RIM Reports Surge in Revenues, New Subscribers

Research In Motion may be facing tougher competition than ever, but you wouldn't know it from the quarterly results the Canadian company released Wednesday.

The company reported $490.1 million in revenue for the just-completed quarter, a 58 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago and an eight percent increase compared to the previous quarter. Net income for the quarter was $111.1 million, compared to net income of $70.6 million in the year-ago quarter. In addition, the company said it added about 620,000 subscribers in the quarter, giving it a total of 3.65 million .

"We are entering the second half with solid market positioning, strong momentum and an impressive line-up of new products and services," Jim Balsillie, RIM's chairman and co-CEO, said in a statement. "As a result, we are now expecting to surpass $2 billion in annual revenue and the 5 million subscriber milestone before the end of the fiscal year."

Some market analysts have questioned RIM's position with the introduction of smartphones from other vendors based on the Windows Mobile 5.0 mobile platform. That newly-updated platform can connect directly to enterprise Microsoft Exchange 2003 servers, which negates the need for RIM's BlackBerry software.

However, the company said in its quarterly report that only eight percent of its revenue comes from that server software. Rather, 70 percent comes from hardware sales, primarily of its BlackBerry devices, and 18 percent comes from e-mail service.