As reported on Engadget.
By Daniel Cooper
This isn’t quite the BlackBerry earnings story you’re waiting for — after all, the US figures covering the success (or otherwise) of the Z10 won’t arrive until the next quarter. Instead, we’re looking at the company’s results from the end of the fiscal year to March 2nd, which shows that the smartphone maker made $94 million in GAAP income on revenues of $2.7 billion — in contrast with the $125 million net loss it made in the same quarter last year. More importantly, however, it shipped out almost one million BlackBerry 10 devices during the three weeks of the quarter that they were available. In addition, it managed to push five million of its older smartphones and 370,000 PlayBook tablets out of the door, but saw user numbers fall from 79 million last quarter to 76 million now.
As revenue has remained relatively flat, the surge in profits can only be attributed to Thorstein Heins’ aggressive cost-cutting measures, with the CEO remarking that the “numerous changes” he has implemented at the company have “resulted in [BlackBerry] returning to profitability.” At the same time, Mike Lazaridis has announced that he’ll retire from his position as vice-chair and director of the outfit he founded the better part of three decades ago. He’ll exit the business on May 1st so that he can concentrate on his new enterprise, Quantum Valley Investments.
Update: During the conference call, Thorsten Heins has revealed that around two-thirds or three-quarters of the one million BB10 devices shipped have been sold.