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BlackBerry Says It's Done Designing and Building Its Own Phones (theverge.com)
BlackBerry today reported its fiscal second-quarter sales and said that it will stop making its iconic smartphones and focus on its software business. The Verge adds: BlackBerry has announced that it plans to stop making its own phones as the struggling company continues to focus on its software and security products. This is far from the end of BlackBerry devices, the production of which will be outsourced to third-party manufacturers -- as was the case with the company's recent DTEK 50, a clone of Alcatel's Idol 4 with BlackBerry branding. "The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners," said CEO John Chen in a statement. Elsewhere he stated: "We are reaching an inflection point with our strategy. Our financial foundation is strong, and our pivot to software is taking hold." This isn't surprising news considering BlackBerry's ongoing struggle in the mobile market. According to estimates from Gartner, the company claimed just 0.1 percent of the market in the second quarter, equating to sales of some 400,400 units. The last BlackBerry phone manufactured by the company was the Priv, the company's first Android-powered device, released November last year.
Thankfully, they've ported the hub (and other tools such as the virtual keyboard) to android, and they're available on the play store. I've been using them for some time now - and the $1/month subscription fee is quite reasonable for what it gives me. I love the blackberry virtual keyboard, and the hub is far better than any other alternative that I've seen.
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the results for this quarter were clearer: a net loss of $372 million on revenue of $334 million.
So, for every dollar of revenue, they spent that dollar, plus more than more than another dollar. If that's the definition of a strong financial foundation, give me your credit cards and I'll make you WONDERFULLY strong. They must be using graduates from the Trump University's school of accounting.
They have, according to their balance sheet, $3 Billion in cash and short-term investments and about $3 Billion in liabilities, half of which is long-term debt. So, they aren't going bankrupt for at least 5 years with the current burn rate. I'm guessing that dropping in house development of phones will reduce the burn rate quite a bit. So, their financial foundation would be considered solid for at least the next couple of years. However, if they don't return the company to profitability within that time, things could get worse.
Note: The above is purely my opinion. I am not a financial analyst.