Today's a big day for BlackBerry. Not only is the company reporting its first quarter fiscal 2014 results, but the stats that the company announces will include full Z10 availability as well as the beginnings of Q10 availability.
The numbers are now in, and BlackBerry reports that it shipped a total 6.8 million smartphones in the three-month period ending on June 1. That's an increase from the previous quarter, which saw smartphone shipments of an even six million units. However, it's not clear what portion of that 6.8 million units is BlackBerry 10 hardware. BlackBerry also shipped 100,000 PlayBook tablets during Q1 2014.
On the financial side of things, BlackBerry says that Q1 2014 brought with it a GAAP loss of $84 million, which is down from the GAAP profit of $94 million that it saw in Q4 2013. The company did see some revenue growth during the quarter, going from $2.7 billion in Q4 2013 to $3.1 billion in Q1 2014. BlackBerry's total cash and investments also grew for the quarter, settling at $3.1 billion.
Finally, BlackBerry has offered up a preview of what it expects from the future. The manufacturer says that it will continue to invest in BlackBerry 10 smartphone launches and its BlackBerry Messenger service as part of its plan to build the BlackBerry 10 platform into the wireless market. However, BlackBerry says that due to the "highly competitive" nature of the smartphone market, it anticipates that it will take another operating loss in Q2 2014. The company plans to continue rolling out cost-saving and process-improving initiatives to help grow its overall efficiency.
The first quarter of BlackBerry's fiscal 2014 appears to have a few highlights for the company, including an increase in its total number of smartphone shipments. However, because BlackBerry hasn't revealed what portion of that is BlackBerry 10 products or how many BB10 devices its shipped overall, it's tough to get a sense of exactly how well its new platform is doing. BlackBerry is slated to hold a conference call to discuss its Q1 2014 results this morning, and so it's possible that we'll hear more BlackBerry 10-focused news soon. Stay tuned and I'll update you with any juicy details that the company's got to share.
UPDATE: Some interesting tidbits have already come out of BlackBerry's Q1 2014 conference call. Those include:
