BlackBerry sells out initial Passport shipment, but losses remain

BlackBerry has reportedly sold out its initial shipment of its Passport smartphones, however, its second quarter results show continuing losses for the Canadian tech giant. 

According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report, Blackberry has sold out its initial 200,000 unit shipment of its new Android-compatible Passport device, which the company launched late last week.

But in its results for the quarter to August 2014, BlackBerry reported a GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) of $US207 million ($237 million), which was down significantly from the $US965 million loss the company reported in the same quarter last year.

BlackBerry posted revenue of $US916 million, down from $US1.57 billion for the same quarter last year, with 46% of sales coming from hardware, 46% from services and 8% from software and other revenue.

However, in signs chief executive John Chen’s turnaround could be working, the company said its EZ Pass Program has resulted in a total of 3.4 million licenses issued for its BES 10 mobile device management platform.

The company also reported it now has 91 million users of its BBM mobile messaging platform, up from 85 million in the previous quarter.