RIM's revenue rises, Palm not so lucky

Research in Motion has posted a 66% year-on-year rise in revenue in the company's latest fiscal quarter, but saw its net earnings decline from the previous quarter.

The company posted revenues of $2.78 billion, an 8% increase over the previous quarter's #2.58 billion.

Yet net income declined 20% over the previous quarter, falling from $495.5 million to $396.3 million.

This can be at least partly attributed to the fact that the company missed its subscriber targets, signing up only 2.6 million new customers compared to the earlier projected 2.9 million. The BlackBerry subscriber base has now reached an estimated 21 million.

Rival smartphone developers Palm have not fared so well this quarter, posting a $506.2 million loss.

Most of the loss can be attributed to a $396 million write-down of deferred tax assets, but the company did post revenues of just $171 million this quarter - below even the company's lowered expectations.

The company had recently revised its forecast downward, but had still been expecting revenues of at least $190 million.

Palm shipped 599,000 smartphones for the quarter, 13% fewer than in the year-ago period.