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(NYT) BlackBerry to Sell Android-Based Smartphone
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OTTAWA — BlackBerry said on Friday that it would offer a smartphone based on Google’s Android operating system rather than its own software. While the decision appeared to be an admission of defeat for the BlackBerry 10, the company said it was still proceeding with an update for its own software as well.
The announcement came as the company released a larger-than-expected loss of $66 million, excluding accounting adjustments, or 13 cents a share for its second quarter. Analysts had been expecting a loss of 9 cents a share.
Revenue was $490 million compared with $916 million during the same period a year ago.
A lack of apps created for BlackBerry 10 phones has often been cited as a reason for their general lack of success.
The new Android phone will be called the Priv, an allusion to “privacy.”
“Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform,” John S. Chen, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Revenue was $490 million compared with $916 million during the same period a year ago.
A lack of apps created for BlackBerry 10 phones has often been cited as a reason for their general lack of success.
The new Android phone will be called the Priv, an allusion to “privacy.”
“Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform,” John S. Chen, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.
While Mr. Chen said he hoped to make the company more focused on selling software instead of phones, that point appeared to remain some way off. During the quarter, software and related services accounted for just 15 percent of revenue while hardware contributed 41 percent. The remaining 43 percent came from monthly fees generated by older generations of BlackBerry phones for services on the company’s proprietary network.
Mr. Chen said the company expected “modest sequential revenue growth in each of the remaining quarters of fiscal 2016.”