Blackberry has reported revenues of $548m for the three months to November – 12% higher than the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
It was the struggling smartphone maker’s first quarter-on-quarter increase for more than two years.<\/p>\n
The better-than-expected results give the Canadian company some hope that its turnaround plan is working.<\/p>\n
Revenue was 31% lower than for the same period last year, but losses narrowed to $89m compared with a $148m deficit a year ago.<\/p>\n
Chief executive John Chen said he was pleased with progress, as growth in enterprise software gained momentum and revenue rose across its “areas of focus”.<\/p>\n
“Blackberry has a solid financial foundation, and we are executing well,” he said.<\/p>\n
Revenue from software – a figure being closely watched by analysts – more than doubled to $162m compared with the same quarter last year.<\/p>\n
“Blackberry hit a software number that investors have been looking for them to hit for quite some time,” said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.<\/p>\n
Total software revenue for the first three quarters reached about $362m – within striking range of the $500m forecast for the full financial year to February.<\/p>\n
Last month, the company launched a new smartphone called the Priv, the first to run on the Android platform rather than its own operating system.<\/p>\n
The majority of the world’s smartphones run on the Google-developed Android.<\/p>\n
Blackberry said the Priv combined Blackberry-level security with access to the 1.6 million apps in the Google Play app store.<\/p>\n
Mr Chen said the device had been well received and would be available on more mobile networks globally next year.<\/p>\n
Blackberry aims to sell five million of the handsets a year. The Priv costs about $700\/\u00a3580 without a contract, putting it in line with the iPhone and premium Android devices.<\/p>\n
The company sold 700,000 devices in the third quarter, down 100,000 from the previous quarter, but average selling prices rose from $240 to $315.<\/p>\n
Shares in Blackberry closed up 10.4% in New York at $8.61, but the stock is still down more than a fifth this year.<\/p>\n
The company is valued at just $4.1bn. In comparison Apple is worth more than $600bn.<\/p>\n
–
\nSource: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blackberry has reported revenues of $548m for the three months to November – 12% higher than the previous quarter. It was the struggling smartphone maker’s first quarter-on-quarter increase for more than two years. The better-than-expected results give the Canadian company some hope that its turnaround plan is working. Revenue was 31% lower than for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":175923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[18],"yoast_head":"\n