RIM Records Record BlackBerry Shipments In Second Quarter

Research in Motion announced that it shipped a record 12 million smartphones in the second quarter. With the announcement, RIM beat analysts' expectations. According to the manufacturer, BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew more than 45 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year over the same quarter a year ago to 12.1 million.

In the first quarter of its fiscal year, RIM shipped 11.2 million BlackBerry smartphones. The previous quarter RIM recorded shipments of 10.5 million units. According to RIM, the BlackBerry subscriber base has gained market share and has grown approximately 56 percent in the quarter over the prior year to more than 50 million. In the first quarter, RIM added 4.5 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts.

RIM posted revenue of 4.62 billion dollars, which represented a growth of 31 percent. This exceeded Wall Street analysts' expected revenue of 4.47 billion dollars.

According to comScore, RIM led the smartphone platform and held a 39.3 percent share of US smartphone subscribers at the end of July. By comparison, Google's Android platform gained five percentage points to 17 percent of the market. Apple's iPhone holds 23.8 percent of the market.

"RIM set another new record in the quarter by shipping over 12 million BlackBerry smartphones," RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said in a statement. "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," Balsillie continued.