Daybreak - How BlackBerry’s revival story is running through India’s roads

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Remember Blackberry? The phone that once ruled business meetings and earned the nickname “Crackberry”? It’s making a comeback—but this time, not in your pocket.In this episode, we dive into Blackberry’s surprising pivot from smartphones to car software. Its QNX system now runs the brains of over 250 million vehicles worldwide, powering everything from navigation to safety. And the nerve centre of this quiet comeback? India.With its Hyderabad hub, partnerships with Mahindra, Tata Motors, and Tata Elxsi, and a growing EV ecosystem, India is where Blackberry’s next growth story is being coded. From BBM to EVs, this is the story of how a fallen tech icon found new life—on the road.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

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It's also a cell phone. That was Oprah, announcing the launch of the BlackBerry phone in 2002. You remember BlackBerry, one of the world's first smartphones with its iconic keyboard. In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was dominating the smartphone market. Business professionals everywhere couldn't get anywhere. enough of the world's smallest email terminal, which is exactly what made BlackBerry innovative at the time. It made it possible to send and receive emails from the palm of your hand

instead of from a bulky, boxy computer. And once it launched its BlackBerry messaging service, its popularity skyrocketed. BlackBerry users could now connect with each other instantly and without limit. At the height of its success, BlackBerry made up nearly 45% of the cell phone market. It was more than just a cell phone. It was a status symbol. And it soon picked up the name Crackberry, because, well, people were basically addicted to it. But then 2007 came. And with it, Apple with its shiny touchscreen iPhone. It made one of BlackBerry's standout features, its keyboard, completely redundant. It basically signed BlackBerry's death warrant. Now, BlackBerry did try to put out its own touchscreen version. But it couldn't quote it.

capture the same magic as Apple. And once other more affordable touchscreen smartphones started coming out, BlackBerry quietly faded away and everyone forgot about it. That is until now. You see, BlackBerry, the name thought to have disappeared from the world's innovation map, is quietly scripting a comeback. At the heart of this revival is QNX, the company's microkernel-based software that powers everything in software-defined cars.

from infotainment and navigation to assisted braking and battery monitoring. Micro-colonel-based software, by the way, is basically just an operating system where only the basics run at the core, like memory and task management. Everything else, like drivers and files, runs outside it and only communicates with the core when necessary. Okay, so back to QNX. Today, QNX runs in vehicles made by all top 10 global automakers, 24 of the top 25 EV makers, and 9 of the 5 EV makers, and 9 of the 4. the top 10 medical equipment manufacturers.

To put it simply, the same BlackBerry that once powered 70 million BBM users now runs the brains of over 250 million vehicles worldwide. And its current nerve center, India. And here's where comes the paradox. You know that India is home to some of the world's finest IT talent. In fact, domestic giants like TCS, WIPRO and Tata Alexi have thrived as global integrators. But none of them have been able to create a founding.

software quite like QNX. So, with over 30 new EV models expected by 27, the real contest in mobility might not be over design or batteries, but over software. And who controls it? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Rachel Vergeese, and every day of the week, my co-host, Nika Sharma and I will bring you one new story

that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Thursday, the 6th of November. India is still taking baby steps in terms of software-defined vehicles. But for BlackBerry, making India its nerve centre couldn't have come at a better time. Dhirajanda, the company's senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, spoke to the Ken reporter Subrata Napan. He said that just a few years ago, they had a headcount of zero in India. But now, the BlackBerry QNX Hyderabad Centre employs over 100 engineers. Globally, QNX holds nearly 40% of the originals.

automotive OS market. And in India, its key partners include Mahindra, Tata Motors, TCS, WIPRO, Tata LXC and VVDN technologies. Also, just this September, BlackBerry teamed up with Hyderabad-based Mehta Servo drives to build safety software for metro and monorail systems. So, basically, these are the partnerships that have kept its IOT or Internet of Things business growing, even as its cybersecurity revenue shrinks. QNX now brings in about 45% of BlackBerry's total $500 million revenue for 2025. And while the overall number is only a fraction of its peak time top line, the direction is finally upward. So why the focus on India? You see, the country sold over 4.2 million cars in 2023, becoming the world's third largest car market. And by

2006, the auto sector is expected to touch $300 billion in revenue with a growing focus on connected and electric vehicles. And at the heart of this shift is BlackBerry's QNX. Let me explain how. In India, QNX powers Mahindra XUV-700, B6 and XCV-9E. These cars rely on QNX's neutrino real-time operating system to run their digital cockpit, which is basically the system that manages navigation, infotainment and driver information.

