BlackBerry Ltd at JPMorgan Auto Conference (Virtual) Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So just as people are catching up on the transition from being a mobile phone company to a security software company, can you just give us an overview of where BlackBerry is currently? And where you think -- where you see things being today and how you kind of go-forward from here?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Great. That's a good overview to start with. That's just given that it's an auto conference, let's dive into the auto market first. I think a number of investors really wouldn't have again thought of BlackBerry having a role in the auto market as such. Can you just kind of double click there? What are you doing in the space? What's kind of the role that you have mentioned for BlackBerry in the auto market?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : No, that's a big list of areas you're targeting. So thanks for that. I definitely remember when QNX, Harman sold QNX. I used to cover Harman back then. And that was definitely one of the things that a quarter. nobody, I think, expected Harman would kind of make that movement. That was interesting and that was an interesting acquisition as well. So let's drill down and maybe talk about some of these individual opportunities a bit more if you don't mind it. And before we do that, even like you outlined the 3 big areas that BlackBerry can go into particularly in autos, be it security, be it the overall like the V2X system that you talked about. So even for an investor just looking into them individually, how would you rank them? How would you kind of quantify the addressable market or rank them in terms of importance and timing before we start to get into individually them in more detail here?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. I'm sure every auto investor at least dream was the dehacking that really kind of brought this into the picture well a couple of years ago, I think. I'll take a question that came in from the audience here, which is sort of related to the rank order or outlining the opportunities that you just talked about. The question is, can you share the average ARPU range on QNX? But more importantly, what is the total revenue that you envision or a content per vehicle that you envision on a fully loaded vehicle?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Clear. Moving to just hitting some of these items more individually. Just -- let's start with IV. Obviously, that's been a big launch. You announced that in September, the stock definitely responded to that as well. How have things progressed related to your kind of internal expectations? Just give us an update there, how things are currently?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : The CarIQ application that you talked about, you already -- the CarIQ application, you hit on some of the use cases already on that. Just one, like how is IVN enabler into that, firstly? Secondly, like what do you envision that to look like from a hardware perspective? Because like when I look at some of the other traditional auto suppliers, they are also trying to get into like vehicle-based payments, et cetera, like a Gentex would say, I'll put -- I have the mirror, I'll put something on top of that and that will serve as like a cooling system. So how can you differentiate rate with some of the traditional auto suppliers with the kind of how are you envisioning the hardware to look like to enable this?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Great. Let's kind of change gears here a bit and talk about the more near-term topic on the automotive industry, which is semiconductor shortages. You mentioned, I think, on the last earnings call that the second fiscal quarter would be the low point. What are you seeing currently? Do you still see things the same way? Or kind of just given new data points has your view change?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. John, what I'll do is there are a few questions from investors. And given that we have a few minutes left, let me just try taking those here. So the question is, you recently added executive leadership in the IoT business unit. Mattias Eriksson was hired as President. He came from HERE Technologies. What does he bring to the table and what are his marching orders?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : I'll kind of give you 2 questions at once and try to squeeze them in the remaining minutes we have here. First is, does the B2X implementation require costly hardware installation to the OEM? Or can they run it off existing hardware? The second question is, with all the market share on QNX, why not raise prices?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : With all the market share that you have with QNX, why not raise prices?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Raise prices on QNX software with your customers? License...

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : QNX licensing pricing.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. Why not raise prices.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. And the first one was, does V2X require costly hardware? Or can the OEMs run it on existing hardware?

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : John, unfortunately, that's all the time we have. I see a couple of more questions from investors. I look forward it to your team. But thank you for the time. Thank you for taking the time and allowing us to post you here.

Question: Samik Chatterjee - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes, yes speak soon, yes, in person. Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening in as well.