You have no idea how much you rely on BlackBerry technology

Yes, she exists. And no, it doesn’t make phones. The company, formerly known as Research In Motion (RIM), abandoned mobile device manufacturing a decade ago—which seems more like a century—when phones had button keyboards and everyone played Brick Breaker.

But a surprising number of people still rely on BlackBerry – without realizing it.

The company’s most profitable product is not hardware, but the software hidden in the 275 million cars on the road today. In fact, essential BlackBerry technology can be found in all sorts of unexpected places, but you wouldn’t find it even if you were looking.

“In a car, you’ll never see the QNX logo,” says Wall, the division’s president. “What you will meet is a better experience.”

He likes to think of QNX engineers as plumbers and electricians, the ones responsible for the things we need but never see. At home, it’s about plumbing and wiring. In a car, it’s the software that supports safety features that we take for granted.

QNX is an operating system that enables various types of driver assistance: collision warnings, blind spot warnings, adaptive cruise control, pedestrian detection and a system that returns the vehicle to the lane when you begin to swerve dangerously. “We are the foundation,” Wall said. “Everything that looks beautiful on top won’t work without a strong foundation.”

An operating system that will never fail

This basic software has never been so valuable. Cars are increasingly becoming computers on wheels, and QNX is trusted by the world’s largest automakers because its simple, real-time operating system is designed to never fail. “The only way to make this software fail,” a user quoted in Fortune magazine once enthused, “is to shoot a bullet into the computer running it.”

Thanks to its undisputed reputation, the software has spread to production floors in factories and other workplaces that value safety, precision and reliable technology. In hospitals, for example, QNX technology is embedded in surgical robots and dozens of medical devices, which means that patients regularly entrust their lives to doctors, nurses – and BlackBerrys.

QNX even became the solid foundation of the company – which many have already eulogized a long time ago. The division, which was previously financially insignificant, is why BlackBerry is suddenly making money again. Once overlooked, QNX now accounts for half of the company’s total revenue, and BlackBerry has posted four consecutive profitable quarters — the first time since its flagship rivaled the iPhone.

Since a positive earnings call last month, the stock has risen 50%. It is still 96% lower than it was at its peak. But after everything the company has been through, the managers are broadcasting a new message: BlackBerry is here again.

“BlackBerry’s story,” the company’s CEO stated in the same conversation, “is now a story of growth.”

The competitive advantage: “No one pays attention to us”

The story began when QNX was acquired in 2010, to help with the next generation of BlackBerry devices. But at that point, nothing could help. The company’s market value peaked at $83 billion two years earlier. Today it is worth 3 billion dollars, and Apple sells more in one morning than Blackberry in a whole year.

John Wall watched this spectacular crash closely. QNX was founded in 1980. Wall has worked for the Canadian company since he graduated in the early 1990s. After the acquisition in 2010, many engineers moved to RIM to build a mobile operating system for BlackBerry. Wall stayed behind.

While others were working on phones, his team continued to tinker with automotive software—and its members kept their email addresses on QNX.

They have enjoyed for years a fantastic competitive advantage: total disregard. “No one noticed us,” Wall said. They managed on their own, and made such impressive progress in car information and entertainment systems that Silicon Valley began to follow them closely.

Over a glass of beer: the executive from Audi who predicted the future

Google unveiled its Android-based infotainment system, and then Apple recruited engineers from QNX to help it build an entire car. Once again, it looked like BlackBerry was about to be crushed.

But in 2014, as the threat from the tech giants grew, Wall made a crucial trip to Silicon Valley to meet one of his favorite QNX customers. There he also predicted his future.

During a conversation, while drinking German beer, Audi’s head of engineering told him that the automaker was moving to purchase its infotainment systems from Google. But he did not end the engagement with Wall. The next generation of cars will require reliable safety features that did not yet exist, he explained. Wall decided that instead of fighting for control of the screens, QNX could control the software under the hood. It was the most expensive glass of beer he drank in his life.

“The circumstances that led to us losing in the field of information and entertainment systems pointed the company in the right direction,” Wall says, “even if we didn’t know it at the time.”

What they did know was that they had no choice. “There was no other alternative,” he says. “We had to take what we had and understand: where are we going now?”.

There was only one place to go: into the depths of the car. And after proving itself in cars, the software also reached medical devices, industrial automation and robotics. But the fact that it entered more places did not earn the plumbers and electricians of the software field additional recognition.

“Customers care about the functionality of the lane keeping assist feature,” Wall says. “They don’t care about the fact that the operating system below is blah-blah-blah.” Or blah-blah-blah is made by Blackberry or QNX – or whatever his workplace is called.