黑莓離場 英雄落幕？

黑莓離場 英雄落幕？

在巔峰時期，每銷售的5部智能手機當中就有一部是黑莓手機，這些黑莓手機成為企業(yè)高管的標配。而該公司今天證實將停止研發(fā)和生產智能手機。財報顯示，在今年第二財政季度營收為3.34億美元，凈虧損3.72億美元。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

pioneering首創(chuàng)的；先驅的[pa??'n??r??]

coveted垂涎的；夢寐以求的['k?vitid]

zenith頂峰；頂點；最高點['zen?θ]

haemorrhage出血['hem?r?d?]

ramp down斜降；緩降；軟停止

dismay使沮喪；使驚慌[d?s'me?]

appease使?jié)M足；使和緩；對…讓步[?'pi?z]

joint venture合資企業(yè)；聯(lián)合經(jīng)營

BlackBerry hangs up on handset business（652words）

By David Crow in New York

BlackBerry,the pioneering smartphone maker,said it would stop making its own handsets and pull out of the devices business entirely,as the company behind the tiny Qwerty keyboard once coveted by the corporate world focuses on selling software and services instead.

The Canadian group said it would“end all internal hardware development”with immediate effect,and instead license its brand and software to third-party manufacturers,who would develop phones bearing the BlackBerry badge.

“It’s the end of the line for the firm’s hardware business,”said Nick McQuire,an analyst at CCS Insight.

At its zenith in 2008,BlackBerry accounted for one in every five smartphones sold,after its handsets became a staple for business executives. Designed to be as easy for writing emails as making phone calls,they eventually captured the consumer market too.

As sales soared,the company’s market value hit $80bn,compared with roughly $4bn today.

Since its peak in popularity it has haemorrhaged sales in the face of strong competition from Apple and Samsung,as well as low-cost Asian manufacturers,leaving it with a share of the global smartphone market that is practically a rounding error: 0.1 per cent,according to Gartner.

Revenues from the company’s smartphones slumped to $105m in the latest quarter,compared with $417m in the same period of last year.

Shares in BlackBerry gained 2.6 per cent in early trading in New York as the company predicted the moves would boost profitability

John Chen,chief executive,said the company had signed a licensing deal with BB Merah Putih,an Indonesian joint venture led by one of the country’s largest telecoms groups,PT Tiphone Mobile Indonesia,which would have sole responsibility for making,promoting and distributing devices in the region.

The company is exploring similar deals with groups in India and China,he said.

But in regions such as the US and Europe,a hardcore of loyal BlackBerry customers or“Crackberry addicts”will struggle to buy new devices,unless the company finds a partner,Mr Chen said.

“My new model is to ramp down the selling of hardware anywhere — but we might have partners to sell it,”he said.

Some Crackberry addicts responded with dismay to Mr Chen’s decision and took to social networks such as Reddit to express their displeasure.

“This is really disappointing — if it’s not BlackBerry hardware,what’s the point of buying a BlackBerry,”said one.

Another added:“I definitely consider myself a fan first and can only hope there is one last phone to appease BlackBerry addicts on the way.”

But in a sign that BlackBerry is pursuing a hard exit from the smartphone business,Mr Chen said the company would not take an equity stake in any of the joint ventures,and would instead receive a royalty on each device sold by a third party.

“We have nothing to do with the joint venture — we are not part of it,”he said.“All we did was license our brand and software.”

He said the moves would result in“a long list of savings on people,equipment and so forth”,allowing BlackBerry to upgrade its full-year forecasts: the company had been expecting an annual loss of 15 cents per share,but is predicting between a 5 cent loss and break-even.

BlackBerry’s departure from the smartphone business is the most radical step taken by Mr Chen,who joined as chief executive in 2013 with a pledge to transform it into a security-focused software company.

He has expanded the software division in recent months through a string of acquisitions,including Good Technology,a mobile security provider,and AtHoc,a company that helps build emergency alert systems for governments.

BlackBerry broke even in its fiscal second quarter,which runs from June to August,and generated revenues of $352m.

The typical Wall Street analyst had expected the group to post a loss of 5 cents per share on revenues of $391m.