Boston, MA 01/06/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Troubled Canadian mobile and device technology giant BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has inked a five year strategic partnership contract with the world’s largest electronics device manufacturer Foxconn, which will see the duo focus on smartphone and other mobile design and manufacture targeted initially for emerging markets worldwide.
Under the alliance, the two firms will jointly design and manufacture some key new BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) devices apart from the joint management of the resulting inventory. Blackberry and Foxconn intend to target the lower and medium segments initially, the low-hanging fruits of emerging mobile markets such as Indonesia with increased future spread. Using Foxconn’s renowned manufacturing expertise already put to use by Apple for its iPhones and iPads, Blackberry intends to bolster technical capabilities and stem losses, hoping to float around and eventually see profits well up, though experts feel that beating the mammoth popularity and feature sets of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS is a treacherous and unlikely uphill task.
The sagging Canadian giant once ruled the roost in the mobile and smartphone segments, but lost market footing rapidly under intensified competition from technology behemoths Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) with its revolutionary iPhone and iPad, and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s explosive growth Android devices. The device maker saw straight losses for over three years propelling it towards an imminent sell-off in the face of declining sales and revenue. Thus far, Blackberry has fended off takeover possibilities by such fellow technology giants as Cisco, Google and SAP by going private to stay solvent and raise market capital worth $4.7 billion and divested equity to Toronto-based private investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings and its consortium.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) recently filed a lawsuit in California against iPhone accessories designer and maker Typo Products, contending that Typo’s design infringed BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s intellectual property rights. In other news, BlackBerry recently parted ways with its so-called creative director – pop diva Alicia Keys. Blackberry stocks on NASDAQ dropped to $7.61 in their January 3 trading from the previous $7.65, while after-hours trading rose slightly to $7.64.
