Following years of declining smartphone sales, BlackBerry tried something different in 2015, launching its first smartphone running Google Android software instead of BlackBerry OS. But it doesn’t look that has done much to help the company’s hardware sales.
The BlackBerry Priv launched in November, and according to the first full-quarter earnings report since that launch, BlackBerry shipped just 600,000 phones in the fourth fiscal quarter, which is down from 700,000 during the previous quarter.
Overall revenue was down by 30 percent… but there may be a silver lining on the software and services side.
BlackBerry has started to make its enterprise and consumer software including BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Enterprise services available for devices running Android, iOS, and Windows software and it’s feasible that even if the company’s hardware business doesn’t become profitable, BlackBerry could live on as a software company.
Software and service revenue for the quarter was $153 million, which is about double the amount from a year earlier. The company is also projecting a 30 percent growth in software and services in the coming year.
As for hardware, BlackBerry CEO John Chen says the company needs to move about 3 million devices per year to break even. That’s down from a previous estimate of 5 million thanks to cost cutting measures.
It’s not clear if the company will be able to ship even that reduced number of phones this year, but Chen says he’s optimistic. He also notes that part of the problem the company has had moving Priv units is due to reduced demand for high-end phones, suggesting that maybe if BlackBerry does have another Android device on the way, it could be a mid-ranger?
That said, investors didn’t seem too happy with BlackBerry’s report. The company’s stock fell by about 7.5 percent to $7.48 per share today.
via WSJ
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The problem for Blackberry is that their entire security angle falls apart when you realize they’re a government contractor. When business and foreign governments buy phones, they want to know no triple letters agencies will be sifting through their tax reports and such. And it’s common knowledge contractors sign enough NDAs and compliance clauses that they can’t be trusted. Worse, any backdoor can be used by against you. So, when you use these obviously weakened encryption tools, you paint a big bull’s eye all over your affairs.
The way I see it, the only way for Blackberry to stay in business is to go full open-source. They don’t have to be free or anything like that. But they need 3rd party random individuals capable of picking their source-code and compiling to produce 1:1 checksum’ed binaries. Without this, they’re just an Apple wannabe.
Really?! Any phone trying to emulate good security measures is a BlackBerry wannabe. Not the other way around like you think. Otherwise the likes of the president and such wouldnt be using it.
The software on the President’s phone is custom. It is nothing like what the rest of BB phones. Do some research, Blackberry has been caught helping governments against BB phone users.
It is a Blackberry. Stripped down Blackberry still a blackberry.You do your research.
Yeah… Stripped down from the backdoors…
If a senator, president or a CEO can’t pick up a stock Blackberry he can rely on for security, you can’t either. Compare that to Apple where even a terrorist – that’s to say, an idiot with a death wish – can pick up any old random Apple smartphone and get enough security to have the FBI harass Apple in courts over it for weeks…
Well, as soon as Blackberry gets dragged down to court under similar circumstances, I’d consider them secure. Right now, if you’re providing encrypted communication, and you haven’t been served, you’re backdoored.
Yes because we dont see a BlackBerry security breach on the news like Apple. You just wasted alot of typing proving nothing.
So only the hardware matters?
They also announced Marshmallow for the Priv in late April early May. Quite disappointing given we were expecting it to ship with MM. Plus Android N is probably gonna be publicly available by the end of May. Not sure we’ll ever see an N upgrade in the life of the phone which is a shame for a business oriented device, splitscreening would be massively useful.
My hope is Microsoft will by the patent for the BB keyboard that is both a physical and touch-sensitive keyboard that is on both the Priv and the BB Passport. Then they can put it in the Surface Phone as a real phablet should have.
Can they just make a simple Android Phone?
I’d rather they made another QNX based phone which is a far better base for an OS than the other mainstream OSes
Apparently they can’t. They live by that security first mindset and it’s killing them.
SECURITY FIRST!!?? Here in Indonesia, Earth’s 4th largest country and Blackberry’s 2nd largest market outside of N. America – Blackberry gave the Indonesian Government the keys to their servers the second the Government told them to. Screw BB and their so called “Security”.
Earth’s 14th largest country – fixed. (source: wiki)
My Blackberry Z30 is an ok phone. But it’s a pain connecting to my work email after I’m forced to change my password every 2 months. Also, it’s impossible to open pictures I transfer to my PC using a USB cable. I’m giving it back to the office and I’ll use my personal iPhone instead.