BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is very much optimistic about the new device Passport, more popular for its unique shape. The company began taking pre-orders for the device on September 24, and it took very less time for the company to cross 200,000 orders. A communications technology analyst with Canaccord Genuity Michael Walkley says that the popularity can prove to be harmful for the company.
Limited supply to impact sales
Passport is not supplied by the company in sufficient quantities, and hence the sales are bound to be delayed. Thus he has lowered the financial estimates he had made for the company for fiscal year 2015.
“Given the limited initial supply of the Passport combined with slightly longer-than typical component procurement and manufacturing cycle time for this unique form factor device, combined with Blackberry recognizing hardware revenue on a sell-through basis versus shipments into the channel, we lower our Q3/F’15 and 2H (second half)/F’15 BB10 (BlackBerry 10) hardware revenue estimates,” wrote Walkley in his report.
Passport phones, which are an important catalyst for bringing back the company to the hardware sector, will be available in limited quantities as informed by the wireless surveys conducted by Canaccord Genuity. The estimates made by Walkley are based on the survey results only.
Many catalyst for BlackBerry
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) will be able to meet the demand for Passport by 2016, and Walkley believes that this will bring about a financial turnaround for the company. Analyst expects lower sales for the lower margin hardware business for the third-quarter of 2015 and beyond, but with the launch of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 12 (BES12) in November, Walkley expect things to improve. Also, analyst is optimistic on the software sales of the company, and believes the Canadian firm could gain non-GAAP profitability by the second half of fiscal 2016
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) the one-time leader in the smartphone market has fallen drastically in last few year. It reached the verge of getting finished completely, and struggled to shake off that mage in 2012 and 2013. Passport and other devices are an effort to get back in the race, but to be successful the Canadian firm need to get the supply in order.
