BlackBerry returned to a profit last quarter due to a radical cost-cutting plan the once dominant smartphone maker is undertaking alongside the launch of a new deviceThe surprise fourth-quarter profit came as BlackBerry said it had sold 1m of its new Z10 phone, which went on sale in the UK shortly before the quarter finished on March 2.
While Wall Street has welcomed the retrenchment from a company that invented the multi-billion pound smartphone market in the late 1990s, it is the reception its new phone receives from consumers and businesses that will determine its future.
Thorsten Heins, the German who has run BlackBerry since January last year, insisted that the its new phone and operating system is the "most innovative mobile computing platform in the market.”
Given the phone only went on sale in major markets such as the US last week, analysts said it remains too early to judge whether the device will be enough to wrestle back share from Apple and manufacturers that use Google's Android software such as Samsung.
Blackberry said it had sold about 1 million of its new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in the fourth quarter.
The latest results did show that the $1bn (£660m) cost-cutting programme embarked on last year is polishing the company's margins.
The Canadian company posted a profit of $98m for the quarter compared with a loss of $125m in the same period a year ago. Analysts had forecast a loss. BlackBerry had cash of $2.9bn at the end of the quarter, little changed from a year earlier.
However, revenues dropped 2pc to $2.7bn for the quarter, trailing the $2.83bn that Wall Street has forecast. The mixed performance reflects the twin pressures on Mr Heins to both grow sales with a new phone while keeping a tight rein on costs.
While Wall Street has welcomed the retrenchment from a company that invented the multi-billion pound smartphone market in the late 1990s, it is the reception its new phone receives from consumers and businesses that will determine its future.
Thorsten Heins, the German who has run BlackBerry since January last year, insisted that the its new phone and operating system is the "most innovative mobile computing platform in the market.”
Given the phone only went on sale in major markets such as the US last week, analysts said it remains too early to judge whether the device will be enough to wrestle back share from Apple and manufacturers that use Google's Android software such as Samsung.
Blackberry said it had sold about 1 million of its new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in the fourth quarter.
The latest results did show that the $1bn (£660m) cost-cutting programme embarked on last year is polishing the company's margins.
The Canadian company posted a profit of $98m for the quarter compared with a loss of $125m in the same period a year ago. Analysts had forecast a loss. BlackBerry had cash of $2.9bn at the end of the quarter, little changed from a year earlier.
However, revenues dropped 2pc to $2.7bn for the quarter, trailing the $2.83bn that Wall Street has forecast. The mixed performance reflects the twin pressures on Mr Heins to both grow sales with a new phone while keeping a tight rein on costs.
Mr Heins took the top job early last year after BlackBerry investors lost patience with the company's co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who were joint chief executives.
BlackBerry, which changed its name from Research in Motion last month, said on Thursday that Mr Lazaridis is stepping down from the board in a move that severs any official connection with the company he co-founded in the Canadian town of Waterloo.
BlackBerry said it will spend 50pc more on advertising the Z10 phone – that will available with a touch-screen as well as a keyboard – in the current quarter as it tries to capitalise on an initial launch that impressed some analysts. Its results for this quarter should deliver a "break even" financial performance, BlackBerry said, without giving more detail.
Despite Mr Heins's confidence, the scale of the challenge facing BlackBerry was underlined by Thursday's results. They showed that over the last 12 months revenues collapsed 40pc to $11.1bn, as it swung to a loss of $628m for the financial year from a profit of $1.2bn the year before.
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