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Shares in BlackBerry have dived after it reported an $84m (£55m) loss for the three months to 1 June. The figure was much worse than analysts’ forecasts.
BlackBerry also said it would post an operating loss for the next quarter running to September.
BlackBerry shares closed down 28% in New York.
Shipments of new smartphones increased, but BlackBerry did not release how many handsets running BB10 were sold in the quarter which is a troubling sign for investors considering that this marked the first full quarter that the devices were available.
In the earnings call that followed, the company revealed that about 40% of smartphone shipments were BlackBerry 10 devices, meaning it shipped (not sold) just 2.7 million BlackBerry 10 devices in the quarter.
CEO Thorstein Heins said the company was continuing to focus on the global roll-out of BB10 and was confident it would be a hit with customers.
“We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the Blackberry 10 platform and Blackberry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions,” he said.
He added that the group would be increasing investments to support the roll-out of new products and services over the next three quarters.
Revenue rose to $3.1bn in the quarter from $2.8bn a year earlier.
Analysts had been keen to see the numbers for the BlackBerry Z10, as it was the first full quarter that the device had been on sale in the United States.
BlackBerry said that it had shipped 6.8 million phones overall in its first quarter versus 7.8 million in the same three-month period last year.
“It doesn’t bode well for the initial BlackBerry 10 launch, particularly the Z10. But even the outlook for a second-quarter loss doesn’t bode well for the Q10 either,” said Brian Colello, an analyst with Morningstar.
Daniel Ernst from Hudson Square Research said the company fell between two camps.
“They’re not the high-end provider any more, they’re not Apple. They’re not the low-end provider, they’re not Nokia. So they are in the middle and they do relatively low volumes,” he said.
“It’s difficult to make great margins on that kind of volume, so I would say the outlook is quite negative.”
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