Results review
Research in Motion (RIM) has beaten profit expectations despite a security row in India and the Middle East.
Net profit for the three months to August increased to $796.7m from $475.6m a year ago, perhaps buoyed by the launch of BlackBerry 6, the new os.
RIM's revenues rocketed by 31percent to $4.62bn, while analysts had predicted more cautious revenues of $4.47bn. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 79 percent for devices, 17 percent for service, 1 percent for software and 3 percent for other revenue.
The results may seem particularly impressive given the amount of fuss surrounding Blackberry's encrypted messages in India and the Middle East, plus a rather sluggish launch of the new BlackBerry Torch handset.
BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew by more than 45 percent over the same quarter last year to 12.1m and RIM has shipped around 115m smartphones to date, while the BlackBerry subscriber account base grew approximately 56 percent over the prior year to over 50m. RIM also shipped over 12m BlackBerry smartphones in the quarter.
"This accomplishment and RIM's solid financial results during the second quarter were driven by effective business execution and strong demand for RIM's portfolio of BlackBerry smartphones and services in markets around the world," said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM.
"We expect a continuation of this momentum in the third quarter as we extend the rollout of new products including the BlackBerry Torch into additional markets and benefit from heavy promotional activities and increasing customer demand as we head into the holiday buying season," he added.
