Research In Motion Announces 28.5 Million Subscribers

Research In Motion Limited, a leading company on the mobile phone market, announced on Thursday its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2010. The company mentioned that during the three months ended May 30, 2009 it managed to add almost 3.8 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts, and that the total number of accounts had toped 28.5 million.

At the same time, the phone maker also announced $3.42 billion in revenue for the quarter, down from the $3.46 billion registered in the previous one, yet up 53 percent from the $2.24 billion it saw during the same time frame a year ago. According to RIM, the revenue breakdown was almost 81 percent for devices, 13 percent for services, 2 percent for software and 4 percent for other revenue. The number of devices that the company managed to ship during the quarter totaled around 7.8 million units.

“We are starting fiscal 2010 with strong financial performance and impressive market share gains, including a 55% share of the U.S. smartphone market according to IDC's latest estimate,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM. “The industry leading BlackBerry product portfolio is driving strong customer demand around the world and our penetration of new market segments continues to expand. We are particularly excited about the strength of our product portfolio for fiscal 2010 and we are looking forward to driving continued growth and profitability in our business throughout the remainder of the year.”

RIM also announced GAAP net income of $643.0 million for the period, which translates into $1.12 per share diluted, compared to the $518.3 million, or $0.90 per share diluted, it registered in the previous quarter, or with $482.5 million – $0.84 per share diluted – in the same quarter a year ago. In addition, the company posted adjusted net income of $564.4 million, or $0.98 per share diluted, for the quarter.

When talking about the second quarter of fiscal 2010, ending August 29, 2009, the company stated that it expected to see revenue in the range of $3.45billion-$3.70 billion. In addition, it also forecasts a gross margin of 43-44 percent for the time frame, and expects net subscriber account additions to range from 3.8 to 4.1 million. During the quarter, Research In Motion also says it expects to register earnings of around $0.94-$1.03 per share diluted.