Wall Street investment banks and other financial services groups are reducing their reliance on BlackBerry, underscoring the Canadian smartphone company’s challenge as it plans to abandon the consumer market to focus on its core business customers.
Wall Street banks once relied exclusively on BlackBerry when providing devices for employees, but many have now delayed or cancelled plans to upgrade to the latest BB10 smartphones and software.
This has had a big impact on BlackBerry’s finances. The company said last week that it would post an operating loss of $1bn for the quarter, and revenue well below analysts’ expectations, when it releases results today.