The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone
Smartphone marker BlackBerry revealed a fourth-quarter profit of US$98m, or US$0.19 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of US$125m, or US$0.24 cents a share, in its first financial results since releasing its flagship Z10 smartphone.
During the fourth quarter, BlackBerry shipped about 6m BlackBerry smartphones, including 1m units of the new Z10, and about 370,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
The company lost 3m subscribers, however. BlackBerry reported some 76m subscribers, down from 79m in the previous quarter and 80m a year ago.
Revenue for Q4 totalled $2.68bn, down from US$4.2bn a year earlier.
Revenue from continuing operations for the fiscal year ended 2 March 2013 amounted to US$11.1bn, down 40pc from US$18.4bn in fiscal 2012.
“We have implemented numerous changes at BlackBerry over the past year and those changes have resulted in the company returning to profitability in the fourth quarter,” said Thorsten Heins, president and CEO.
“With the launch of BlackBerry 10, we have introduced the newest and what we believe to be the most innovative mobile computing platform in the market today. Customers love the device and the user experience, and our teams and partners are now focused on getting those devices into the hands of BlackBerry consumer and enterprise customers.”
The company, formerly known as Research in Motion (RIM), also announced that co-founder Mike Lazaridis will retire as vice-chairman and director on 1 May.
