John Chen is attempting to re-focus BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) to its core strengths of Enterprise support through software and hardware. The company ended 2014 with not much hype in the consumer market. Gartner’s market share report for 3Q14 estimated Blackberry’s smartphone market share at less than a percent to 2.41 million units compared to 1.8% share or 4.4 million units in the prior year quarter. During the same period, smartphones sales grew by 20%.
It will be interesting to see how BlackBerry plays through 2015 to improve its market presence and financial position. The company might be expecting resurgence to pick up with BB10 platform and new hardware starting with the Z10 handset. Besides consumer market, the company is also eying on government contracts, including its recent announcement to join hands with Boeing to develop spy phones.
While BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) reported 13.5% QoQ drop in its 3Q15 revenue, it also posted a small profit for the quarter. Chen may use this profitability to boost the workforce in 2015 while continuing a strategic search for a sustainable niche for the company as a whole.
Stuart Jeffrey, a Nomura analyst, believes that the company could be on track to financial recovery given its transition to enterprise mobility management solutions from consumer handset manufacturer. However, he also pointed at lower than expected 3Q15 revenues which make it difficult to predict how this Canadian company will behave in 2015.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s majority revenue comes from the Enterprise Software Services, while hardware remains the most visible part of its revival. Smartphone sales are not growing for the company and its free upgrades and promotional licenses will start expiring in February 2015. Hence, much of the hopes rely on Chen’s strategic genius and a path he has carved out to generate modest profits and turnover.
