Chen believed that the QNX operating system was Blackberry’s most valuable asset with high potential to earn revenues for the company. QNX was an embedded OS that managed and connected climate control, navigation, and other functions in vehicles to the dashboard. One of the most unique aspects of QNX was that if a particular part of the system shut down or froze, the rest continued to operate. That kind of stability was considered to be crucial in certain circumstances, where a system crash could be disastrous.
As of 2015, QNX was highly popular in the auto industry with almost 40 automakers using it and the system being embedded in around 50 million cars globally. As of 2013, QNX had 53% of the embedded vehicle OS market share, while Microsoft came a distant second with a 27% market share. By 2016, the global auto infotainment sector was expected to be worth US$ 14.4 billion. Though the major portion of the money in the market went to hardware makers, software providers like Blackberry were also expected to do well. Blackberry charged around US$ 3 per vehicle from QNX licensing fees and analysts expected the company’s strong market position to help it negotiate even higher fees in the future.