RIM remains upbeat despite Q2 drop

Vendor's PlayBook tablet PC fails to set the world alight as the Apple effect takes its toll

BlackBerry-maker RIM saw sales drop 15 per cent sequentially for its second quarter 2011, as it experienced weaker than expected demand for its smartphones and tablet PC.

Turnover hit $4.2bn for the quarter ended 27 August, compared with the $4.9bn achieved in the previous quarter, and 10 per cent down on the $4.6bn in the same quarter of 2010.

Net profit, based on GAAP, was $329m, compared with $797m in the same quarter last year.

The vendor claimed its subscriber base grew 40 per cent year on year to surpass 70 million, and the firm has invested $780m as part of a consortium of companies that acquired IP assets from Nortel.

During the quarter, the vendor shipped about 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones and 200,000 PlayBook tablets, and its service revenue surpassed $1bn for the first time.

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive at RIM, said: "We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products.

"Overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast, due to lower than expected demand for old models. We will continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next-generation mobile platform next year," he said.