It's been a long time since BlackBerry was on top of the smartphone world, and these days, its ambitions appear to be a bit more modest than they used to. In an interview at the Code Mobile conference today, CEO John Chen told The Verge that his goal is to sell five million smartphones a year, which will be necessary to make the business profitable. If that doesn't happen, Chen hinted that BlackBerry may exit the handset business altogether, which would be a huge shift from the BlackBerry of the past.

A lot of that volume is expected to come from the upcoming BlackBerry Priv, the Android-powered slider device that Chen says will launch before the end of the year. (In its most recent financial quarter, BlackBerry sold just 800,000 phones.) The Priv runs Android and not BlackBerry's own BB10 software, but it will have the company's security technology baked in. Chen says BlackBerry's security is currently on par with Samsung's Knox, but its device will have better battery technology, better antenna technology, a physical keyboard, and other high-end specs that will make it a compelling option compared to Samsung or other devices.

The Priv may be the last BlackBerry smartphone if it doesn't succeed

Chen wouldn't commit to saying that we'll never see another BB10 device again, but he noted that the market for BB10 devices has been squarely in the high-security business, such as governments and hospitals. BlackBerry will continue to support those customers with software updates, but since they don't upgrade their devices very often, the impetus to come out with new hardware often is low.

But getting the consumers that do upgrade their phones often to buy the Priv won't be easy — it's been nearly impossible to purchase a BlackBerry device in carrier stores in the US for years now and most people just don't think of BlackBerry when they want to buy a new phone. To rectify that, Chen says he's working directly with carriers to sell the Priv and that we'll definitely see it in carrier stores when it launches. He notes that the carriers are excited to offer the device, since their staff already knows Android and can help customers with it.

Five million phones a year is a drop in the bucket for a company such as Samsung or Apple, but for BlackBerry, it's a number that is attainable and necessary to turn around its flailing handset business. And if it doesn't happen with the Priv, well, we just might not see another BlackBerry smartphone again.