Andre Yoskowitz
19 Dec 2009 13:25
RIM announced its quarterly earnings on Thursday, showing record BlackBerry smartphone sales and a 59 percent increase in Q3 profit, smashing expectations.
Another notable figure was that 80 percent of all new subscribers were non-corporate, showing that RIM's push into the consumer smartphone market is working. RIM originally sold mainly to corporate customers but has moved towards the larger non-corporate market with phones such as the BlackBerry Pearl and Storm.
"The consumer side is growing real fast," co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie added. "It's not like this isn't a competitive space with big companies trying to do well and yet we're No. 1."
10 million BlackBerry units were sold in the quarter, a record for the company. In comparison, Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in the same quarter, although they make higher margins per phone.