Research In Motion Reports Strong Third-Quarter Profit

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Research In Motion Reports Strong Third-Quarter Profit

4:02 am on December 20, 2008 | Category: Business, Cell Phones, PDAs

Research In Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry device, reported higher-than-expected profit for its fiscal third quarter on Thursday, despite concerns about the global economic slowdown.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company posted a net income of $477.3 million ($0.83 per share), excluding one-time items, for the three-month period ending on November 29. Analysts had expected a profit of $0.82 per share.

RIM’s revenue, meanwhile, came in at $2.78 billion, up 66.3% from last year, but slightly lower than analysts’ expectations.

The company added 2.6 million BlackBerry subscribers during the quarter, and shipped 6.7 million devices, as it launched the much-anticipated BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm smartphones. Executives predict that the company will maintain strong subscriber growth in the months to come.

“Despite the current turmoil in the economy we believe RIM is well positioned to take advantage of the industry shift to smart phones,” said the company’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who noted that the company expected to ship between 7.5 million and 8 million smartphones in current quarter.