BlackBerry confirms Priv Android phone as revenues shift

BlackBerry‘s share price fell as it revealed weak Q2 results, with John Chen announcing the Android handset Priv.

Revenue were down 46.5 percent year-on-year, at $490 million in the quarter, compared to $916 million in the same period last year.

BlackBerry posted a non-GAAP loss of $66 million.

Software and services revenue doubled to 15 percent, 41 percent from hardware, and 43 percent from service access fees.

This represented a considerable shift; last year in the same quarter BlackBerry garnered 46 percent from hardware, 46 percent from services and 8 percent from software and other revenue.

Commenting on the results, John Chen emphasised growth in software licensing revenue and cited the acquisitions of AtHoc and Good as key to expanding its "cross-platform software."

Chen also confirmed rumours of an Android handset called Priv,which aims to combine "BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform."