14 DAY TRIAL // Research In Motion, the Canadian handset manufacturer that rolls-out BlackBerry smartphones since 1997, has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2008. As expected, RIM is doing great, both when it comes to profits and handsets sold.
The company says that, in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which ended on May 31, it shipped 5.6 million mobile devices worldwide. This led to a total revenue of 2.24 billion USD, a 107% increase when compared to the same period of the last year and a 19% increase when compared to the previous quarter. Furthermore, 2.3 million new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were created, raising the total number of accounts at more than 16 million.
The net income (profit) reported by RIM for the first quarter is of 482.5 million USD, a nice increase if we think about the profit from the previous quarter, which was of 412.5 million USD.
Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion, said about his company's results: "We are pleased to report another record quarter with revenue increasing 107% as the popularity of the BlackBerry platform continued to spread in business, government and consumer segments. Our comprehensive technology and business strategies continue to reap strong results in the market and RIM is well positioned to build on its momentum throughout the remainder of fiscal 2009. As we prepare this summer to ship our 40 millionth BlackBerry smartphone, we continue to steadily scale our business and partnerships to support the opportunities ahead in this thriving sector."
The most important market for RIM is the US, where the Waterloo-based company occupies the fifth place when it comes to the number of handsets sold in the first quarter (after Motorola, Samsung, LG and Nokia). This is an impressive performance, considering the fact that the Canadian manufacturer's handsets are only smartphones, none of them falling into the entry-level category.
Whit a least two new high-end smarpthones that should be released soon (Bold 9000 and the full-touch Thunder), RIM will probably report even better results in the next quarters. Which is a good thing, as long as end users are satisfied with the company's handsets.