BlackBerry reports sharp drop in share price, first-quarter net loss of $84M

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, introduces the BlackBerry 10, in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. (AP / Mark Lennihan)

Shares of BlackBerry closed down by more than 26 per cent Friday afternoon after the company unveiled disappointing first-quarter results.

The company announced Friday morning that it posted a loss of US$84 million, or 16 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 1. That was an improvement from a loss of $518 million, or 99 cents per share, a year ago.

What analysts expected to be a major comeback for the Waterloo, Ont.-based company has instead been a “huge flop,” according to Hugh Miller, Bloomberg News technology correspondent.

The company was expecting a profit when it rolled out its Z10 in an attempt to get back into the consumer market with a touch-screen phone in January.

“Analysts were expecting 3.6 million to be sold, and they were almost a million short of that. The phones aren’t selling the way people expected them to,” Miller told CTV News Channel Friday.

BlackBerry subscribers dropped by four million to 72 million in the quarter and in the future, the company does not plan to share those figures with the public.

BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said Friday that the company expects to post further losses in the second quarter. He also announced that the company will no longer offer upgrades for its tablet, the PlayBook.

"Strong products alone are not good enough to insure solid, long-term turnaround so we have been intensely focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet and delivering efficiency," Heins told analysts on a conference call.

"We will continue to focus on our financial strength and believe we are well positioned to continue to invest in our platform and compete in a highly competitive market."

The company also announced that revenue increased to $3.07 billion, up from $2.81 billion a year ago. However, analysts had predicted revenue to hit $3.36 billion.

What is essential to the company’s survival is getting the Q10 back in the hands of its faithful consumers, according to Miller and BNN’s Michael Hainsworth.

The Q10 that just hit U.S. stores features the iconic BlackBerry keyboard.

“The Q10 with QWERTY keyboard hasn’t been on sale long enough to see its success,” Hainsworth told CTV Toronto.

Hainsworth says consumers will have to wait three months to see if the company will profit from Q10 sales.

With files from The Canadian Press