BlackBerry is back in the black, but despite numerous attempts at reinvention, the company is still flailing.
The smartphone maker surprised Wall Street by posting a profit of $28 million or $0.05 per share, meeting the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. That was enough to help send BlackBerry shares up about 3% in early trading on Friday.
Yet BlackBerry's profit is not a clear business victory. The company's sales continue to slump badly and it did well by cutting costs. The company reported revenue of $660 million for the quarter, well below analyst estimates for revenue of $786 million and down about a third from the $976 million it reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, said in a statement on Thursday that his goal over the past year of was "getting our financial house in order." The profitability is certainly a testament to his turnaround efforts, but the sales figures show just how much smaller BlackBerry's house is getting.
BlackBerry's Annual Revenue: 2015: $3.3 billion 2014: $6.8 billion 2013: $11.1 billion 2012: $18.4 billion 2011: $19.9 billion— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) March 27, 2015
To get revenue growing again, BlackBerry needs to convince new and existing customers -- as well as some of the many who have given up on the brand -- to buy more of its smartphones. It attempted to do that in recent months by going back to the past with the release of the BlackBerry Classic as well as the strikingly unique (and bizarre) Passport phone.
Even so, BlackBerry reported sales of just 1.3 million smartphones for the quarter. By comparison, Apple sold more than 74 million iPhones in the December quarter.