BlackBerry CEO John Chen said at the MIT Enterprise Forum event on Oct. 18 that Blackberry's Passport and Classic smartphones are in high demand as the Canadian company is experiencing shortages in supply.

"I'm glad to have inventory issues. It shows that people want the phone," Chen said, "We took a very conservative approach and didn't order too many."

Chen is focusing on improving the company's services, such as the BlackBerry Blend feature that caters to corporate customers in a way that helps its users to combine work and personal information on their mobile phones.

The Passport and Classic were the first phones to be released by the manufacturer since Chen took office in November. Chen's attempt to return the company to profitability by 2016 saw BlackBerry smartphones stack up 200,000 unit sales for the first two days. The Passport sold out on Blackberry's website within six hours and on Amazon within 10 hours.

The company concentrated on the 30 percent of its market that see their phones as a tool, instead of a source of entertainment.

"That is not a space that we can afford to be in now. Being sexy and being a workhorse are two different things," Chen said.

The Hong-Kong native said he has yet to plan a strategy for expanding to China.

"China is too big a market to ignore," Chen said, "It is clear that BlackBerry needs to and should be in that market."

Chen said that he will be looking out for ideas when he attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which will be held at Beijing next month, as his first trip to China as chief executive.

On a side note, BlackBerry shipments fell from 52.3 million in 2010 to 13.7 million units last year as it struggled to compete with smartphones produced by Apple and Samsung Electronics.