BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM), is a Canadian telecommunication and wireless equipment company best known to the general public as the developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets, but also well known worldwide as a provider of secure and high reliability software for industrial applications and mobile device management (MDM). QNX, a subsidiary of BlackBerry, is widely recognised as a leader in automotive software industry. BlackBerry's software and hardware products are used worldwide by various government's agencies and by car makers and industrial plants throughout the world, much of this activity being unseen by the public. The company is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin in 1984. Mr. Fregin later left the company. In 1992 Mr. Lazaridis hired Jim Balsillie, and Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsillie served as co-CEOs until January 22, 2012. In November 2013, John S. Chen took over as CEO. His strategy is to subcontract manufacturing to Foxconn, and to focus on software technology.