Phone Arena reports that in a note to its clients sent on Monday, the brokerage firm said that the new lineup of phones from BlackBerry was “underselling.” And honestly, “underselling” is an understatement.
Through the current quarter, BlackBerry has moved only 8,000 units of the business-focused Passport and the throwback Classic. While the target mark for sales isn’t disclosed, what is made clear is that 8,000 falls painfully short. The note from Morgan Stanley states the sales figures are “not tracking anywhere close” to the expected sales numbers.
That’s not to say the phones didn’t have some success. Riding the initial hype, BlackBerry sold out of the first few batches of the Passport and its physical QWERTY keyboard. Likewise, the Classic sold out of pre-order inventory when it was announced (though who knows how many units that is). Even with those immediate flowing successes, sales have tapered to the point of near standstill, just a droplet every now and then.
BlackBerry needs to sell between two and three million units of the two phone models by the end of its 2016 fiscal year. The company is also aiming to generate $500 million in software revenue in the same time frame. Morgan Stanley is not confident that either goal is achievable.
At this point, the BlackBerry brand may actually be working against the company. It has experienced so many blunders and its failures have been so highly publicized that the name is now more associated as a joke than as the dominant force in the mobile market it once was.
BlackBerry’s last few years have basically just been the Price Is Right losing horn over and over again.
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