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Blackberry sells just 1.1 million BB10 devices in Q3 as revenues crash

Blackberry sells just 1.1 million BB10 devices in Q3 as revenues crash

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A partnership with Foxconn will look to Indonesia and other developing markets to save the company

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BlackBerry Bold (STOCK)
BlackBerry Bold (STOCK)

Troubled BlackBerry has just posted the results for its financial Q3 2014, and they're not pretty. The company's revenues reached just $1.2 billion over the quarter ended November 30th, down an enormous 56 percent from last year's $2.7 billion.

The Canadian manufacturer's problems are compounded by the continued poor performance of its next-generation smartphone platform BB10. The company managed to sell 4.3 million smartphones to customers last quarter, which in itself a staggeringly low figure, but the company notes that only 1.1 million of those phones were running BB10.

When you consider that just two years ago the company shipped 14.2 million smartphones in the equivalent quarter, 1.1 million sales of devices running what was supposed to be BlackBerry's answer to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone is very worrying. When compared to market leaders like Samsung and Apple, who shipped more than 110 million devices combined last quarter, or even Nokia, which sold 8.8 million Lumia Windows Phones, it's even worse.

Foxconn and BlackBerry will jointly develop and manufacture devices

Despite the losses, BlackBerry's recently hired CEO John Chen says the company has a "commitment to the device market for the long-term," and a "determination to remain the innovation leader in secure end-to-end mobile solutions." Along with the results, Chen revealed a five-year partnership with the Chinese manufacturing giant Foxconn. Under the deal, Foxconn and BlackBerry will "jointly develop and manufacture certain new BlackBerry devices and manage the inventory associated with those devices."

The partnership is initially focusing on a smartphone for Indonesia and "other fast-growing markets" coming early next year. Despite poor performance in many countries, Indonesia and other developing markets have remained a good money-maker for BlackBerry.