Following a stretch of disappointing quarters, Research In Motion has some good news, including a profit of $98 million in the fourth-quarter, as well as that it shipped one million units of its new Z10 smartphone.

RIM is pinning its hopes on a new mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10, and on devices built on the platform, including the new Z10, which recently made its U.S. debut. However, the mobile space is increasingly competitive and it is still unclear if these moves will be enough for RIM to regain its previous leading position in mobile.

?This is encouraging news for the company to slice out a profit even after selling just 6 million phones its lowest level since 2008,? said Neil Shah, senior analyst for the global wireless practice at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. ?For BlackBerry Z10 shipping 1 million units in one month is also a positive feat for a brand new platform which has been built ground up from hardware to software to app store.

?BlackBerry needs a broader portfolio of its new BB10 smartphones and across different price-tiers from premium to mid-tier level to ramp up scale, revenues and profits for a complete turnaround,? he said.

?Another positive which BlackBerry showed in the downturn quarter is healthy uptick in gross margins and protecting huge piles of cash it has which could be spent towards future marketing and R&D efforts. However, at the same time BlackBerry has to also protect its existing subscriber base which churned from 79 million users last quarter to 76 million this quarter, key to generating a good chunk of services revenues.?

Attracting quality developers
As mobile has evolved to become more consumer driven than it originally was, BlackBerry ? which traditionally focused on the enterprise segment ? has lost significant market share.

The new operating system and devices for it are the company?s attempt to address its plummeting market share by offering more consumer-friendly features, such as touch screens.

RIM has also put in place numerous changes at BlackBerry over the past year to try to bring about a more innovative culture.

While initial response to the new BlackBerry phone and operating system has been positive, the company is going up against Apple and Samsung, who are not only offering devices that consumers are excited about but also have strong marketing campaigns that resonate with their audiences.

Another challenge is attracting the right applications, as apps have become very popular with consumers. IOS and Android both offer close to 1 million apps while BlackBerry is currently offering around 100,000.

?BlackBerry has a very slick, intuitive and differentiated BB10 OS and UI as well as decent hardware but BlackBerry will have to work hard to attract quality tier-1 developers to develop native BB10 apps for the BlackBerry App World rather than just porting thousands of lower-quality Android apps to the platform and upset consumers,? Mr. Shah said.

U.S. market is critical
On a positive note, RIM reported income totaling $98 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the quarter. In the previous quarter, the company reported income totaling $9 million while in the year ago quarter, it had reported a loss of $125 million.

During the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 2, 2013, RIM shipped approximately 6 million BlackBerry phones ? including 1 million BlackBerry 10 units - and 370,000 PlayBook tablets.

RIM reported revenues totaling $2.7 billion, down 2 percent from the previous quarter and down 36 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

The company also reported that it had a subscriber base of approximately 76 million.

?Turnaround in US and China is critical for success and the markets BlackBerry cannot afford to ignore,? Mr. Shah said.

?Meanwhile, BlackBerry still has strong brand following in fast growing high-volume smartphone markets such as India, Indonesia, Nigeria and parts of Europe which definitely BlackBerry will look forward to leverage,? he said.

?Other opportunities include licensing key services and software to mobile industry players to generate further scale and reach.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York