Day: September 19, 2010

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) , a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported second quarter results for the three months ended August 28, 2010 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP).

Highlights:

• Revenue grew 31% over the same quarter last year to $4.62 billion
• Earnings per share in the second quarter increased 76% to $1.46 over the second quarter last year(1)
• BlackBerry(R) smartphone shipments grew more than 45% over the same quarter last year to 12.1 million and RIM has shipped approximately 115 million BlackBerry smartphones to date
• BlackBerry subscriber account base grew approximately 56% over the prior year to over 50 million
  

Q2 Results:

Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 was $4.62 billion, up 9% from $4.24 billion in the previous quarter and up 31% from $3.53 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 79% for devices, 17% for service, 1% for software and 3% for other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 12.1 million devices.

Approximately 4.5 million net new BlackBerry(R) subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was over 50 million.

“RIM set another new record in the quarter by shipping over 12 million BlackBerry smartphones. This accomplishment and RIM’s solid financial results during the second quarter were driven by effective business execution and strong demand for RIM’s portfolio of BlackBerry smartphones and services in markets around the world,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “We expect a continuation of this momentum in the third quarter as we extend the rollout of new products including the BlackBerry Torch into additional markets and benefit from heavy promotional activities and increasing customer demand as we head into the holiday buying season.”

The Company’s net income for the quarter was $796.7 million, or $1.46 per share diluted, compared with net income of $768.9 million, or $1.38 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $475.6 million, or $0.83 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. The impact of Q2 share repurchases on second quarter fiscal 2011 earnings per share was approximately $0.02 per share.

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.03 billion as at August 28, 2010, compared to $3.27 billion at the end of the previous quarter, a decrease of $1.24 billion from the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations in Q2 was approximately $938 million. Uses of cash included common share repurchases of approximately $1.5 billion, business acquisitions of approximately $320 million, capital expenditures of approximately $200 million and intangible asset purchases of approximately $100 million.

Q3 Outlook

Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ending November 27, 2010 is expected to be in the range of $5.30-$5.55 billion. Gross margin for Q3 is expected to be approximately 42%. Net subscriber account additions in the third quarter are expected to be in the range of 5.0-5.4 million. Earnings per share for the third quarter are expected to be in the range of $1.62-$1.70 per share diluted.

“Sit down comfortably, because any discussion of a new Blackberry device is not so simple and I would not like to offer you just a dry account of specs and features. Feelings and emotions will do much better. I like that RIM can still produce unique smartphones both in terms of features (which is rather illusory) and design. As I want to share my emotions with you the manufacturer must have had an intention to put this emotion in a new Pearl too. Remember that the tried and trusted Blackberry 8100 has been in continuous production for years. It was the first Blackberry for many and they are still happy to use this accessible smartphone. An unpretentious phone offers a stunning battery life. If you do not use the proprietary boosted battery or torture this model (which is too simple for that) you can get at least one week of true mobility. 8100 was (and still is) a beautiful model, which should definitely get into Top 100 of best gadgets of the century. A true living legend. I guess that 9100 will follow suit. I was convinced during a 1 week use. I will not touch upon software features, but will speak about what’s on the outside. For the first time I got hands on a Blackberry without a QWERTY keypad, which is not nice, but I could not find another option in Moscow at the time. It will be even more interesting.” Read more here:

“In one of those ‘oh please no’ moments it looks like France Telecom, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are getting together over coffee in Paris next month to see if they can’t come up with their very own smartphone OS. Seriously.
At the risk of editorialising mobile network operators don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to creating and pushing their own operating systems, one need look no further than Vodafone’s 360 efforts to see the truth in that. Why they would want to pump more resources into the same strategy is a bit baffling. Then of course there is the very pertinent question of whether the market needs, and indeed can support, yet another operating system? We already have Android, iOS, Symbian, Blackberry OS, MeeGo, Bada, Windows Mobile and the forthcoming Windows Phone 7. Consumers aren’t exactly stuck for choice.
Of course this probably has more to do with the networks wanting to regain some control rather than increasing consumer choice. For years the networks were able to dominate handsets with their own branded content and services, but iOS, Blackberry and Android have been eating into that control. Maybe the networks would be better off trying to support those platforms more fully rather than dipping their toe back in the dangerous waters of OS Lake?” via mobile-review.com