Ending months of mobile industry speculation, BlackBerry announced that its board of directors has formed a committee to explore “strategic alternatives” for the future of the company. BlackBerry said that these could include partnerships, joint ventures or a sale of the struggling Canadian company.
BlackBerry has been losing market share for years, and saw disappointing sales even after releasing its much-hyped BlackBerry Z and Q smartphones earlier this year with the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system. The company announced that it shipped 6.8 million smartphones from March through May of this year, but only sold 2.7 million phones running the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, contributing to a US$84 million loss.
While BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has put on an optimistic face throughout, industry analysts and shareholders have expressed concern.
“It is very clear that BlackBerry 10 isn’t a success after all, and won’t save the company,” says Francisco Jeronimo, research director at analyst firm IDC. “I believe the only option it has is to sell the company, because I don’t think there is anyone willing to license BlackBerry 10.”
BlackBerry’s worldwide smartphone market share in the second quarter was just 2.9 percent, compared with 4.9 percent during the same period in 2012, according to IDC.
But while smartphone sales decline, BlackBerry still has some assets to entice potential buyers or partners. The company has a huge patent portfolio, its recently acquired QNX embedded division is a mature business, its secure BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) email server and device manager is still widely deployed in enterprises, and now supports Android and iOS devices.
Also, recently BlackBerry has taken several steps to make its software work better with Apple’s iOS and Android, including making BlackBerry Messenger compatible with smartphones based on the two operating systems, and its cheaper BlackBerry phones continue to sell well in less developed mobile markets, notes IT blog The Register.
Cnet also speculates that BlackBerry may even find potential buyers in China or Korea.
