Shoddy results for long suffering manufacturer
BlackBerry has posted dismal results for its first quarter ended 1 June 2013. The company posted a loss of from continuing operations of $84 million, or $0.16 per share, as well as disappointing sales figures for its new BlackBerry 10 devices.
The manufacturer's share price dropped 28% to $10.46 on the news, the biggest drop it has fallen by since 2000. The company's share price has continued to fall since the results were released.
BlackBerry shipped 6.8 million smartphones in the quarter, including 2.7 million BlackBerry 10 devices, but those figures came in far lower than analysts had predicted. Analysts had expected BlackBerry's total device shipment for the quarter to total 7.5 million units, with 3.6 million BlackBerry 10 devices as part of that figure.
Only 100,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets shipped in the quarter.
Revenue was up 15% quarter on quarter at $3.1 billion, from $2.7 billion in the previous quarter and up 9% from $2.8 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2013. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 71% for hardware, 26% for service and 3% for software and other revenue.
North America revenue grew sequentially also, by 30%, while APAC revenue grew 35%. However, EMEA revenue rose by a mere 9% and Latin America declined by 6%, which BlackBerry blamed on Venezuelan foreign currency restrictions.
BlackBerry stated that the issues in Venezuela created a negative impact of $72 million of service revenue recognition in the first quarter, affecting the company gross margins negatively by 2%.
Smart Chimps says: BlackBerry's future still hangs in the balance, although despite the negativity surrounding the last quarter's results there is a glimmer of hope; in the same period last year it announced a loss of $518 million, so things are, in their own way, looking up. Let's save the total condemnation of BlackBerry until we see the results for the second quarter.
