It seems like we hear more reports about BlackBerry’s revival every week, although those of us who live in the United States may not see it much in our everyday lives. It turns out there’s a good reason for this: Sales of new BlackBerry 10 devices have reportedly been middling in the U.S. while having much stronger showings in other countries. Barron’s points us to a new research note from RBC Capital analyst Mark Sue, who says that BlackBerry 10 demand “appears to be mixed by region” with “Canada, the U.K. and the Middle East… seeing the strongest BB10 sell-through.” In the U.S., however, Sue says that “BlackBerry has a diminished consumer presence” and is “seeing slower sell-through.” Adoption of BlackBerry in the U.S. may increase as more corporate IT departments upgrade their users to BlackBerry 10, Sue added.
BlackBerry’s comeback efforts are now fully underway, but the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 are just the beginning. According to a new report from Digitimes, BlackBerry still plans to launch as many as four additional BlackBerry 10 smartphones before 2013 is over. We already know the recently announced BlackBerry Q5 will be among the new handsets BlackBerry is prepping for the second half of 2013, and recent rumors suggest the BlackBerry A10 will launch in November as a sequel to the full-touch Z10. That still leaves one to two additional BlackBerry phones that will launch later this year according to Digitimes’ unnamed supply chain sources, though no details on the mysterious handsets were reported.
Spying claims are spreading and escalating across the globe, from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. The latest big Guardian exposé claims that the U.K. government spied on G20 summit meeting guests in London using various methods. These reportedly included penetrating the security of BlackBerry phones and setting up internet cafes with key-logging software. The report actually shows a purported government document excerpt: “What are our recent successes? BlackBerry at G20 – delivered messages to analysts during the G20 in near real-time.” It’s a little eerie to see super spies adopt startup pitch language and tone. More →
BlackBerry boasts that its operating system has the ability to run Android apps, although the current version of BlackBerry 10 only works with apps from Android 2.3 Gingerbread and earlier. BlackBerry users are about to get a whole lot more apps to choose from, however, because the company on Thursday announced that BlackBerry 10.2 will finally add support for Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which will give BlackBerry users access to apps that are more recent than the builds most Android devices are running. A beta release of the new BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and Plug-in for Android Development Tools was made available to developers, but BlackBerry 10.2 isn’t expected to arrive on devices until later this year. BlackBerry previously announced that the update will also bring support for standard Unicode emojis, multiple alarms, level 1 notifications, reminder timers and more.
Shares of BlackBerry received another small boost on Friday following an upbeat report about the company’s latest smartphone. Maynard Um of Walls Fargo, per AllThingsD, claims that sales of the BlackBerry Q10 are better than expected and could help the company beat Wall Street’s expectations for the fiscal first quarter. The analyst noted that “channel checks” reveal that the Q10 is off to a good start in the United States and is already outpacing the BlackBerry Z10′s launch. He cites the 76 million worldwide loyal BlackBerry users as the key demographic for the smartphone, adding that it “presents a strong upgrade opportunity.” Societe Generale analyst Andy Perkins issued a similar note on Thursday, suggesting sales of the BlackBerry’s new smartphones were higher than expected. The analyst upgraded BlackBerry from a “Sell” rating to a “Buy” with a target price of $17 per share.
Shares of BlackBerry rallied on Thursday on reports that the company’s new smartphones are selling better than expected. Andy Perkins of Societe Generale said, per Barron’s, that his “checks” revealed that the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 sold better in the fiscal Q2 than Wall Street expected. The analyst estimates that BlackBerry will pull in $3.7 billion in sales with a profit of $0.06 per share, up from earlier estimates of $2.7 billion. Perkins forecasts that the Z10 sold more than 4 million units, however Q10 sales aren’t expected to be as high. He explained that despite positive reception, the Q10′s limited availability and recent release means sales were likely closer to a million units, which would give BlackBerry a grand total of more than 5 million BlackBerry 10 devices sold in the past quarter. The analyst upgraded BlackBerry from a “Sell” rating to a “Buy” with a target price of $17 per share, up from $13. BlackBerry’s stock closed 6.49% higher at $14.44 per share.
BlackBerry is expecting big things from its QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry Q10 smartphone. Not everyone is optimistic about the handset’s future, however. Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Shah noted that the Q10 brings fragmentation to the BlackBerry platform “in terms of applications development and availability of apps across different form-factors.” The analyst explained that developers are forced to “specially tweak” their BlackBerry 10 apps that were originally designed for the Z10 to be compatible with the Q10′s 3.1-inch, 720 x 720-pixel display. More →
BlackBerry hasn’t made anything official just yet, but that didn’t stop T-Mobile UK from seemingly spilling the beans and tweeting a release date for BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and Android. BGR scooped the eventual arrival of cross-platform BBM ages ago, but BlackBerry finally confirmed it last month and said its popular messaging service would launch on iOS and Android this summer. According to T-Mobile UK, a firm date has now been set: June 27th. BBM will be free on both competing platforms, and it is unclear exactly what functionality will be carried over from the BlackBerry 10 version. More →
BlackBerry watched as its once dominant enterprise business lost share to the likes of Samsung and Apple over the past few years. The company is now looking to win over new and old business customers alike with its line of BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The BlackBerry Q10 will be the company’s first smartphone to debut on all four major U.S. carriers. The handset features BlackBerry’s signature QWERTY keyboard and is expected to sell better than the all-touch BlackBerry Z10. The company is betting big on the Q10 and recently revealed that 60% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies are currently testing or are already using its new products. More →
BlackBerry Messenger will be available for download on the iPhone and Android smartphones later this summer. According to a BlackBerry executive, however, the popular messaging service could soon be preloaded on rival devices. BlackBerry chief operating officer Kristian Tear revealed in an interview with CNET that the company is in talks with a number of rival handset manufacturers to include the service right out of the box. The executive noted that there is a certain level of interest from other manufacturers, however no specific partners were revealed. There are currently 61 million BlackBerry Messenger users around the world, Tear said, with some 70% using BBM daily. BlackBerry still has a long and difficult road ahead, though, since rival services like cross-platform favorite WhatsApp have accumulated more than 200 million users.
Smartphone fans are in for a busy fall season this year. On top of Apple’s iPhone 5S, Samsung’s Galaxy Note III and the intriguing Moto X, it appears as though BlackBerry also has a new flagship smartphone in store. CNET reports that the BlackBerry A10 will be BlackBerry’s followup to the Z10. Like its predecessor, the A10 will feature a full-touch form factor, though additional details are unknown for the time being. The report claims BlackBerry’s new high-end phone will launch this coming November, and while multiple carriers are expected to support the device, the only one CNET could confirm for the time being is Sprint.
Shipments of Android smartphones are expected to climb to more than 1 billion units annually in 2017, more than twice the 470 million Android phones that shipped last year. Market research firm Canalys on Tuesday issued a new report containing its smartphone forecast for the next five years. Android is clearly the big winner, and its 1 billion units shipped in 2017 will be good for 67.1% of the 1.5 billion smartphones that sell into channels globally. That figure is down slightly from the 67.7% of the market Android controlled in 2012, but the narrow loss in market share won’t benefit top rival Apple. More →
