Get ready to dive into a pool of figures and stats, folks, because BlackBerry just announced its official results for the third quarter of fiscal 2014.
The company formerly known as RIM reports that it earned revenue of $1.2 billion for the quarter ending on Nov. 30, which is a drop from the $1.7 billion in revenue that it earned in the previous quarter. BlackBerry also took a GAAP loss of $4.4 billion for Q3 2014, a massive increase from the $965 million loss that it took in Q2 2014. Meanwhile, its adjusted loss from continuing operations finished Q3 at $354 million, which is up from $248 million in the previous quarter.
The Waterloo-based firm says that it earned hardware revenue on 1.9 million smartphones in Q3 2014, which is a drop from 3.7 million in Q2 2014. BlackBerry also notes that most of those were BlackBerry 7-powered devices, not its newer BlackBerry 10 hardware. When it comes to the total number of devices sold to consumers, BlackBerry reports that it managed to move 4.3 million smartphones, approximately 3.2 million of which were BlackBerry 7 products.
Not all of BlackBerry's announcements today were bad news, though. The company reports that it's working on a new organizational structure that consists of Enterprise Services, Messaging, QNX Embedded and Devices divisions. This new structure will allow the firm to focus more on software and services while also creating a "more efficient business model" for its Devices division.
Speaking of software, BlackBerry says that there have been over 40 million newly-registered BBM for iOS and Android users over the past 60 days. Additionally, more than a dozen device makers have agreed to preload BBM onto their hardware, including LG.
BlackBerry also announced a five-year partnership with manufacturing company Foxconn to develop and manufacture "certain new BlackBerry devices." The first goal of this collaboration will be to create a new smartphone targeted at Indonesia and other "fast-growing markets." The device is expected to arrive in 2014.
Looking ahead, BlackBerry CEO John Chen says that his company has put together a "clear roadmap" that will bring better financial performance in the coming year. Chen went on to say that while BlackBerry has accomplished a lot in the past 45 days, it's got a lot of work ahead of it. The exec promises that BlackBerry is still financially strong, though, and that it has a trusted product portfolio, talented employees and a fresh leadership team to help it strike out on its new roadmap.
Overall it looks like BlackBerry had itself another rough quarter. Things have been pretty bumpy for the Canadian device maker lately, including drops in revenue and losses due to unsold Z10 hardware, and the company's situation didn't get better in Q3 2014. Perhaps the most interesting piece of news from today's earnings is that of the 4.3 million smartphones that BlackBerry sold to consumers, 3.2 million were running the company's older BlackBerry 7 OS and not its newer BlackBerry 10 software. That's not something that you like to see after you spend a lot of time and effort to develop a shiny new mobile platform like BlackBerry 10.
BlackBerry is currently holding an earnings call to discuss its Q3 2014 results. I'm listening in and will be sure to keep you updated on any other juicy details that John Chen and Co. share.
UPDATE: BlackBerry CEO John Chen revealed during the company's Q3 2014 call that the first BlackBerry/Foxconn device is codenamed "Jakarta." Chen went on to say that the Jakarta will be a 3G device and that its launch is currently being targeted for March or April, with the latter being the more likely of the two.
Via BlackBerry
