BlackBerry could continue to operate as a niche maker of smartphones while other parts of the company are sold off, according to Bert Nordberg, former CEO of Sony Ericsson and director at the troubled Canadian company.

As a member of the board committee looking into strategic options for BlackBerry, Nordberg told the Wall Street Journal that there are “subsets within the company that it can get rid of”, although he did not name the assets in question.

Nordberg believes BlackBerry can survive as a niche smartphone player despite its larger ambitions in the past. He acknowledged that it won’t be easy “but being a niche company means deciding to be a niche company”.

The BlackBerry director did not dismiss the possibility of the company being sold or a strategic partnership, adding that it needs to address the gap between its value on paper and value as perceived by Wall Street.

He added that his view of BlackBerry’s current status is shared by the rest of the board.

As CEO of Sony Ericsson, Nordberg scrapped the company’s presence in the low-end market and focused efforts on developing devices running Android. But he noted that BlackBerry cannot easily change operating system as its security framework is tied to its platform.

The executive also highlighted BlackBerry’s “unique assets”, including its strong enterprise business, NSA-approved security, qwerty keyboard technology and worldwide data network.

The Canadian company has seen its market share and market capitalisation collapse in recent years, with the launch of devices running the next-generation BlackBerry 10 OS, such as the Q5 (pictured), failing to deliver on expectations.

It announced in August that it had formed the special committee to “explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale in order to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment”. It said strategic alternatives could include “possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions”.