And its hypervisor tech lets multiple operating systems run safely on a single chip. Dhirajanda told Suprit that the digital cockpit of BE6 and XEV9E is built entirely on QNX. Mahindra found QNX so reliable that it became the backbone of XUV 700's cockpit controller. The thing is, as cars become more software-driven, automakers need reliable real-time systems for everything from entertainment to driver assistance. So that's where India comes in as a development powerhouse for BlackBerry. The Hyderabad Engineering and Innovation Centre set up in 2024 is now BlackBerry's second largest centre globally. Honda told us that the centre is an integral part of QNX's global engineering ecosystem.

The centre is currently led by Rajkumar Jain, a 30-year-old veteran who previously worked with TomTom and Hair Technologies. Now, while BlackBerry hasn't disclosed the centre's exact contribution, Honda says the team works closely with global engineering groups across North America, Europe and Asia. And it's not just that. The company's India links go even deeper. For example, since 2017, it has partnered with Tata LXI to co-develop digital cockpit systems. Ashwin Ramachandra, Tata Alexi's tech director told Supri Tatar collaboration remains strong

and focused on safety-critical software for global OEMs or original equipment manufacturers. BlackBerry's local presence also goes beyond just R&D. In February, Blahperi also joined hands with Pai Square technologies to train Indian engineers in automotive software. Together, they formed clusters across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kauhbathur. Dave signed 51 academic partnerships and trained over 70 faculty members at institutions like Manipal Academy of Higher Education and Vellor Institute of Technology. More than 2,600 students have already enrolled. Rajkumah Jain told us that the goal goes beyond just skills. For BlackBerry, it's also about building a community that will drive the future of embedded

software innovation. It's actually a smart bet. You see, Indian firms aren't building their own core operating systems yet. They're building on top of QNX and Linux. As Ramchandra puts it, because these systems are standardized, most Indian companies focus on middleware and cockpit systems, where they can innovate and customize. Basically, that's what makes QNX a Microsoft or Amazon. Apple of the car world. It's foundational and proprietary. But there's a catch. You see,

unlike open-source systems like Linux or Android automotive, QNX doesn't come cheap. And that is definitely going to be a challenge in India's price-sensitive market. More on this in the next segment. It's almost like cars today take more than rocket science to run. Ravi Bhahtia, the president of Jadro dynamics and automotive research firm, told Suprit that cars are now more sophisticated than airplanes. For example, a Boeing runs on about 7 million lines of code. But modern cars use far more than that. It needs to manage infotainment, driver assistance, power, connectivity and even communication with the grid. Take Tata's Harry or EV, for example. Anandt Kulkarni, the chief product officer at Tata Motors, said that its tidal platform runs on

500 million lines of code. And the software behind all of the software behind all, all that complexity, QNX rarely ever fails. Ravi Bhattya said that in all his years, he couldn't recall a single reported QNX system failure. That reliability is exactly why automakers trusted for their core systems. But building software like this from scratch isn't easy. A partner at Deloitte shared an example. He said that even Apple, after spending over $10 billion on its autonomous car experiment called Project Titan,

shut it down last year. Also, Volkswagen's software arm, Carriette, spent more than $12 billion and hired 6,000 developers, only to face years of delays and nearly $9 billion in losses. By 2029, Carriette will shut down entirely. So that's why, even as India pushes to build more locally, automakers like Mahindra and Data's JLR still depend on QNX as their base. It also helps that for India's cost-conscious market, BlackBerry offers SDP7, an earlier version of its platform.

Honda shared that because Indian automakers are also building for global markets, BlackBerry provides everything from SDP7 to other cloud-based solutions to help cut costs. That said, India's car market presents a unique intersection. It demands affordability, safety and connectivity all at once. Cars like Tada Harriers, Safari, Hyundai Kreta and MahindraxUV have moved to being software-defined. They come with over-the-air updates and connectivity features. And in luxury models, Audi offers them as optional features while Mercedes and BMW include them as standard. Basically, they're partly software defined.

Unlike your Teslas or X-Pengs that are entirely built on software. Linux is an open-source option that is monolithic. Basically, if one part fails, the whole system can crash. QNX, on the other hand, because it's built on microkernel architecture, it can Isolate the problem, if it's like a sensor or display issue, and keep the rest of the car running safely. And that's not all. QNX is also backed by global safety certifications, something Linux lacks at the moment. QNX has also been around for over 40 years, even before BlackBerry acquired it in 2010.

Honda said, it's all about years of testing, validation and safety assurances. So, as cars increasingly turn into software-first machines, BlackBerry Kewen, QNX is already in the driver's seat. In FY26, BlackBerry has raised his revenue forecast to over $520 million this year. And by scaling the local team and forging partnerships, QNX has also wiring itself into India's EV ecosystem. In its pivot from a fallen smartphone icon to the backbone of modern mobility, BlackBerry may have found stable ground again in India.

And this time, perhaps the Canadian firm's next growth story may well be coded here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription offers daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and a whole bunch of premium podcasts. To subscribe, head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted and produced by my colleague Rachel Varghis and edited by Rajiv Sien.