Feature
Back in the Black
After suffering a string of quarterly losses due to its extended refocus on BlackBerry 10 and building new smartphones, BlackBerry has reported a fourth quarter profit of $98 million, turning round a loss of $125 million for the same period last year. The company's own highlight will be in reporting sales (which could be a shipment figure) of a million units of its Z10, which only went onsale in the U.S. this week, , from a total of 6 million smartphone sales.
On the negative side, sales were down by 36%, most likely as users waited for the new models and failed to pick up BB7 devices, and it managed to shed almost three million subscribers during the period. You can add into the mix sales of 370,000 PlayBook tablets, which the company continues to produce, with a BB10 model expected in the future. If the Z10 manages decent sales in the U.S. and starts to win those all important government contracts, the firm may find itself rising up the smartphone rankings faster than expected.
Winning in America?
The new Z10 is currently exclusive with AT&T and will be available on Verizon shortly, but will then be competing with the new Samsung Galaxy S4 and any device Apple cares to drop on the market. BlackBerry will soon have the more traditional looking Q10 smartphone to sell to its loyal army of keyboard-lovers, which the company said should arrive a few months after the Z10.
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Once it has tempted back its customers with these high-end phones, expect BlackBerry to then round out its offering rapidly to get all those BB7 users on-board with the new ecosystem to snap up the apps and content it is trying to sell. Recent announcements have included new music and TV content available on BlackBerry World.
The next quarter will give an indication of BlackBerry's success at reviving in the U.S. market, but it may take a far longer period to see if the company can restores its fortunes fully.
