BlackBerry on Friday reported a narrower third-quarter loss than analysts estimated as software revenue kicked in from its acquisition of Good Technology. The company's loss excluding certain items was 3 cents a share. Revenue was $557 million compared with projections for $488.8 million.

"I am pleased with our continued progress on BlackBerry's strategic priorities, leading to 14 percent sequential growth in total revenue for Q3. We delivered accelerating growth in enterprise software and higher revenue across all of our areas of focus," said Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chen."

BlackBerry is racing toward a goal of $500 million in annual software revenue by March 2016, a key part of Chief Executive Officer John Chen?s plan to transition the company away from relying on shrinking handset sales. Software sales were $161.5 million, up from $54 million in the same quarter last year.

BlackBerry did not mention how many smartphones it sold in the quarter, a number investors had been looking for to measure the impact of its new Android phone on sales. Hardware revenue was $222.8 million, down from a year earlier but up from $201 million last quarter.

Move Into self-driving cars

The Canadian software and smartphone also plans to showcase new advances being made by its infotainment unit at the Computer Electronics Show, next January in Las Vegas.

“You’re going to see our advanced driver-assist technologies and solutions,” Chen said on a conference call with analysts to discuss earnings results.

BlackBerry is already involved with the auto industry through its QNX unit, which makes infotainment systems used in millions of vehicles. The Waterloo, Canada-based company said earlier this week it was joining with Luxoft Holding Inc. to work on semi-autonomous driving technology like that used by Tesla Motors Inc.’s cars.

Chen said he’d be keen to work with bigger companies like Google, Apple and Tesla as well.