BlackBerry maker Research In Motion’s (RIM) service revenue surpassed $1bn for the first time, but revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 was down 15% compared with the previous quarter.
RIM is losing market share much faster than expected to rivals Apple and Google, according to a Reuters report, after the company’s shares plunged 20% in thin early pre-market trading on the day.
The company reported second quarter results for the three months ended 27 August 2011.
It said that revenue in the second quarter was $4.2bn and service revenue surpassed $1bn for the
first time. GAAP net income was at $329m or $0.63 per fully diluted share and adjusted net income was at $419m or $0.80 per fully diluted share.
Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 was $4.2bn, down 15% from $4.9bn in the previous quarter and down 10% from $4.6bn in the same quarter of last year. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
However, the company said that the BlackBerry subscriber base grew 40% year over year to surpass 70 million. It added, "RIM’s largest roll-out of BlackBerry smartphones was initiated with 7 new smartphones launched with over 90 carrier and distribution partners in 30 countries during the latter part of Q2."
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Approximately $780m was invested as part of a consortium of companies that successfully bid to acquire intellectual property assets from Nortel, said RIM.
The company added that BlackBerry smartphone shipments in Q3 are estimated to grow between 27-37% over Q2 shipments.
Company Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said, "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.
"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," he added.
The company expects revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 ending 26 November 2011to be in the range of $5.3-$5.6bn. Gross margin percentage for the third quarter is expected to be approximately 37%, said RIM.
