BlackBerry on Friday revealed it swung to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, but revenue and handset sales continued to fall.
In the three months ended 28 February, the Canadian smartphone maker’s revenue fell to US$660 million from $976 million a year ago. Of that sum, hardware accounted for approximately 42%, services for 47%, and software 10%.
Lower R&D, and selling, marketing and administration costs helped BlackBerry cut its operating expenses to $424 million from $1.1 billion.
Meanwhile, the December sale of Nortel patents by the Rockstar consortium, of which BlackBerry is a member, helped the company swing to positive cash flow of $76 million for the quarter, and record a net profit of $28 million compared to a year earlier loss of $423 million.
"Our focus this past year was on getting our financial house in order while creating a multi-year growth strategy and investing in our product portfolio. We now have a very good handle on our margins, and our product roadmaps have been well received," said BlackBerry CEO John Chen, in a statement.
However, despite the release of new handset models towards the end of calendar 2014, namely the Passport and the Classic, handset sales continued to disappoint.
BlackBerry recognised hardware revenue on approximately 1.3 million smartphones, while handset sales to end users came in at 1.6 million. In the same period of 2013, BlackBerry recognised hardware revenue on 1.3 million devices, and 3.4 million smartphones were sold to end users.
Looking ahead, BlackBerry said its target is to achieve sustainable non-GAAP profitability during fiscal 2016.
"The second half of our turnaround focuses on stabilisation of revenue with sustainable profitability and cash generation," Chen said.
