BlackBerry’s interim chief executive says reports of the death of the company “are greatly exaggerated”.

Former Sybase CEO John Chen said in a letter to customers Monday that BlackBerry is returning to its roots, refocusing on delivering devices and services to business users.

Chen was brought in as the interim chief executive and executive chair after talks to sell the company collapsed last month.

He says in the letter that the company is aware that “BlackBerry is not for everyone”.

Blackberry quickly lost dominance as the leading smartphone maker after the 2007 launch of Apple’s touchscreen iPhone.

Chen says he’ll refocus the company on four areas: handsets, BlackBerry’s mobile device management business, BlackBerry’s popular BlackBerry Messenger application and embedded QNX software systems.