Archive for December 19, 2014

BlackBerry Classic Available Online At Telus

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 19, 2014 by itnerd

I just got a note from Telus to let me know that the new BlackBerry Classic is now available online and will be available in-store in early January. The BlackBerry Classic is available for $50 on a two-year Your Choice plan or $550 outright. For more info, surf to: http://www.telus.com/en/on/mobility/devices/blackberry-classic/

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Industry Canada Announces Wireless Spectrum Auction Details

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 19, 2014 by itnerd

James Moore, Canada’s Minister of Industry, today announced details of the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction. Here’s the high level bullet points:

  • The auction is scheduled to begin March 3rd, 2015
  • Newer entrants such as WIND Mobile, Mobilicty and Videotron and anyone else with below 10% national and 20% provincial market share will have spectrum set aside for them.
  • This spectrum will allow carriers to deploy LTE
  • The government will be developing a plan to enable use of the AWS-4 spectrum “so that a new competitor can offer more choice to Canadians, especially those in rural and remote areas.”
  • An additional 2100 MHz of spectrum will be available for carriers to deploy “to deliver the services that Canadians want.”

Moore in his announcement continued to sing from the song sheet of wanting to “deliver more choice, lower prices and better service in Canada’s wireless industry.” Something that the Canadian government has failed to deliver on thus far. But in the interest of being fair, maybe all of these actions will make a difference. We’ll have to wait and see.

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BlackBerry Results Mixed…. Stock Slips

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 19, 2014 by itnerd

BlackBerry put out their Q3 numbers today and the results were mixed. Here’s the highlights:

  • BlackBerry earned just $793-million (U.S.) in revenue in the quarter ended Nov. 29, down from $1.2-billion in the year-ago quarter. The Street was looking for mid-$900-million range for earnings.
  • Revenues declined by more than 20 per cent in each of BlackBerry’s North American and Latin American sales, as the company sold 1.9 million devices to end users, down from 2.4 million in the previous quarter.
  • Device revenue came in around $365-million, about 12 per cent lower than the previous quarter.
  • Their services business netted $365-million, or 14 per cent below the last quarter.
  • There was a net loss during the quarter of $148-million, or 28 cents per share. But that was enough to get an adjusted profit of 1 cent per share, compared to a loss of 2 cents in the last quarter.

However, the market reacted negatively to this. As I type this, BlackBerry stock is down just under 5%. That suggests that this isn’t going over well. But I don’t see why that’s the case as these results though mixed have positives in them that bode well for the company. Though, I’m a computer nerd not a stock broker.

What are your thoughts on BlackBerry’s results?

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