BlackBerry climbs out of your pocket and into the internet of things

BlackBerry climbs out of your pocket and into the internet of things

BlackBerry's been doing its best to engineer a smartphone comeback, but its future doesn't just hinge on stuff that goes in your pockets. Those plucky Canadians have also had their sights on cracking the fabled internet of things, and today it's finally pulled back the curtain on a cloud-friendly system meant to do just that.

Haven't been paying attention to the internet of things lately? Long story short, it's an industry movement that aims to link smart devices and sensor-laden gewgaws into a network of sorts so you -- the all-powerful user -- benefit from how they connect. Wear a Fitbit? Own an Aria scale? The health data from those gadgets combine on your phone to provide a more accurate picture of your health than any one measurement alone. Welcome to the future. Anyway, BlackBerry's deal is notable in that in draws on two of its bread-and-butter businesses: It's essentially meant to combine the QNX operating system that forms the foundation of BlackBerry 10 and the secure networks that have made BlackBerry devices the darlings of the government and intelligence communities. Not a bad pedigree, no?

Not surprisingly, it could be a while before BlackBerry makes a play to connect your home (if it ever does at all). The company says its primary focus for now is to build deeper inroads in the "automotive and asset-tracking industries." The QNX software BlackBerry acquired really found its footing inside car entertainment systems, and it'll face plenty of stiff competition in the form of new automotive efforts from companies like Google. And asset tracking? That's BlackBerry pandering to its enterprise and business-to-business roots -- a savvy move, but not always the most interesting to write about. BlackBerry is, naturally, not the only mobility maven itching to link the world's gadgets together. Samsung acquired connected home tech maker SmartThings in mid-2014, a deal that reportedly cost the Korean tech giant $200 million -- relative chump change when you think about how badly Samsung wants to own every facet of your home.