BlackBerry cancels two phones and BlackBerry Live 2014 event to save money

By Trevor Mogg December 24, 2013

BlackBerry Q10 review top front — Image used with permission by copyright holder

A snippet of information in BlackBerry’s recently published Q3 earnings report reveals the mobile maker has had to cancel two handsets that were in development in order to make much needed savings. Other money-saving measures for the mobile company reportedly include the cancelation of its BlackBerry Live 2014 conference, which was scheduled to take place in May.

Noted by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, the information in the earnings report stated that the Waterloo, Ontario company had decided to “cancel plans to launch two devices to mitigate the identified inventory risk.”

The phones, reportedly low-cost devices aimed at emerging markets, were codenamed Café and Kopi, though it’s not known how close they were to launch or how much time and money had been invested in their development.

The news ties in with interim CEO John Chen’s comments on Friday when he told investors during an earnings call that its designers in North America would focus on enterprise devices, indicating a move – possibly temporary – away from consumer phones, with the Journal’s report adding that BlackBerry is currently working on the development of two high-end handsets codenamed Ontario and Windermere.

However, despite the two cancelations, BlackBerry seems intent on going ahead with the manufacture of at least one other low-cost handset in the coming months, the result of a recent deal with Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Foxconn. The BB10 phone is expected to sell in Indonesia – a market where BlackBerry remains popular – and should launch in March or April.

BlackBerry’s financial figures for Q3, posted Friday, showed a colossal $4.4 billion loss for the business. While it sold 3.2 million BlackBerry 7 phones during the three-month period, its newer BlackBerry 10 devices performed less well, with just over a million sales recorded.

Chen’s mission to steady the BlackBerry ship is a task certainly not for the faint-hearted, though the interim boss thinks that by focusing the business on four main areas – handsets, enterprise mobility management solutions, cross-platform messaging, and embedded systems – he has at least a fighting chance, and expects to return BlackBerry to profitability in fiscal 2016.

Editors' Recommendations

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Mobile

BlackBerry is better off dead

BlackBerry Key2 LE Hands On

I haven't seen anyone use a BlackBerry since my freshman year of high school. In fact, I thought the BlackBerry had already died by the time everyone got their hands on the iPhone and/or an Android smartphone in 2011 and I was shocked to learn that the minuscule PDA-like device was still around last month when the company that shares its name decommissioned calling and messaging services for the classic models and rendered them useless. Its death was confirmed when OnwardMobility lost the rights to the BlackBerry name despite its attempts to resurrect the brand with the BlackBerry 5G, which suffered multiple delays in 2021.

Despite being one of the most popular mobile devices in the 2000s next to the T-Mobile-exclusive Sidekick, BlackBerry didn't survive the smartphone era, even though it triggered the advent of smartphones starting with the iPhone. Given its PDA-esque design, it wasn't suitable enough to be turned into a smartphone — or, at the very least, the culturally accepted definition of a smartphone: All touchscreen, no physical QWERTY keyboard. Because of its failure to adapt to the growing smartphone market dominated solely by touchscreens, not to mention the lack of updates for the newer, surviving models — like the BlackBerry Key2 — the BlackBerry as a device is better off dead for all intents and purposes.

Mobile

The BlackBerry Key2 shows why software updates really matter

BlackBerry Key2 keyboard.

When BlackBerry shut down crucial services for its old operating system at the beginning of the year, I had a sudden nostalgic urge to take out the Android-based BlackBerry Key2 and see how it performs in 2022. After all, there isn’t much like it these days, and perhaps for all those coming from a now-dead BlackBerry Curve or a Q10 may be considering a jump over to one?

What I discovered is that although the phone may not have been affected by the Blackberry services shutdown, it’s hobbled by something far more insidious: A complete lack of Android updates.
Desirable hardware
The first hour or so with it reminded me what an utter delight the BlackBerry Key2 is, as a phone. It’s almost nothing like any other mainstream phone you can buy today due to the physical keyboard under the screen, which remains a marvel to use. However, it really needs a lot of getting used to. I spent time training myself to type at a sensible speed when the Key2 was released, but my finger muscles have forgotten all that, so I stiffly tapped out words at a snail’s pace for a start.

Mobile

A new BlackBerry with a keyboard is still on the schedule for 2022

BlackBerry Key2 LE review

A new BlackBerry phone is still in the cards for 2022, according to hardware partner OnwardMobility. Following a breakup with TCL in 2020, BlackBerry partnered with the little-known Texas company OnwardMobility to launch a new phone in 2021. After missing that launch period, the Onward Mobility team shared an update this week, letting BlackBerry enthusiasts know that their phone was still coming.

"Everyone has eagerly awaited additional information following our last announcement, but 2021 was truly a challenging year to launch a new phone, much less one with the high expectations we set and the fact that we want to get it right!" the OnwardMobility team wrote, "While we encountered various delays that prevented us from shipping in 2021, we will be providing more regular updates starting this month that will clarify and answer many of your questions about the ultra-secure 5G enterprise smartphone (still with a keyboard!) we’re bringing to market."