BlackBerry’s move to become a software only company appears to be paying off. The latest earnings call shows better than expected earnings. BlackBerry has also announced that it will be looking to expand its licensing deals to more devices.
The company saw a total revenue of $297 million (about RM1.3 billion) for the year 2016; which was slightly higher than the $289 (about 1.28 billion) million that analysts were expecting. BlackBerry stocks closed 11 percent higher after the news was made known to the financial sector.
This increase in revenue comes after the company announced that it will no longer be involved in the manufacture of hardware. Instead, it has entered into partnerships with companies like BB Merah Putih and TCL to license the BlackBerry brand.
Going forward, it looks like BlackBerry will be entering into a new phase of the licensing strategy. The company will be expanding the number of companies it works with, and is aiming to address the growing need for secure devices in the internet-of-things.
There’s no telling what other devices are being included in this expansion. All BlackBerry has said is that it is “pursuing additional endpoints which could include tablets, wearables, medical devices, appliances, point-of-sale terminals and other smartphones.”
It’s more likely that any new deals will have more to deal with enterprise customers rather than the general consumer. BlackBerry has traditionally aimed its business towards other business users. Although, it might be interesting to see what the company can do about securing the IoT.
[Source: Reuters, BlackBerry]
