RIM profits down in August quarter

Canadian vendor of fruit flavoured handsets, Research In Motion (RIM) said that net income for the quarter to the end of August fell slightly to $475.6m from $495.5m in the same period 2008.

The BlackBerry manufacturer reported quarterly revenues of $3.5bn, up 37 per cent from $2.57bn in the same quarter of 2008, broken down as 81 per cent for devices, 14 per cent for service, 2 per cent for software and 3 per cent for other revenue.

During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 8.3 million devices and added around 3.8 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber base was approximately 32 million worldwide.

Not to be disheartened though, analysts claim that the smartphone sector is experiencing strong growth, even as the handset market in general shrinks. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets recently said RIM is well positioned to lead the smartphone market, accounting for 18 per cent of the space in 2008.

During the quarter, RIM also settled long standing litigation with mobile email firm Visto, resulting in a one time payment of $267.5m, after Visto accused RIM of infringing on its patents.