BlackBerry Board Member: We Should Probably Stop Fighting Apple And Google, And Just Become A 'Niche' Player

Bert Nordberg, who joined the board in February, suggested that BlackBerry would be wise to spin out, or shut down certain parts of its business, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"I think BlackBerry is able to survive as a niche company. But being a niche company means deciding to be a niche company. Historically, BlackBerry has had larger ambitions. But battling giants like Apple, Google and Samsung is tough," said Nordberg.

Nordberg was previously CEO of phone maker Sony Ericsson. He sold Ericsson's stake back to Sony, and he also led a restructuring of the company in the early 2000s, according to the WSJ.

He's on a special committee at BlackBerry trying to figure out how to salvage things.

"BlackBerry's unique assets make it stand apart from other phone makers," he said. "BlackBerry is strong on the enterprise business, its products are NSA-proof in the sense that you can't intercept their communication, its handsets' keyboards have many fans around the globe, and the company has a leading worldwide data network."

He also said, "If you look at BlackBerry's book value versus its market value, it's clear that there's lots of work to do."

We don't know what this means for BlackBerry, but it sounds encouraging. Instead of trying to fight iOS and Android, it's going to focus on its strengths and work from there.