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Research In Motion reported their fourth quarter and had mostly good things to say about the fiscal year. Since last year, revenue was up 35% to $15 billion ($4.08 billion in Q4), subscriber base grew 65% to 41 million (4.9 million fresh souls in Q4), and 40% more units shipped, totalling 37 million (10.5 million in Q4). Sounds good, right? Well, analysts were ballparking around $4.3 billion for the last quarter rather than $4.08, so it looks like after-hours trading is going to be ugly. That seems a little unfair, since RIM is still growing at a respectable clip, but I guess traders are fickle.
Co-CEO Jim Balsillie sounded peppy about the future: “If you could see the roadmap, you’d be blown away.” Between the QWERTY/touchscreen Dakota, and the slider, I definitely believe we’ll see some exciting (if not unexpected) stuff from RIM this year. Of even more interest to us consumers, Balsillie let slip the name Concierge when talking about things launched at BBDC, which we are led to believe are those screenshots of a revamped BlackBerry home screen, although until today was officially unnamed. A lot of folks thought Concierge was either a glimpse into OS 6.0, or simply the originally-intended demo for developers, but depending on how much you read into Balsillie’s slip-up, it may very well be a product that eventually comes to market. In what format and to what extent is still something of a mystery, but the mention does keep the speculative juices flowing.
You can read the full quarterly and year-end results here, but if you’re really into the financial nitty-gritty, be sure to check out RIMM’s page in our Finance section.
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
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