BlackBerry has posted its financial results for the fiscal first quarter until 1 June, 2013.
The company registered a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in revenues to $3.1 billion in the period under consideration. During the quarter, the company shipped 6.8 million BlackBerry smartphones, a 13 per cent increase on a sequential basis, as well as around 100,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
Around 40 per cent of the phones shipped operated on the Blackberry 10 platform. Service revenues declined, following price cuts and a drop in the company?s subscriber base by close to 6 million over the past 12 months to 72 million at the end of May.
Owing to increased sales, the company’s loss from continuing operations reduced to $84 million, from $510 million a year ago. This included $26 million in restructuring charges, as well as a 10 cents a share impact from Venezuelan currency restrictions. BlackBerry said that excluding the Venezuelan effect, it would have met its previous outlook for around breakeven.
The company’s cash totaled $3.1 billion at the end of the period, an increase of $200 million from the previous quarter. Cash flow from operations stood at $630 million, and capex reached about $83 million.
BlackBerry said it plans to continue to invest in expanding distribution and marketing of its new BlackBerry 10 phones as well as BES and Messenger. As a result, it expects to post an operating loss again in the fiscal second quarter.
