Research in Motion has reported a 31% decline in revenues and a 170% drop in net income for its most recent financial quarter.
But the figures beat the expectations of investment analysts and RIM’s share price rose 18% following the news.
The BlackBerry maker’s sales dropped to $2.9 billion, while its net loss for the quarter was $235 million – down 170% from a $329 million profit a year ago.
RIM said it sold 7.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and 130,000 PlayBook tablets during the quarter, adding that its subscriber user base is increasing and has now reached 80,000 users.
“Despite the significant changes we are implementing across the organisation, our second quarter results demonstrate that RIM is progressing on its financial and operational commitments during this major transition,” said RIM CEO Thorsten Heins. Still, he said, the company "has much more work to do”.
“We are making the organisational changes to drive improvements across the company. Our employees are committed and motivated, and [forthcoming operating system] BlackBerry 10 is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013.”
Interesting Links
Earlier this week, RIM unveiled new features of BlackBerry 10 (BBX), saying that the company had “taken what people know and love about BlackBerry to expand beyond traditional mobile communication.”
New enterprise features on BBX were based around BlackBerry Enterprise Services 10, which simplifies the process of provisioning new devices, as well as a redesigned user interface based upon two new features, BlackBerry Hub and BlackBerry Flow.
However, in a statement, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said that the company "still has much more work to do”.
“We are making the organisational changes to drive improvements across the company,” said Heins. “Our employees are committed and motivated, and BlackBerry 10 is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013.”
RIM warned that the company is under continued pressure to deliver results during the fiscal year based on the competitive environment, lower handset volumes, increased marketing expense due to the launch of BBX, and pressure by customers to reduce the company’s monthly infrastructure access fees.
Heins, who was appointed CEO of RIM in January, recently said at a press conference that he believes BBX has a "clear shot" at coming third behind rival mobile platforms iOS and Android.
