BlackBerry posted a net loss of $207m (£127m) in its second quarter as it revealed that revenues are continuing to fall, just days after launching a new handset.
Revenues at the Canadian smartphone maker were $916m, down 42% from a year ago, and continuing the company’s slide from its previously dominant position when at the end of 2010 its quarterly revenues peaked at $5.6bn.
John Chen, the chief executive, told analysts that BlackBerry was “definitely in the first half” of an eight-quarter turnaround. “We might not be at the lowest point but we are near the bottoming out of this revenue,” he said.
This week, Chen unveiled a large-screen, square phone called the Passport to an audience in Toronto. No launch event was held in the US, where analysts say there is little demand from consumers or interest from mobile phone networks.
Chen said, however, that 200,000 preorders had been taken for the Passport, BlackBerry has slumped into losses in the past two years, after its early position as a popular smartphone in business and with consumers wilted in the face of competition from Apple’s iPhone and Android phones using Google’s software.
Consumers in the west have all but abandoned the phones, though they remain popular in some parts of Asia and in Africa. Instead, Chen has set out a strategy to focus to corporate and government clients which value the company’s extra security on its devices, and effectively abandon the consumer market to rivals, including Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Chen has made substantial job and cost cuts since he was brought into the company 10 months ago to pilot it back to profitability after a failed attempt to sell it to private equity buyers.
Under Chen, costs of sales, marketing and administration have more than halved since the previous quarter, while research and development costs of $186m were almost half those of a year ago.
But that could not make up for falling revenues in services, such as providing secure communications for customers. Revenues from handset sales grew only slightly from the previous quarter, and at $417m were almost half that of a year ago.
Since taking over, Chen has put more emphasis on BlackBerry’s mobile-device management business, a collection of software that allows IT departments to manage different devices connected to their corporate networks.
He has also emphasised messaging service as well as Blackberry’s QNX software systems, which are used for entertainment systems in cars and industrial machines.
theguardian.com
Revenues at the Canadian smartphone maker were $916m, down 42% from a year ago, and continuing the company’s slide from its previously dominant position when at the end of 2010 its quarterly revenues peaked at $5.6bn.
John Chen, the chief executive, told analysts that BlackBerry was “definitely in the first half” of an eight-quarter turnaround. “We might not be at the lowest point but we are near the bottoming out of this revenue,” he said.
This week, Chen unveiled a large-screen, square phone called the Passport to an audience in Toronto. No launch event was held in the US, where analysts say there is little demand from consumers or interest from mobile phone networks.
Chen said, however, that 200,000 preorders had been taken for the Passport, BlackBerry has slumped into losses in the past two years, after its early position as a popular smartphone in business and with consumers wilted in the face of competition from Apple’s iPhone and Android phones using Google’s software.
Consumers in the west have all but abandoned the phones, though they remain popular in some parts of Asia and in Africa. Instead, Chen has set out a strategy to focus to corporate and government clients which value the company’s extra security on its devices, and effectively abandon the consumer market to rivals, including Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Chen has made substantial job and cost cuts since he was brought into the company 10 months ago to pilot it back to profitability after a failed attempt to sell it to private equity buyers.
Under Chen, costs of sales, marketing and administration have more than halved since the previous quarter, while research and development costs of $186m were almost half those of a year ago.
But that could not make up for falling revenues in services, such as providing secure communications for customers. Revenues from handset sales grew only slightly from the previous quarter, and at $417m were almost half that of a year ago.
Since taking over, Chen has put more emphasis on BlackBerry’s mobile-device management business, a collection of software that allows IT departments to manage different devices connected to their corporate networks.
He has also emphasised messaging service as well as Blackberry’s QNX software systems, which are used for entertainment systems in cars and industrial machines.
theguardian.com
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