Friday, July 1, 2016
Pulse ahead earings of Black Berry
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, which makes the BlackBerry line of mobile devices, is poised to report earnings Friday that might mark a revival of sorts.
Shares of BlackBerry rose 3%, to $14.58, in trading Tuesday.
BlackBerry last month released in the U.S. its widely watched Q10 smartphone, which packs a touchscreen along with a physical keyboard.
"This is a continued step in the right direction for BlackBerry," said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. "We're seeing early feedback that this is the BlackBerry people are looking forward to."
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The Q10 comes after the struggling smartphone maker in the spring released its Z10 touchscreen model, a major revamp in a bid to claw back market share from the likes of Samsung Electronics and Apple.
It may be working. BlackBerry may have delivered 7.7 million of its smartphones for the quarter ended in May, compared with 6 million in the preceding quarter, according to a survey of analyst estimates from Bloomberg.
Still, the long-term prognosis is so-so. The company is expected to deliver 25.2 million devices based on its operating system worldwide this year -- down from 34.6 million in 2012 -- and shipments are expected to slip to 22.3 million in 2014, says market researcher Gartner.
Some analysts remain bearish, however.
"Our latest U.S. distribution channel checks show little momentum for the recently launched Q10 and price declines for Z10," Cowen & Company analyst Matthew Hoffman said in a note to clients.
