RIM doubles income, ships 5.4m BlackBerries

Research in Motion on Wednesday afternoon reported what it says are record results for its spring quarter. The company's revenue spiked 107 percent year-over-year to just over $2.2 billion based largely on shipments of BlackBerry devices themselves, which made up 82 percent of the revenue between March and May. The company delivered about 5.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and notes that almost 43 percent of these were new customers. About 2.3 million new BlackBerry push e-mail accounts went live in the same period, RIM says.

The figures also push the number of total active BlackBerry accounts to 16 million, although this number is believed to be higher with customers who don't use BlackBerry mail accounts or who have one of the few non-BlackBerry devices that supports the mail system. The 40 millionth BlackBerry should be sold during the summer, according to the Canadian phone maker.

RIM's results point to continued very strong growth, which saw it take marketshare from Nokia on the world stage and continues to make it the current leader in the US smartphone business. Direct marketshare comparisons are difficult given the company's unusual quarter, which goes against the more typical May-to-June cycle, but the number is believed to easily eclipse that of Apple, whose original iPhone encountered supply shortages as early as March and was completely unavailable by late May.

RIM is expected to see equally strong performance during the summer, when it has officially planned to release the BlackBerry Bold across multiple carriers and the unannounced but virtually confirmed BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen phone for Verizon and Vodafone, which will compete directly with the iPhone.

Filed under: iPhone, industry
Other story tags: BlackBerry, Verizon, Research in Motion, Vodafone, Bold, Thunder