Last week there was a rumor that BlackBerry could be considering exiting the phone business, and as it turns out, the rumors were true. During the company’s latest financials (via MobileSyrup), the Canadian company has officially announced that they will be exiting the hardware development game.According to BlackBerry CEO John Chen, “The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners. This allows us to reduce capital requirements and enhance return on invested capital.” This came after the company reported its quarterly earnings which saw a $372 million net loss on $334 million in revenue.
Now it should be noted that this doesn’t mean that BlackBerry is completely out of the phone business. The company will just be ending its own hardware development, meaning that future BlackBerry phones will only be BlackBerry phones by name, and that they will most likely be made by other companies who have licensed the brand. This is similar to what Nokia will be doing, and also pretty much what Google has been doing with its Nexus phones and tablets, so it’s not completely unprecedented.
Of course this also means that future BlackBerry phones may no longer feature their signature design or the keyboard that many users have come to know and love, or certain features that have BlackBerry what it is. However at the same time, we have to applaud Chen’s efforts at trying to turn the company around since he took up the mantle of CEO in 2013.
Chen stated that he believes that BlackBerry will continue to live on, but will now focus on their software, so clearly this isn’t the end. “We are reaching an inflection point with our strategy. Our financial foundation is strong, and our pivot to software is taking hold.”
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