RIM’s revenue down 15pc last quarter, 200,000 PlayBooks shipped


16 Sep 2011

RIM’s quarterly results were below analysts’ forecasts, with revenue down 15pc from the previous quarter. It shipped 200,000 PlayBooks during this period.

Revenue for this quarter was US$4.2bn, with 73pc accounting for hardware, 24pc for service and 3pc for software and other revenue.

Net income was US$329m or 63 cents per share.

Excluding the impact of a pre-tax one-time charge of US$118m for a cost optimisation program, adjusted net income was US$419m and per share earnings were 80 cents per share.

RIM shipped 10.6m BlackBerry smartphones and 200,000 PlayBook tablets, which AllThingsDigital reports was lower than analysts’ expectations.

“We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion in a statement.

“Overall, unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models.

“We will continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next-generation, QNX-based mobile platform next year.”

RIM’s cash and investments amounted to US$1.4bn, dropping from US$2.9bn last quarter. This was due to strategic purchases of intellectual property, which includes RIM’s participation with the group of companies which acquired Nortel’s mobile patents.

For the third quarter, it expects to ship between 13.5m and 14.5m smartphones and said its revenue was expected to be in the range of US$5.3bn and US$5.6bn. Adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal year of 2012 are expected to be in the low end of the previously guided range of US$5.25-US$6.00.