Not too long ago, BlackBerry 10 was first revealed to the world, and a new name change for the company formerly known as Research in Motion or simply RIM came with it.
The company has just announced its Q4 2013 financial results. Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 was approximately $2.7 billion, down $49 million or 2% from approximately $2.7 billion in the previous quarter and down 36% from $4.2 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2012. As such, the profit can be attributed to layoffs, cut-backs, and other cost-saving feats that CEO Thorstein Heins has implemented that resulted in the company’s return to profitability.
The devices were made available about three weeks before the quarter ended, during which time the company sold 1 million BB10 devices and five million legacy devices. However, overall BlackBerry OS users dropped by 3 million globally (from 79 million to 76 million), which suggests that most of these sales were due to existing BlackBerry users upgrading their devices.
In related news, BlackBerry also announced that former co-CEO and co-founder of the company Mike Lazaridis, having fulfilled the commitment he made to the Board in January 2012, has decided to retire as Vice Chair and a Director of the Company after being with the company for three decades. Lazaridis will step down May 1st.