BlackBerry has posted some surprising results in its fourth quarter report for the fiscal 2013 that was released on Thursday. Against expectations of many analysts, the Canadian-based company, apparently riding on the momentum its new smartphone, the Z10, created soon after its launch in January, registered a net profit of $98 million in the quarter.
That noted, an equally stunning aspect of the report is that the company has lost its consumer base, which has declined from 79 million to reach 76 million. Moreover, the company shipped a total of six million devices in the quarter. Interestingly, one million of those were the Z10 that is the first device to use BlackBerry 10 operating system.
Now here are some interesting points to note. BlackBerry remained tight-lipped throughout the quarter when asked about the sales figures of the new Z10 smartphone, though the management always adopted a positive posture. Still, the results cannot be taken as a guarantee for the company’s success in spite of the odds-defying results. BlackBerry still has a long way to travel in order to beat its rivals in the smartphone market and now it also faces a challenge of increasing its consumer base.
A positive development in this regard can be considered the launch of the Q10 smartphone that is due next month. The Q10 device will carry a physical keyboard that BlackBerry fans admire a lot, and many analysts are of the view that this device can generate huge sales. Furthermore, the results of the quarter do not include the statistics collected from the U.S. market. In the next quarter report, BlackBerry will include these figures and even though the Z10 device did not do well soon after its launch in the country it might be able to attract customers now.
By posting better than expected results, BlackBerry has shown that the company has the potential to revamp its tarnished image and regain its lost glory. It still has a lot of distance to cover to ensure its dominance in the smartphone market, but this start, nevertheless, seems to be a positive development. Now the next challenge for the company is to increase its market penetration and attract more consumers. It has the opportunity to increase the penetration by reducing the cost of its smartphones and allowing other smartphone makers to use the BB10 operating system.
Source: BlackBerry
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