BlackBerry Ltd. said Friday it is laying off an undisclosed number of employees in its device business including those focused on development of smartphone software and applications.

The move is part of the company's goal of boosting sales of higher margin mobile-management and security software to reignite growth, it said.

The layoffs come after the struggling smartphone maker, which employs about 7,000 people globally, said in April it was considering closing its offices in Sweden, in a move that would put as many as 100 employees out of work. A BlackBerry spokeswoman Friday declined to confirm if the layoffs in Sweden have taken place and if so if they were part of the latest cuts.

The job cuts, which affect BlackBerry's operations globally, underscore the pressure the company faces to keep costs down while it tries to win back its traditional corporate and government customers following a failed attempt in 2013 to compete against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in the consumer smartphone market.

BlackBerry remains committed to the device business, having released since September a string of new smartphones aimed at professionals with more planned for this year. But the Waterloo, Ontario, company is increasingly betting on new mobile software aimed at fostering worker productivity and security for BlackBerrys, Apple iPhones, and devices powered by Google Inc.'s Android and other operating systems.

Still, BlackBerry's revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 28 fell 32% and the company cautioned then that it didn't expect sales of its key new device-management software, which was launched in November, to pick up until the second half of the company's current fiscal year.

"Our intention is to reallocate resources in ways that will best enable us to capitalize on growth opportunities while driving toward sustainable profitability across all facets of our business," BlackBerry said in a statement announcing the planned layoffs.

BlackBerry said that it plans to ramp up its sales and marketing effort, targeting partnerships and new hires as part of this effort.

Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com

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