The new BlackBerry makes money without making phones, and they’re proud of it

BlackBerry made a bold move (no pun intended) in shedding their hardware business in favor of becoming a strict software services company. They did so by licensing their brand and certain assets  — including keyboard hardware designs — to companies like TCL (makers of Alcatel products).

So BlackBerry phones are still coming out by the boatload, only BlackBerry isn’t assuming the cost of doing business in the vicious world of smartphones. Their only goal has been to sell software to everyone, and that seems to be working beautifully.

BlackBery shares rose 17% on the back of reports that the company actually made $19 million in the second quarter. That’s not a huge figure by a multi-billion dollar industry’s standards, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the losses they incurred just a year ago during this transition. In all, BlackBerry’s software efforts accounted for 75% of their total revenue, or $185 million.

While BlackBerry still has some ways to go in meeting their long-term growth goals, this is an early success story that shows you can never be too proud to save a business. Fortunately for BlackBerry and their fans, the need to get out of the hardware business didn’t have to also spell the death of BlackBerry smartphones, so they’ll happily continue enjoying the best of both worlds.

via The Globe and Mail