John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, has stated in an interview with Recode that he would like it if more companies made old-school, BlackBerry-like smartphones. He believes that ”there might be a need in this world for a phone that is very simple and just focused on secure email, secure texts, and a basic browser.”. Mr Chen presented BlackBerry Bold 9900 as an example of a retro-revival project done well. Mr. Chen’s dream retro smartphone should cost around $199 and offer increased security.

Future may tell us if such devices will find customers.