Shares of Blackberry (TSE:BB) (NASDAQ:BBRY) were up over 3.5 percent today. In leaked photos, the company has hinted that it would adopt the design of its ‘Passport’ smartphone, characterized by its famous three-row physical keyboard to the forthcoming Oslo model for the Middle East and Asian markets.
The device, featuring Blackberry’s OS 10.3.2 software, will come in a metal chassis, an unusual format like that of its predecessor, featuring a 4.5 inch screen, in what might be described as an improved version of the Passport, given that its technical characteristics are similar to those of the latter.
The Blackberry Oslo is also rumored to have the same ‘system on a chip’ (SoC) as the Passport, which is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8974AA 801 with a 3GB RAM capacity.
The unit will pack a 13 million pixel back camera. Its battery, it should have a capacity of 3450 mAh.
Meanwhile, even as it prepares to launch new hardware, on Tuesday, analysts expect Blackberry to post a loss for the its first quarter of 2016 as it continues to focus its efforts on software rather than trying to gain a foothold in the highly competitive mobile phone market.
Raymond James analyst, Steven Li, has forecast the Waterloo, Ontario company to post a loss of US$0.06 per share, while the analyst consensus is for a loss of US$0.03 per share. This is more optimistic than the comparable 2014 quarterly results, when Blackberry posted a loss of US$0.11 per share.
Li, who maintains a target price of US$11 for the company, said revenue would be US$668 million, or 5.8 percent lower than last year. He is on the less optimistic side as the analyst consensus suggests revenues of US$704 million.
Li’s revenue prediction is based on the fact that Blackberry shipped 1.4 million devices in the quarter, or 13% fewer than the same period a year ago. Li was also not every enthusiastic about sales of Blackberry’s aforementioned Passport or the Classic, the marketing of which started during the past quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, Blackberry reported net income was $28 million, or $0.05 per share, in the three months ended February 28, compared with a net loss of $148 million, or $0.28 per share, a year earlier. The company defied analysts by posting earnings of $0.04 per share instead of an estimated loss $0.05 per share.
Fourth-quarter revenue, however, slipped to $660 million from $793 million year-over-year. That was well below Wall Street expectations of $786.4 million.