BlackBerry, to save itself from its declining share of the handset market, is focusing on enterprise mobility software and services. However, even in that business, the Canadian firm is not performing well.
BlackBerry losing in growing market
According to the latest statistics from market research firm IDC, BlackBerry witnessed a 16.7% revenue decline in enterprise mobility management software market last year. Because of this, its market share fell from 14.5% in 2013 to 9.5% in 2014. BlackBerry was the only major seller which saw a decline in the growing market. The overall market witnessed growth of 27.2% from $1.1 billion in 2013 to $1.4 billion in 2014.
EMM vendors who registered a year-over-year revenue growth last year were SAP (4.5% growth), IBM (10.7%), MobileIron (26.2%), Citrix (47.2%), Good Technology (55.3%), and AirWatch by VMware (78%).
As the market is segregated and highly competitive, it’s still anyone’s game for now. At the end of 2014, the market share for AirWatch was 11.4%. Good enjoyed a 9.7% share, Mobileiron was at 9.2%, Citrix commanded 8.1%, SAP had 8%, and IBM was at 4.9%. And 38.2% of the market was covered by the rest of the vendors, says the IDC report.
Crook, research director of mobile enterprise at IDC, said that with so many companies in the market and such big changes year after year, all companies have a chance to win. “Growth results from 2014 demonstrate that no vendor can afford to rest on its laurels in this space,” said Crook.
Chen pleased with numbers
BlackBerry might be down on the list of IDC, but for the latest quarter, the Canadian firm more than doubled its software revenue. Even though BlackBerry posted a quarterly loss, it is growing in the software segment as it continues to ink partnerships and improve platforms. For the quarter, the Canadian firm posted a loss of 5 cents per share, compared a loss of 11 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Revenue for the quarter came in at $658 million, versus $966 million last year.
For some time, analysts and investors have been concerned about the Canadian’s firms transformation to more of a software and services provider from a hardware firm. However, CEO John Chen, who is “pleased with where we are,” believes the company has the potential to revive its handset business.
On Monday, BlackBerry shares closed down 3.27% at $8.29, and year to date, the stock is down by almost 25%.
