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rfmcdonaldCNet's Roger Cheng evidences very cautious optimism about Blackberry's future.
BlackBerry was busy Tuesday, offering a smorgasbord of news. There was the device announcement in the form of the budget-friendly BlackBerry Q5. There was the updated BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10.1 for the business-minded. There was the milestone of 120,000 apps available in BlackBerry World. Most surprising was the company's decision to open up BlackBerry Messenger to multiple platforms, starting with iOS and Android.
All of those announcements are meant to convey a sense of building momentum at BlackBerry. Indeed, over the last several months, the company has launched a brand new platform, worked to repair its wounded reputation, and fleshed out its product portfolio to three products.
"I remember being right here one year ago on this stage," [CEO Thorsten Heins] said. "This year feels very, very different."
At the last show -- Heins' first as CEO -- critics predicted that he wouldn't be back on stage this year. The company's sales were eroding and it began losing money. Its market share almost entirely evaporated, particularly in the U.S., and it didn't have any new products to show off, aside from a developer test unit. Shareholders were already shell-shocked, having seen most of the value of their investment vanish.
[. . .]
Not everyone is as comfortable with BlackBerry's prospects. Shares of the company fell 4 percent after its announcements. There's still little indication of just how well its BlackBerry 10 devices have fared, and the company was conspicuously silent on the matter. There remain questions about whether its injured brands can actually be rehabilitated.
