BlackBerry’s second quarter of financial results since launching its new BlackBerry 10-based smartphones onto the world market has come to a close, and results are missing some analysts’ expectations.
The company said Friday it sold 6.8 million smart phones in the quarter, up from 6 million in the quarter before. That was wildly less than that 8 million one financial analyst predicted earlier this week. This quarter’s financial results were an important litmus test for the beleaguered Waterloo, Ont.-based firm that is trying to return to the prominence it once enjoyed in the mobility market. The results reflect the success of the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in the important U.S. market and the launch of the BlackBerry Q10 around the world.
BlackBerry said it is back in the red, suffering an $84 million loss from continuing operations, a reversal from the $94 million profit in the previous quarter. On the other hand, revenue was up in the quarter to $3 billion.
“During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global roll out of the BlackBerry 10 platform,” CEO Thorsten Heins, said in a statement. “We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions. Over the next three quarters, we will be increasing our investments to support the roll out of new products and services, and to demonstrate that BlackBerry has established itself as a leading and vibrant player in next generation mobile computing solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers.”
Watch Howard Solomon’s report on IT World Canada for more updates from the conference call between BlackBerry and financial analysts later this morning.