Blackberry CEO Announces That The Company Will No Longer Make Phones

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Once a giant in the world of phones, Blackberry has been losing ground ever since Apple and Samsung took over with their fancy new technology. They have been teeter-tottering ever since, and now unable to cope with the cut-throat competition, Canada’s BlackBerry has finally made the much-expected decision of stopping the manufacturing of hardware altogether. Instead, Blackberry will now focus mainly on its software and services business. Blackberry CEO John Chen said in the company’s latest financial statement, “The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners.”Even BlackBerry’s latest phone, the DTEK50, was outsourced to Alcatel. So it seems as Blackberry had made this decision a long time ago, and it is only now making it official. But the CEO says its change in approach is already paying dividends.

Pic Credits: androidauthority
Pic Credits: androidauthority

“In Q2, we more than doubled our software revenue year over year and delivered the highest gross margin in the company’s history. We also completed initial shipments of BlackBerry Radar, an end-to-end asset tracking system, and signed a strategic licensing agreement to drive global growth in our BBM consumer business,” he said in the statement.

Although the company hasn’t made any announcements on the next Blackberry phone, but whenever it will be made the hardware will be provided by the Indonesia-based BB Merah Putih, which currently is the company’s only announced hardware partner.

Blackberry once had nearly 40 percent of the global smartphone market, but its slow, rigid and clumsy reaction towards the revolution of Apple’s iOS and Android led to its decline. The launch of a problem-ridden Z10 in 2013, its first phone without a physical keyboard, and forgoing the BlackBerry OS in 2015 for a modified version of Android probably was the last nail in the coffin.

Pic Credits: telecommonthly
Pic Credits: telecommonthly

The company claims that this change has indicated a turnaround for the enterprise, but it will take a lot more if they want to get even close to their once claimed market share.

What are your views on Blackberry’s decision of ending hardware manufacturing altogether? Let us know in the comments’ section below!

4 comments

  1. Moimae21 Reply

    It is sad to say that blackberry terminate the handset division. But it is also a good call to save the company and stay with software development. Maybe next time they can create a new line of smartphones with a great security features.

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