BlackBerry is targeting breaking even on its hardware...
BlackBerry is targeting breaking even on its hardware business by fiscal 2016 starting in March 2015 as it “focuses on making money” on sales, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Friday on an earnings call. The company, which for years lost…
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money on hardware, signed new manufacturing agreements with Foxconn and Wistron last year, replacing Jabil Circuit as its primary supplier. The first fruits of the new pact with Wistron are expected to arrive this spring with shipments of a new version of the Bold smartphone based on the BlackBerry-7 operating system, Chen said. The Bold, which will retail in international markets for about $200, will ship first in Indonesia, he said. Releasing a new Bold underscores continuing demand for BlackBerry’s original operating system, which remains a strong seller in emerging markets due to a lower price than BlackBerry-10 based models. Most of BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4 shipments were BlackBerry-7-based models. BlackBerry sold 3.4 million smartphones to consumers in fiscal Q4, 2.3 million of which had BlackBerry-7 software, the company said. The new Bold is expected the lead the way for BlackBerry’s lower priced models, which will include the Z3 and Q20, the latter being dubbed the “classic” for its featuring a QWERTY keyboard and track pad.