RIM calls for over 11m phones based on Curve rush

Sales of the BlackBerry Curve 8500 line have been so strong that they're creating shortages, RIM said during a call discussing its latest fiscal results. A disproportionately large number of the 10.5 million BlackBerries shipped were the entry level phone and have left the company struggling to keep up. The shortages are sustained enough that RIM expects a limit to the number of phones it can ship in the spring and warned that its inventory would be "extremely low."

The runaway success is expected to lead to even higher sales overall but simultaneously dragging the company down. It predicted between 11.2 million and 11.8 million phones shipping between March and May, but the average selling price of a BlackBerry should drop to between $305 and $310 as the Curve 8520 and 8530 would offset the existence of phones like the Bold 9700 and Storm2.

In the US, the entry-level Curve was RIM's best-selling phone and owed much of its success to Verizon's Buy One Get One (BOGO) promo. The deal gave away a similar phone for free and was helped by the rapidly falling contract price on the phone, which dropped from $100 on its November launch day to $50 and as little as $30 today. Worldwide sales were also very good, especially in countries like the UK where it topped Orange's pay-as-you-go phones.

The results help RIM keep its edge in smartphones, where it has often had popular models but rarely seen enough demand to spark full fledged shortages. It also shows the company at least temporarily holding off the threat of new entry level smartphones like the $99 iPhone 3G or Droid Eris. While often more powerful in browsing and apps, these have often had little to no price drops and are sometimes carrier-exclusive where RIM has tried to court every carrier when possible.

By Electronista Staff