RIM has banner fall 2009 quarter

Research In Motion tonight reported one of the best quarters in its history from sheer expansion. The company shipped an all time high of 10.1 million BlackBerries from September through November, smashing its previous record of 8.3 million. Of those, 4.4 million were new to BlackBerry, and the tally pushed RIM's active accounts to about 36 million.

About 75 million BlackBerries have shipped in the company's history.

Its fiscal results were also high for the quarter. Year over year, its net income surged over 32 percent to $628.4 million. Pure revenue increased 11 percent to $3.92 billion.

RIM credits the sales rush to launching some of its most important phones in the quarter, including the Bold 9700, Curve 8530 and Storm2. Launches of previous phones on more carriers also helped fuel its results.

The company is equally aggressive in its forecast and expects to ship at least 10.6 million BlackBerries by the end of February, its net income to soar between 48 and 58 percent and its revenue 7.1 to 12.2 percent.

RIM's achievements make it the first of the relative newcomers to the smartphone arena to ship more than 10 million phones in a quarter and sets a high marker for its close rival Apple. The latter was trailing RIM in the summer when it shipped 7.4 million phones, and some analysts have expected only 8 million and only infrequently more than 9 million. However, some claiming sources have said Apple would ship over 10 million iPhones and drawing even with RIM.

By Electronista Staff