BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s corporate history has been full of several ups and downs, and this week marks another important season for the company. A lot is scheduled to happen this week – we will get to see the launch of a new smartphone and the earnings of the latest quarter along with few details of the final quarter will be discussed, as well. The company plans of releasing a number of vital services and products in that quarter.
Will Passport be able to compete?
Passport is expected to be offered at a no-contract price of $599 in the U.S. as informed by the CEO John Chen in an interview given to the Wall Street Journal. It is estimated that the phone would cost around $700, but the company is making efforts to lower the price.
Passport is the new smartphone that is planned to be unveiled by BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) coming Wednesday. The new device is targeted at enterprise customers, who form the core demographic for BlackBerry. They hope that with this premium widescreen device they will be able to win back the confidence of the enterprise customers, and will be able to divert them from the competitors’ devices like Samsung and Apple.
Apple’s flagship device iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S5 come with a price tag of $599. The no-contract price of these phones is between $600 and $650. The no contract price of the iPhone 6 Plus is $750.The comparatively lower price of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) Passport may not be enough to drive sales as the competitors have launched powerful devices, which can pose a severe threat to Passport sales. The new devices from Apple – iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus – have been hugely successful, and have set a record of 10 million unit sales in the first three days of release.
Passport, BES 12 success vital for BlackBerry
The Passport is scheduled for release on the 24th of September and the company will announce the second-quarter results for the fiscal 2015 this week. The sales figure will be somewhere in the range of $900 million to $940 million on average as per the analysts estimates. The analyst expects the company to report a loss of $0.16 per share. This financial event is of major importance since it is the first that will take place after the company ended its painful restructuring process as informed to the employees by its CEO early August.
The release of Passport will determine if the restructuring by the company is successful or not. Apart from Passport, BES 12 will also help in determining the company’s success.
