BlackBerry today announced financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2014 year and they paint a picture of a company that is still struggling to turn its fortunes around. Revenues hit US$3.1 billion, a 15% increase from the previous quarter’s US$2.7 billion and up 9% over the same quarter a year ago. Unfortunately, it still recorded a net loss of US$84 million, surprising many.
BlackBerry shipped 6.8 million BlackBerry smartphones over the quarter, a 13% increase over the previous quarter, as well as 100,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. Missing from its financial statement was any information on how many of those smartphones were the newer BlackBerry 10-powered Z10 and Q10. The fact that the company did not provide this number is not an enocouraging sign.
“During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global roll out of the BlackBerry 10 platform,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. “We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions. Over the next three quarters, we will be increasing our investments to support the roll out of new products and services, and to demonstrate that BlackBerry has established itself as a leading and vibrant player in next generation mobile computing solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers.”
BlackBerry warned that “the smartphone market remains highly competitive, making it difficult to estimate units, revenue and levels of profitability.” It expects to report another loss next quarter as it continues to try to establish the new BlackBerry 10 platform in the marketplace. Also on tap are additional devices as well as the launch of BlackBerry Messenger on other mobile platforms.
BlackBerry is not out of the woods yet and today’s news saw its stock get hammered (down about 20% at time of writing) ahead of the opening bell.
Update: On the analyst call that followed today’s results, CEO Thorsten Heins revealed that the company shipped 2.7 million BlackBerry 10 devices during the quarter. Most analyst expectations had been for a higher number.
Source : BlackBerry