BlackBerry turnaround a mirage, shares tumble 28%

Reuters : TORONTO, Fri Jun 28 2013, 21:20 hrs

< /div>

BlackBerry offered few signs of a long-promised turnaround on Friday, with an unexpected quarterly operating loss, a dearth of details on sales of its make-or-break new line of devices and no return to profit expected in the current quarter. BlackBerry shares tumbled about 28 percent in both US and Toronto trading.

The Canadian smartphone maker, which has struggled to compete against Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy phones and other devices powered by Google's Android operating system, said smartphone sales were up 13 percent from the previous quarter, a period when buyers waited for the BB10 phones to hit the market.

But deliveries are down from a year ago as sales of its older line of BlackBerry devices taper off.

"We haven't received the BlackBerry 10 unit numbers yet, but certainly it doesn't bode well for the initial BlackBerry 10 launch, particularly the Z10. But even the outlook for a Q2 loss doesn't bode well for the Q10 either," said Brian Colello, an analyst with Morningstar.

BlackBerry launched two all-new smartphones this year, the touch screen Z10 device, followed by the Q10, which includes the mini keyboard many BlackBerry users still covet.

It has also launched the Q5, a lower-end keyboard device targeted at emerging markets, and plans to unveil one more cheaper phone running on its old BlackBerry 7 platform later this year, hoping to stave off market share losses in price- sensitive emerging markets flooded with cheap Android devices.

BlackBerry invented the concept of on-the-go email with clunky little devices with a mini keyboard. It offered levels of security that made the devices attractive to the business, government and legal clients, but they are now moving to other devices and leaving BlackBerry chasing both a high-end and a low-end market.

"They're not the high-end provider anymore, they're not Apple, they're not the low-end provider, they're not Nokia, so they are in the middle and they do relatively low volumes," said Daniel Ernst, of Hudson Square Research in New York.

... contd.

ALSO READ

The technology centers on donut-shaped laser light beams called optical vortices. (Reuters)

New fibre optic technology can boost Internet bandwidth

A Google Android figurine sits on the welcome desk as employee Tracy McNeilly smiles at the new Google office in Toronto. (Reuters)

Google Inc developing Android videogame console: report

NASA launched a satellite late Thursday on a mission to explore a little-studied region of the sun. (Agencies)

NASA launches sun-watching satellite from US

CEOs of top technology companies hailed the passage of the comprehensive immigration reform bill. (Reuters)

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco hail US immigration bill

Please read our terms of use before posting comments

TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEVSjo9Q-V_lw9up7_RsVjyufDhFg&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/blackberry-turnaround-a-mirage-shares-tumble-28-/1135194/