RIM Posts Growth in Revenues for Q1 FY2011

On Thursday, Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion announced its financial results for the first quarter of its financial year 2011. According to the company, it registered revenues of $4.24 billion during the three months period ended May 29, 2010, up from the $4.08 billion reported for the previous quarter, and up 24 percent when compared to the $3.42 billion in revenues registered during the same time frame a year ago.

The handset vendor also announced that the revenue breakdown for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 was of around 79 percent for devices, 16 percent for services, 2 percent for software and of around 3 percent for other revenues. A number of approximately 11.2 million devices were shipped during the three months period, the company states, adding that 4.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added, and that the time frame ended with a total number of 46 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts.

“RIM achieved significant earnings growth and shipped a record 11.2 million devices during the first quarter, including its 100 millionth BlackBerry smartphone,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM. “We continue to be focused on growing our business globally and we believe that the range of exciting new BlackBerry products being released in the coming months will create significant opportunities to accelerate RIM’s growth in the second half of the fiscal year.”

RIM's net income for the period was of $768.9 million, or $1.38 per share diluted, up from the $710.1 million, or $1.27 per share diluted, income reported for the previous quarter. During the first quarter of the last year, the company registered a net income of $643.0 million, or $1.12 per share diluted. As of May 29, 2010, the handset vendor reported a total of cash, cash equivalents and investments of $3.27 billion, marking an increase of around $400 million on a quarterly basis.

Here's what the company had to say about Q2 FY 2011: “Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 ending August 28, 2010 is expected to be in the range of $4.4-$4.6 billion. Gross margin for Q2 is expected to be approximately 44%. Net subscriber account additions in the second quarter are expected to be in the range of 4.9-5.2 million. Earnings per share for the second quarter are expected to be in the range of $1.33-$1.40 per share diluted.”