BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY)’s Passport gets unveiled

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By Mark Michaels on September 24, 2014 Company

Today’s main events include BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY)’s unveiling ceremony of its latest square screened Passport Phone. This is the company’s first ever major launch under its new CEO John Chen who took over in November. Passport goes on sale in the U.K, Germany, Canada, France and the U.S today and is scheduled for launch in 30 other countries by the end of this year.

According to Chen, “When you come out of restructuring, when you come out of financial problems, once you stabilize the company, customers and the market will only respond if you’re innovating again”

After the company’s dwindling smartphone sales and incapacity to maintain financial stability BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY) Ltd. is now set to aim at higher margin services and products for corporations.

Work productivity and efficiency are the key objectives as far as their new Passport phone is concerned, which evidently is the company’s conscious effort to meet consumer needs as the phone has a 4.5 inch screen and a touchpad/physical qwerty keyboard providing a contrast to Apple’s latest iPhone 6.

This launch is said to target the well paid security sensitive industry employees and while some consider it as a breakthrough moment for BlackBerry, others think of it as “just another step”.

The passport’s introductory price in the U.S is $ 599, in the U.K it’s 529 euros, in Germany and France it’s 649 euros and in Canada it’s C$ 699. Chen hopes that this latest launch is going to help the company regain profits. It is also assumed that this effort on BlackBerry’s behalf is actually an effort to break even cash flow by the end of their current fiscal year as 31^st august quarter earnings are expected to show a net loss of $ 120 million on revenue of $ 948.5 million. The second quarter earnings are expected to show better results on the basis of this launch and the company hopes to regain profits when they enter their next fiscal year.

After taking charge of the company Chen cancelled a few devices which were in developmental process but seemed less important in terms of generating revenue and introducing innovation; Chen shifted the company’s focus on this new device which promises so much more in terms of regaining customers.

The fact that many employees have started giving preference to bringing their own devices to work instead of their company bought devices has given a major setback to BlackBerry. This shift in trend has forced the company to take bold steps like outsourcing manufacturing to Foxconn Technology Group and putting their entire focus on selling device management and messaging software to various companies.

Companies are facing cut throat competition in the smartphone market. BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY) shipped 1.5 million smart phones in the quarter that ended on June 30 whereas, Apple sold a record of more than 10 million iPhones last weekend. However, BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY) claims that Passport provides exclusive conveniences like BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY) Assistant, better resolution through which X-ray examinations can be done in a better way and better Excel spreadsheets viewing. Hence Enterprise CEOs and CIOs should give BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAY:BBRY) a second chance.