BlackBerry is on the road to recovery

Rumors of BlackBerry's death may have been somewhat premature. The company just revealed its latest financial results, showing significant profits.

The former smartphone giant posted a stronger-than-expected second quarter, after, according to BlackBerry, its "complete transformation to a software company."

The company reported a Q2 profit of $19 million, with its shares rising seven percent in Thursday premarket trading. Analysts expected BlackBerry to "break even" on revenue.

"We achieved historical highs in total software and services revenue and gross margin, as well as the highest non-GAAP operating margin in over five years, reflecting our complete transformation to a software company," said the company chief executive officer John Chen.

"Our position as a market leader in security continues to strengthen," he added, saying the company projected software and services revenue gains are between 10 and 15 percent this year.

The company said its software and services revenue hit a record $196 million this quarter, which was more than what RBC analyst Paul Trieber estimated ($174m), and also more than what Macquarie’s Gus Papageorgiou estimated ($176.2m).

It’s worth mentioning that BlackBerry’s reported revenue for Q2 of 2013 was $2.9bn, so it’s safe to say the company is still far off from where it used to be.

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