Even during the recession, new smartphone models caused a stir with thousands queuing worldwide for the launch of Apple’s new iPhone 5. This was also the case with Samsung’s new Galaxy model which received rave reviews from technological experts and has given the Korean firm a huge boost in profits.
Unfortunately this has not been the case for Research in Motion, the creators of the BlackBerry brand. In the three months to the 1st December, it posted a quarterly net profit of $9 million, compared to the same period in 2011 when pre-tax profits reached $265 million. The Canadian company also reported a drop in global subscribers during the quarter for the first time in its history, with subscription numbers falling from 80 million to 79 million.
Revenues for the firm totalled £1.6 billion and, although this figure was better than expected, this means that revenue for the company has fallen by 47 per cent when compared to last year. Industry experts believe that this is because Research in Motion, while still recognised as the pioneers of the smartphone, have failed to keep their operating systems up to date thus opening the playing field to strong competitors such as the Apple and Google Android systems.
Research in Motion will be hoping that new operating system, BlackBerry 10, will put an end to their woes and build up their subscriber base once more. The first smartphones to use this technology will be launched on January 30th and are rumoured to be centred round touch screen formats to better compete with Apple and Samsung.
President and chief executive officer Thorsten Heins remains optimistic about the future despite the worrying tumble in subscribers.
He says; “Research in Motion continued to execute on its product roadmap plans and to deliver on key financial metrics as it gets set for the global launch of BlackBerry 10.
“More than 150 carriers are currently completing technical acceptance programmes for the first BlackBerry 10 products, and beta trials of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are underway at more than 120 enterprises including 64 Fortune 500 companies.
“This is an exciting time and our carrier partners, application developers and employees are all looking forward to unveiling the innovation and excitement of BlackBerry 10 to our customers on 30 January 2013.”
However, many analysts are concerned about BlackBerry’s ability to attract back disillusioned subscribers, especially given the worldwide popularity of the iPhone. Evercore Partners research analyst Mark McKechnie believes that it is the falling subscriber numbers, rather than the drop in profits, that Research in Motion should be truly worried about.
He says; “The one troubling metric is their subscriber base – it came in at 79 million, so they actually lost subscribers this quarter.
“They’ve been able to offset losses in the US by gaining subscribers internationally, but it looks like this quarter they just weren’t able to do that.”
Do you think the launch of a brand new operating system will be enough to detract consumers’ attention away from Google Android and Apple handsets, or has BlackBerry fallen so far behind the trend and technology now to be all but obsolete? Have you ever owned a BlackBerry, or do you own one now – if so, how would you say your handset compares with models made by companies such as Apple or Samsung? Is the smartphone industry largely controlled by fashion, or will the company producing the most advanced and reliable technology eventually come out on top?
