BlackBerry Officially Ends Smartphone Production

BlackBerry has announced that it will cease the development and production of mobile phones. This is stated in the company’s financial report for Q2 of the fiscal year 2017 (it ended on the 31 August 2016).

Now the company will devote its efforts to software development only. Hardware production will be outsourced to partners.

“BlackBerry’s intention is to end its hardware production and transfer this process to outsource. This will relax capital requirements and improve the efficiency of invested funds,”- said John Chen, BlackBerry’s CEO. He added that their software business had been growing, as compared to Q2 of 2016 revenues increased by half.

In July 2016 BlackBerry’s outsource partners released the first smartphone. It was DTEK50, created by Alcatel.

Previously, Chen promised that BlackBerry would leave the mobile business if they had failed to find a way to become profitable in that direction, said Recode.

On September 28, BlackBerry reported a net loss of $ 372 million and the on revenue of $ 334 million. Recode stated that the corrected amount of income was $ 352 million, and BlackBerry was “in fact, break-even”.