BlackBerry Z10 sales top 1 million, power company to unexpected profit

BlackBerry announced an unexpected quarterly profit on demand for the new touchscreen device that holds the key to its successful turnaround, but revenue remained far below year-earlier levels.

The smartphone maker said on Thursday that it had sold about 1 million of the new Z10 (Review I Pictures) devices during the fourth quarter ended March 2. It shipped roughly 6 million smartphones in that period.

Net income in the quarter was $98 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share.

Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company fell 1.1 percent to $14.40 in premarket trading after the results were released.

BlackBerry said it believed it would approach break-even financial results in the first quarter, based on a lower cost base, more efficient supply chain, and its improved hardware margins.

Analysts on average had been expecting a loss of 10 cents a share in the first quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Yet the company, which has lost market share to rivals like Apple Inc, is far from out of the woods. Quarterly revenue fell to $2.68 billion from $4.2 billion a year earlier.

© Thomson Reuters 2013