It's fitting that BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) should announce that it's scrapping two of its smartphones on the same day Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is unveiling its largest line of iPhones.
Slashing 40% of its employee roster and taking a major accounting hit on unsold devices reveals far more than a company that's just scaling back its operations. Even so, it was a strange choice for BlackBerry to cry "uncle" on the same day Apple started selling the iPhone 5c in five colors and the iPhone 5s in three different metallic hues.
We'll know soon enough how Apple's weekend went. The consumer-tech giant has historically opened up about its first weekend of sales as soon as the period comes to a close. It will take longer, of course, for us to assess whether BlackBerry's retreat is the right call. One thing we do know is that the market didn't like BlackBerry's news on Friday, but it will take more than a knee-jerk reaction to see whether a refocused BlackBerry can be a stronger player down the road.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car maker could have a vehicle that can drive 90% of a trip on auto-pilot on the market by 2016.
- Redbox parent Outerwall (NASDAQ: OUTR) is hosing down its outlook. Really? Renting cheap DVDs out of a machine wasn't a long-term viable model? I think we all knew this was coming.
- Jim Cramer continued to tell Mad Money viewers to avoid Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), but shares of China's leading search engine still went on to hit new highs this week. Maybe it's time to replace his "buy, buy, buy" button with a "bye, bye, bye" button. He won't know the difference, but you will.
