After more than a year of disappointing smartphone hardware sales, embattled behemoth BlackBerry may be preparing to wash its hands of that sector later this month. According to a report in the Motley Fool, the Waterloo, Canada-based company may announce an exit from the market as soon as September 28, the day before it releases earnings for this year’s second quarter.
The writing is on the wall. BlackBerry’s smartphones command less than 1 percent of the global market; its hardware division accounts for more than 65 percent of its research and development expenses; and Wall Street analysts project that, on its current trajectory, the company will lose money in 2017 and 2018. At a shareholder meeting in June, CEO John Chen said he didn’t “personally believe devices [were] going to be the future of any company,” and that he’d make a call in September about whether or not BlackBerry would continue to invest in smartphones.

Chen emphasized that the company’s short-term success in the sector — or lack thereof — would determine its fate. “The device business must be profitable — we don’t want to run a business that drags on the bottom line,” he said. “It’s time for us to get to the profitability … we’ve got to get there this year.”

An update on that decision is expected at the company’s upcoming investor call.
Perhaps tellingly, BlackBerry has launched a sitewide sale on all cases, chargers, batteries, and audio products for its existing handset line, the midrange DTEK50 and pricier Priv. It is selling accessories at a reduced price until September 27 — the day before its second quarter call.

In July, BlackBerry told U.S. carriers including Verizon and AT&T that all devices running BlackBerry 10 would be discontinued in the near future. And earlier in theyear, it halted production of its Classic cellphone model. (The decision disproportionately affected U.S. Senate staffers, more than 28 percent of whom reportedly use a BlackBerry phone).
The Motley Fool reported that underperforming hardware is to blame for the winddown. BlackBerry’s Priv, which launched in November of last year, contributed to disappointing first-quarter device sales of 500,000 units — a dip from the 2.1 million the firm sold during the same period in 2014. Analysts blamed its sky-high price tag of $700, which Chen acknowledged was a misstep. “[The Priv is] unfortunately too high-end and is not moving as fast as we’d like,” he said. “Our phones are not in high demand”

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/blackberry-smartphone-business-exit/#ixzz4L3pCV3kJ

Hian!

grayht:
Hian!

Another one bites the dust. Nokia still fresh in our memory.