First it was consumers, but now investors are also turning away from BlackBerry after shares tumbled 28 percent in both US and Toronto weekend trading, on a reported quarterly loss of US$84m.
The loss was for its BlackBerry’s first financial quarter, ended June.
Despite an earlier launch in Australia and some other markets, the Canadian smartphone maker’s all-new Z10 model only hit store shelves in the crucial US market in late March.
Its Q10 device, which sports BlackBerry’s traditional qwerty keyboard – at the cost of a good sized touchscreen -reached the US market after the end of BlackBerry’s fiscal first quarter.
The company shipped 2.7 million Z10 and Q10 phones in the quarter, at the bottom of analysts’ forecasts. It also forecast another operating loss in the current quarter.
Stock in the company had previously gained over 20 percent in value, prior to their latest financial report.
There have been concerns about its BlackBerry 10 line of devices and their penetration into corporate and consumer markets. Despite some signs and good reviews of the products, the news has surprised few as it is taking on industry giants in an Android and iPhone-dominated smartphone landscape.
BlackBerry changed its name from RIMM and brought two much-anticipated and long-delayed smartphones to the market this year with the BlackBerry Z10, a marquee touch-screen smartphone device and the Q10, which features a keyboard. The company struggled to get its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system out the door and ready for the market.
The company did introduce a number of enterprise mobility and security features in the new release, including a scrapping of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, in exchange for a range of mobile services that could manage other devices, in addition to their own phones. These features had the ability to have two modes of business or personal application access on the same phone. BlackBerry also introduced the Q5, a low-cost play for the entry-level end of the phone market.
