BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) is offering a good reason to all its loyal customers for stocking up on original accessories. Interested buyers can buy the accessories for a 40% discount on their retail prices until September 27. It kind of a late back-to-school sale, notes Mobile Syrup.
Big discount on selected accessories
BlackBerry is offering 24 products on discounts for its new devices: the Android-powered DTEK50 and PRIV, and the Leap, Passport and Classic. The PRIV Sync Pod Nest is priced the lowest at $8.99, while the Priv Leather Smart Flip Case is priced the highest at $41.99.
In October 2015, CEO John Chen said that if the company failed to turn profitable in a year, it would exit the hardware market. The deadline is approaching, and speculations that the Canadian firm will say goodbye to the hardware business forever are also on the rise.
In an assessment, Seeking Alpha pointed towards two data points. The first is the reduced price of BlackBerry’s Android-based DTEK 50, which rolled out in August. The phone was available on Amazon.com for a sale price of $335 but now is available for $299. Reducing the prices of handsets is a common trend among handset makers, but this cut has come within a few weeks of the launch.
The second point is that the Canadian firm is offering massive discounts on accessories. The company is offering discounts of up to 40% on the accessories, and the offer ends Sept. 27 – a day before it announces its second quarter results. This serves as more evidence for Seeking Alpha to conclude that BlackBerry might make an announcement in conjunction with its earnings report.
Will BlackBerry exit the hardware market?
BlackBerry has had several missteps with the Priv, sp it wouldn’t be surprising if it exits the hardware market. The company had too high of expectations with the Priv and thought it would mark its re-entrance into the mobile phone world, but the device carried a premium price tag, which proved a turn-off for most buyers.
Then the Canadian firm tried to drive demand with a reduced price, but even that didn’t help much. Then it launched the DTEK50, cramming a lot of security features into the new Android device in hopes that the features will help it stand out from the pack. The company is offering the device for an attractive price of $300 but has not said much about its performance since its launch.
BlackBerry will report results for the second quarter of fiscal 2017 on September 28. It will hold a conference call and live webcast as well, beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern.
