A familiar suggestion when BlackBerry fell into trouble a few years back was that the company should simply stop making smartphones and concentrate on its software business. While the Canadian brand has followed the latter advice, BlackBerry is still very much in the hardware game, and has launched a number of new products recently. While the company’s smartphones are not selling very well, CEO Jon Chen has explained to USA Today exactly why the company still makes handsets.

Chen is of course the man who was brought in to steady the sinking ship, something he managed to do and even took BlackBerry back into growth. It is still a long road ahead (Morgan Stanley described BlackBerry’s shares as “underperforming” today), but for the most part Chen’s tenure has been a triumph. Sure, the Android and iOS fans will scoff at such a claim, but by using BlackBerry’s reputation in enterprise and security, Chen is making the company viable again, while there is $3 billion sitting in the bank.

So, why continue with smartphones when market share is simply through the floor? Well, Chen points out that there is plenty of money to be made from smartphone hardware if you can sell enough numbers. Sure, BlackBerry is not moving units at the moment, but it seems there is a philosophy that the company needs to maintain a presence and one day could reap rewards.

There is another, more pertinent, reason though. Chen believes that the best way for BlackBerry to show off its software and security features is with its own hardware. That will not stop the company farming out services to other platforms, but if you want the full experience you need a BlackBerry device.

We also made our device more secure than everybody else's. A lot of people ask me why I'm in the device business. First, it's a good business to be in if you can make money. Second, it's our first entry point of security. If we can secure the device, it makes securing the software and the data management and the collaboration and file sharing and content and pictures and videos and everything that much more easier."-John Chen, CEO, BlackBerry