BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s new Passport smartphone is doing well in terms of sales. The Canadian tech giant’s CEO John Chen reports smartphone already garnered 200,000 orders since Wednesday’s launch.
BlackBerry Passport enjoys strong sales
The new phone actually sold out within the first six hours it launched on the official BlackBerry website and within 10 hours at Amazon. Prior to the latter, the BlackBerry Passport actually the top unlocked smartphone on the website. The strong early start for the new phone offers hope for the company, which is crucial considering how BlackBerry has faltered in a market dominated by high-end smartphones.
The new Passport phone serves as one example of how Chen is transforming the company’s focus back to enterprise. The new phone is aimed as a power phone for business professionals complete with a physical keyboard. This phone makes it easy for people to send emails or send messages. The Passport was also designed to be an ideal phone for those who work in corporations and government agencies.
BlackBerry still struggles financially
Despite the positive news for BlackBerry, the company still isn’t out of the woods yet. The company just announced a significant loss of $207 million during the second quarter. John Chen added, “Our work force restructuring is now complete, and we are focusing on revenue growth with judicious investments to further our leadership position in enterprise mobility and security.”
These results actually cover the same quarter when Chen announced the cutbacks and layoffs at BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) were over. He also claimed the company was starting to grow again and needed to hire more employees for specific areas targeted for growth. Not counting the charges for layoffs or other restrictions and charge related to BlackBerry’s lower values bonds. The tech company’s operation loss during that quarter was $11 million. Only time will tell if BlackBerry makes a successful comeback.
