BlackBerry posted a profit in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2013, notching $98 million GAAP income on $0.19 per share diluted. The Canadian phonemaker posted a loss of $125 million in the same quarter for 2012.
BlackBerry also reported shipping six million smartphones in the quarter, one million of them being BlackBerry 10 devices. Earlier in the month, BlackBerry stated it had received an order for one million of its flagship smartphones, the Z10, but did not disclose the customer’s name.
BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, posted $2.7 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013, holding steady quarterly but dropping from the $4.2 billion in posted in the fourth quarter of 2012.
BlackBerry announced that former CEO Mike Lazaridis has decided to retire as vice chair and a director of the company, having fulfilled his commitment to the board in January 2012.
Looking ahead, BlackBerry stated it would include its marketing budget for the first quarter of 2014 by 50 percent over the previous quarter.
BlackBerry’s all touchscreen Z10, which carries the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, was launched with much fanfare in January but seemed to receive little promotion when it made its U.S. debut March 22 on AT&T. The Z10 is now available on T-Mobile, who just launched its LTE network, and is expected to hit Verizon this week as well.
The QWERTY plus touchscreen Q10, which BlackBerry also launched in January, has been announced for release on Sprint’s network.
Upon news of BlackBerry’s fiscal results, the company’s shares are up 3.5 percent in pre-market trading, continuing the market rebound the company has experienced in the past few months.
In Comscore’s latest three-month study of U.S. smartphone OS market, ending in January 2013, BlackBerry’s market share had slipped from 7.8 to 5.9 percent.
