Blackberry Sells Even Fewer Smartphones As Business 'Evolves' Towards Profit

Virtually No One Is Buying Blackberries Anymore

Blackberry has released its latest set of financial results, and in case you aren't gettingthetrend yet it's not good news.

The Canadian former smartphone giant said it sold just 2.6 million handsets in the last three months, compared to 3.4 million in the last quarter (which itself was a low ebb).

In that time the company has released barely any new products, and this set of results doesn't even break out whether customers bought BB10 or BB7 phones -- indicating a lack of take-up for its most recent OS update.

It's not all awful - losses are declining, and the cost-cutting measures (read: job cuts) are making an impact on the bottom line.

Blackberry says that its focus is now on services, where it makes most of its money, and working to provide governments and businesses with secure communications and email.

Currently Blackberry's income breaks down as 39% for hardware, 54% for services and 7% for software and other revenue.

If that plan comes together -- and enough costs can be cut in the meantime - CEO John Chen thinks the company can make a profit by 2016.

What it won't be doing is making any genuine assault on the smartphone space. Blackberry has said its handset business is now largely focused on emerging markets, and its most recent phone (the Z3) was aimed primarily at Indonesia.

It also unveiled a deal to let Amazon use its Blackberry World app store comprising 200,000 Android apps for its new Fire smart phone.

"Our performance in fiscal Q1 demonstrates that we are firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio," said Chen.

"Over the past six months, we have focused on improving efficiency in all aspects of our operations to drive cost reductions and margin improvement. Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our return to profitability."

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