Blackberry might have released their last smartphone ever, the Blackberry Priv. However, there’s a solid chance it could surprise all of us and beat the Apple iPhone in sales. The Candian company has declared an 119% rise in revenue over the last quarter in the software and service segment.
Blackberry Also Reported Losses of $89 Million
Things haven’t been easy for Blackberry since Samsung and Apple monopolized the Western smartphone market. The company is taking up a comeback strategy. While their losses show some merit, there’s a lot of work to do.
Blackberry generated a total revenue of $548 million, which is an increase from the $490 million reported in the previous quarter. This quarter makes the firs tin the whole year were there higher software revenue offsetting a fall in monthly service fees from older Blackberry smartphones.
Buying Good Technology Turned Out to Be A Huge Plus
Analysts predict that this revenue rise comes partly from Blackberry’s acquisition of Good Technology. Both companies used to be rivals, and their main focus was making software systems that would allow enterprises and governments to manage data from employee phones and tablets.
Blackberry CEO John Chen did not specify how much of the company’s revenue increase came from the Good Technology acquisition. He did declare that Blackberry software licenses rose 43%, rounding up to $154 million in total.
Blackberry Hardware is Still Struggling
In terms f hardware, which is what made the company notorious in the first place, is still in the pits. Blackberry did not submit any early sales estimates for the Blackberry Priv. This is the first phone to feature Google’s Android OS, which will hopefully help the company overcome their tallest hurdle: the lack of popular apps.
Can the Blackberry Priv Save this Company?
The Priv went on sale just last month, with all three major Canadian carriers offering it and AT&T offering it in the US. Analysts have predicted that this is most likely the last phone the company will make, but Chen declared that this phone might help the company break even and may even turn some profit. The company has declared that they will be keeping options open to remain in the smartphone market.
The Company’s Phones are Losing International Fame
Half of the company’s revenue came from North American sales while it only accounted for 29.6% last year. This goes to show that Blackberry is losing international power in the wireless industry. Sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have fallen to $194 million. This is about half of what they reported at the same time in 2014.
These losses have cost Blackberry a lot of jobs, and a lot of profit. Blackberry has spent $100 million on research and development. Most of this went to research on applying Android to the Blackberry platform.
What’s in Store for Blackberry in the Future?
The sales for the Priv haven’t yet been reported. They might bring us a surprise. It’s been a while since the release of Apple’s latest iPhone. It’s possible that because of this, the Blackberry Priv has a better chance of performing well. The company probably planned this release carefully so that it did not overlap with Samsung or Apple.
Since the company’s profit have surprised some, it’s possible that the device actually sells well. Now with Google’s Android OS, the phone will feature the most popular apps in the platform. This will turn out to be a high selling point for the phone. While it is only available under one carrier in the US, there could be many surprises. It’s too soon to tell if the Blackberry Priv is definitely Blackberry’s swan song, but we can expect at least a little bounce back from the company.
