The BlackBerry Z10 hasn't been anywhere near successful enough
BlackBerry has admitted its BlackBerry 10 OS smartphones failures, after the company’s third quarter earnings announcement.
The Canadian smartphone manufacturer announced a third quarter net loss of $4.4 billion (£2.7 billion), including a huge write-down of assets.
Along with the huge net loss, the company’s revenues dropped by 56 per cent for the quarter from $2.73 million (£1.67 million) to $1.9 million (£1.16 million).
At its peak, BlackBerry was the top mobile phone manufacturer in the market, but has struggled to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
During the company’s third financial quarter, it only managed to sell 1.9 million phones, compared to 3.7 million the previous quarter.
The BlackBerry 10 OS and its new flagship smartphones, the BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Z10, were meant to completely rejuvenate the brand and entice more customers to move from Android and iOS.
However, the BB10 smartphones were continually delayed and failed to lure enough customers to support the struggling manufacturer.
“The most immediate challenge for the company is how to transition the devices operations to a more profitable business model”, said new BlackBerry CEO, John Chen.
BlackBerry has now signed a five-year deal with Foxconn, the world’s larger electronics manufacturer. The two companies will develop and manufacture select new BlackBerry products, with Foxconn looking after the inventory.
“This partnership demonstrates BlackBerry’s commitment to the device market for the long-term and our determination to remain the innovation leader in secure end-to-end mobile solutions,” added Chen.
“Partnering with Foxconn allows BlackBerry to focus on what we do best – iconic design, world-class security, software development and enterprise mobility management – while simultaneously addressing fast-growing markets leveraging Foxconn’s scale and efficiently that will allow us to compete more effectively.”
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