BlackBerry smartphones, once a symbol of corporate and political power, show symptoms of losing the handset war.
BlackBerry’s Bleak Results
BlackBerry halted trading of its shares last Friday afternoon only to announce that it would lay off 4,500 employees i.e. almost 40 percent of its workforce worldwide. Moreover, the company anticipates a net operating loss of between $950 million and $995 million in the quarter ended August 31. Shares plunged by 20 percent when trading resumed.
Current Market Scenario
According to the research firm Gartner, BlackBerry represented 51 percent of the North American smartphone market about four years ago. However, the company had been struggling to regain market share from Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy Phones.
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| BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins |
What brought about the recent demise
The company had assumed its fate will turn around after the launch of the Z10 touchscreen device- the first smartphone powered by BlackBerry 10 operating system. Unfortunately, Z10 phones failed to enthuse customers. Moreover, failure of this line of phones led to speculation that the company would eventually break apart and thus, corporate and government IT departments have refrained from committing to BlackBerry 10 phones.
BlackBerry close to an end
BlackBerry executives are now considering exploring strategic alternatives. However, the company’s move to cut jobs and probability of incurring further losses will definitely make it difficult to find potential buyers.
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