Canadian smartphone manufacturer, BlackBerry, announced its financial results for Q1 2015 earlier today. The results while not entirely positive, prove to be marginally encouraging.
BlackBerry has managed to stem its losses for the most part. Revenues were $966 million which is a 1% drop Quarter on Quarter. The revenue breakdown can be explained as 39% towards hardware, 54% towards services and 7% for software. The company has a cash and investments balance equivalent to $3.1 billion which is up from $2.7 billion in the previous fiscal. The company has managed to reduce operating expenses by 57% year on year.
Device shipments were decidedly low with BlackBerry claiming 2.6 million smartphones sold through to end consumers. The company has also launched its new smartphone ie the BlackBerry Z3 in Indonesia. This will be followed by a launch in 8 additional markets including India. We’ve already reported on BlackBerry’s plans to launch the Z3 in India on 26th July.
The company has also revealed its plan to launch two new devices including the Classic and the Passport. The BlackBerry Windermere as it was code named is a rather interesting device that has a 4.5 inch 1:1 display with a resolution of 1440×1440 pixels. It also includes a small three row keyboard below the touchscreen. The BlackBerry Classic on the other hand is a device more in line with the famed 9220. CEO John Chen had this to say,”Over the past six months, we have focused on improving efficiency in all aspects of our operations to drive cost reductions and margin improvement. Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our return to profitability.”
[Image Credit – CrackBerry]