BlackBerry confirms it will no longer manufacture its own phones, will now focus on software

[midian182]

The difficult times faced by BlackBerry this year have reached an almost inevitable conclusion: the Canadian company has announced that it would stop internal development of its smartphones, and instead focus on software and services while relying on partners to design and build any future hardware.

"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.”," CEO John Chen said in a statement.

The decision marks the end of an era for the company. In 2009, BlackBerry and Nokia were responsible for 70 percent of smartphone operating systems. Today, the company holds around one percent of the market share.

Chen has twice said that BlackBerry would exit the hardware business become a software company only if he could not make it profitable. The company’s second-quarter results showed a net loss of $372 million, or 71 cents per share, on revenue of $334 million.

BalckBerry’s move away from the BB 10 operating system to Android hasn’t been the success it hoped. The company’s first Android device, the Priv, ended up having its price cut in April due to low sales of around 600,000 units since launch. The company is working on other Android devices, including the DTEK60, a successor to the DTEK50 (a clone of the Alcatel Idol 4 with BlackBerry branding).

Back in February, WhatsApp announced that it was dropping support for older operating systems, including BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10. A few months later, Facebook and PayPal revealed they would also be withdrawing support for the platform.

Even the President had enough of the company's devices. In June, Barack Obama finally changed his BlackBerry for an unnamed smartphone.

BlackBerry will live on through its software offerings, and BlackBerry devices will continue to arrive through third-party manufacturers, but 2016 is fast becoming a year to forget for what was once one of the most popular phone manufacturers in the world.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66490-blackberry-confirms-no-longer-manufacture-own-phones-now.html

 

[MoeJoe]

Death to BB.

 

[lripplinger]

I owned two of their phones (I called them "Crackberries"). I had the 8320 and also the 9550 Storm which both sucked. The market has spoken, and Blackberry is gone. Good riddance.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

The STORM
The STORM 2

Blackberry thought they could hold onto their profit by building iPhone clones with their proprietary software and components.

TRASH - all of it.

So they finally woke up and realized that they couldn't compete with Apple iOS or Androids bazillion manufacturers - none of which are noteworthy at all.

Farewell and good riddance.

 

[Ben Myers]

Good luck to Blackberry with its own operating system. Windows Phone seems not to be a success with a 500lb gorilla backing it. If Blackberry has any good sense, it will not reinvent the wheel. With their touting of security, maybe a hardened Android OS? Otherwise, quick! Sell your Blackberry stock.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Not too surprising as their hardware has not been selling well. I've read they've done pretty good on the software side so they might just survive a while yet.