At BlackBerry, The Sky Continues To Fall
December 20, 2013
After another miserable year, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that BlackBerry chose the Friday before Christmas to announce its latest financial results. For the quarter ending Nov. 30, BlackBerry’s revenues were down 56 percent year over year, and 24 percent from the previous quarter. In total, the Canadian company lost $4.4 billion.
Once a market leader in mobile technology, BlackBerry has seen sales drop in recent years thanks to the rising fortunes of Apple and Google. In the last quarter, the company continued to hemorrhage -- both money and customers.
For the quarter, BlackBerry sold 1.5 million fewer smartphones than it did previously. In total, it sold 1.9 million smartphones from September through November, compared to 3.7 million for the quarter ending July 31.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry’s cash on hand has fallen to $3.2 billion.
The one bright spot for Blackberry is that more than 40 million users have signed up for BlackBerry Messenger since its launch. The software is preinstalled on a number of Android-based devices, and is also available for iOS devices.
Following an aborted attempt to sell the company, BlackBerry fired long-time CEO Thorsten Heins earlier this year. The most recent financials were the first since former Sybase chief John S. Chen replaced Heins.
See also: BBM For iOS To Get New Major Features Including BBM Voice, BBM Channels And More, and President Obama Still Uses His BlackBerry Rather Than An iPhone For 'Security Reasons'.
