlackBerry Messenger service, and better utilize its QNX platform.