(image: engadget)

Thursday marked the first Blackberry earnings call with CEO John Chen where Chen has been at the helm for the entire reporting period. Chen seems to have stunned most of the technology and investment community by reporting stronger than expected results.

The Waterloo based smartphone company, that was once at the top of the smartphone industry, reported a small profit of $23 million dollars for the quarter. That was when you factor in accounting adjustments under GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principles). Mashable points out when you remove those adjustments Blackberry saw a loss of $60 million or $.011 a share). Still it’s enough to signal that a turn around under new CEO John Chen is well underway.

Chen says that the company is focusing on software and services for the most part but does plan a return to handsets which we expect to see this fall. It’s been widely reported that Blackberry will release a new touchscreen phone called the Blackberry Z3. They also plan to bring back a design more reminiscent of the Blackberry Bold and devices prior rather than something like the Q10 with their Blackberry Classic device. The third device we expect was just officially leaked during Chen’s investor call.

The third device is called the Blackberry Passport. It features a new, totally square design with hard edges. Engadget reports that it has a 4.5 inch display running at 1440×1440 which gives the device a pixel density of 452 pixels per inch.

We’re not sure why Blackberry is moving so far away from the classic design that users expect from the company. Every time they’ve turned away from that design the devices have failed miserably, can anyone say Blackberry Storm. It’s also worthy to note that even on this recent call BB7 devices are selling better than BB10.

The Passport feature an actual qwerty keyboard in a 3 row layout rather than the 4 row layout that Blackberry is known for. Chances are more customers will opt for the Blackberry Classic which will give the feel of a 2010 Blackberry with the speed and internals of a 2014 device.

Chen said that the Blackberry Passport will make it’s way to the world at a press event in London in September.

Source: Mobile Syrup via Engadget