BlackBerry to release 1st Android phone after quarterly results show 46% revenue drop

BlackBerry will soon release its first every Android-powered smartphone, the company said Friday, the same day the Canadian company released quarterly results that missed lowered analyst expectations.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone maker said it took in $490 million US in revenue during its second quarter, which ended at the end of August. That was down by almost half, from $916 million during the summer last year. BlackBerry had earlier warned its profit would be lower, but the results were even lower than the $611 million that analysts had been expecting.

Despite the sales drop-off, the company posted a profit of $51 million, and improvement on a $207-million loss during the same three month period a year ago.

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The company's net income is just one part of its accounting ledger. In BlackBerry's case, analysts focus on adjusted profit, and on that front BlackBerry had a loss of $66 million or 13 cents per share — deeper than the nine cents per share that had been estimated.

In addition to its quarterly numbers, the company announced it plans to soon release its first ever Android phone, which it is calling the Priv in a nod to the company's reputation for privacy.

"Today, I am confirming our plans to launch Priv, an Android device named after BlackBerry's heritage and core mission of protecting our customers' privacy," CEO John Chen said. "Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform."

The device will be released before the end of 2015, the company said. It will be a slider-style phone where a keyboard is hidden behind a touchscreen, but pricing details were not immediately available.