BlackBerry cancels two phones before release

The struggling smartphone maker drops plans for two phones, reportedly code-named Café and Kopi, before they have a chance to hit the market.

BlackBerry sold just 1.9 million smartphones last quarter, down from 3.7 million a year ago.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
BlackBerry had to cancel more than its conference this year. Fearing poor sales, the beleaguered company also had to cancel two phones that were still in development.
"The company also made the decision to cancel plans to launch two devices to mitigate the identified inventory risk," reads BlackBerry's third-quarter earnings report published Friday. The Wall Street Journal came across the buried tidbit Monday

The two phones were code-named Café and Kopi, and BlackBerry had plans to market them as low-cost devices, unnamed sources told the Journal.
The news coincides with BlackBerry's announcement that it's canceling its annual BlackBerry Live conference. The company last week reported third-quarter losses of $4.4 billion and said it sold only 1.9 million smartphones last quarter, a sharp decline from the 3.7 million the previous quarter.