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BlackBerry slowly pulls out of power dive into toilet

Will it manage to clear the rim? <cough>

BlackBerry, which began its comeback in earnest this week with a bizarre new square smartphone, posted narrower losses on slightly lower revenue in the quarter ending 30 August. Its hardware division was back in the black after five quarters of losses.

To see how far and how fast BlackBerry fell, see our analysis from earlier in the week.

The Canadian enterprise company aims to break even on cash flow by middle of next year – the end of its fiscal year. It lost $207m (GAAP) or $11m (non-GAAP) in Q2 2015, on sales of $916m. That's compared to $966m revenue bagged in the preceding quarter, which yielded a GAAP profit of $23m. BlackBerry maintains a significant warchest: with $3.1bn in cash and investments. The difference between GAAP and non-GAAP includes charges to its redundancy program, which is now compete – so that should help the bottom line.

CEO John Chen said BlackBerry had received 200,000 orders for its striking square “WTF-phone” [WTPh? - Ed] even though significant carrier-supported distribution hasn't started yet. (You can order them via disties and direct from BlackBerry). The device is aimed at enterprises and professionals who might consider a more business-like second device. BlackBerry will launch a more conventional QWERTY phone - the Classic - before the end of the year.

Hardware and services each contribute 46 per cent to BlackBerry's overall revenue, with the remaining 8 per cent coming from software and other sources. ®

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