RIM is confident it will continue growing into early 2011, after strong progress during its fiscal third quarter when it grew profits, revenues and shipments.
The BlackBerry maker grew net profit 12.5% to $911.1 million (€683.5 million) during the three months to end November, on the back of a 40% hike in revenues to $5.5 billion that was driven by record quarterly device shipments of 14.2 million.
BlackBerry subscribers grew by 5.1 million taking total users to 55 million by the end of the period – up from 36 million in fiscal 3Q09.
In an earnings call, RIM said it benefitted from a more even global distribution of devices during the quarter, and predicted it would continue to grow in its fiscal 4Q, with revenues forecast to hit $5.5 billion to $5.7 billion, and earnings per share of $1.80 – up from $1.77 in fiscal 3Q and from $1.74.
Despite the bullish outlook, Gartner figures show RIM was still bleeding market share to its rivals during calendar 3Q10, with the share of BlackBerry OS falling from 20.7% to 14.8%.
However, those figures don’t include shipments of new models launched towards the end of calendar 3Q, which could boost its position by hitting the crucial holiday sales period.