The company made giant strides in the mobile phone sector after it acquired Alcatel's smartphone business and bought global rights to the BlackBerry phone brand.

The same subsidiary also builds BlackBerry and Alcatel phones, two brands hit by fading appeal.

"Motorola was once the leader in the first generation (of telecommunications); Blackberry was the leader in 2G; Nokia was the leader in 3G and Apple and Samsung led the 4G.

Furthermore, the report showed that functional rice varieties such as blackberry rice rich in anthocyanin, low-glycemic-index rice for diabetics and low-protein rice for those with kidney ailments are inevitable trends.

Software, chips, connectivity and data will be key drivers of the next-generation mobility, said Rowan, who worked as COO at BlackBerry and CEO at Dyson before joining Volvo.

China has the potential to become the largest market for connected vehicles and electric cars, and once autonomous driving becomes a reality, the nation will take the lead thanks to its foresighted infrastructure investment and preparations, according to a senior BlackBerry QNX executive.

"Based on the dynamic of the investments and the push by the Chinese government, I think China has great potential to become the largest connected and electric vehicles market," said Kaivan Karimi, senior vice-president of sales and marketing for BlackBerry Technology Solutions.

For the future of automotives, China is investing the most amount of money into electric vehicles, so that makes it one of the most important markets for BlackBerry QNX for the future, he said.

Today the Chinese market accounts for less than 10 percent of BlackBerry QNX's business.

BlackBerry QNX said it hopes to double the size of its Chinese team in 2019, as the company looks to establish an ecosystem to support the automotive industry in the future.

Blackberry said on Wednesday it will continue testing its self-driving concept car on the road in Ottawa.

Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics Corp chose Ontario as the site of its only autonomous test-track because of the harsh winters, along with its proximity to Blackberry's QNX unit, which produces the operating system.