Telecom Lead India: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has posted 31 percent dip in Q2 fiscal 2013 revenue to $2.9 billion from $4.2 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2012.
Revenue, q-o-q basis, grew 2 percent from $2.8 billion.
BlackBerry subscriber base increased to approximately 80 million global subscribers.
During the second quarter, RIM shipped approximately 7.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and shipped approximately 130,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
RIM that did not bring out new products in the last quarter is unable to compete with Apple and Samsung in the smartphone market. Apple recently said it sold more than 5 million iPhone5 phones in 3 days.
The BlackBerry maker said the revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 60 percent for hardware, 35 percent for service and 5 percent for software and other revenue.
Net loss for the quarter was $235 million compared with the net loss of $518 million.
“Subscribers grew to approximately 80 million global users, revenue grew sequentially from the first quarter, cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments increased by approximately $100 million to $2.3 billion, and carriers and developers are responding well to previews of our upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform,” said Thorsten Heins, president and CEO, RIM.
RIM said there will be continued pressure on operating results for the remainder of the fiscal year based on the increasing competitive environment, lower handset volumes, increased marketing expense associated with the launch of BlackBerry 10, and some impact from pressure by customers to reduce RIM”s monthly infrastructure access fees.
The company is planning to invest in targeted marketing and sales programs to drive sales of BlackBerry 7 handheld devices before the anticipated launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
Recently, RIM CEO said the company is also getting positive feedback on its new BlackBerry 10 devices from the carriers that have had previews of the new smartphones. The BB10 devices, to be launched in early 2013, will run on a new operating system that will offer a faster and smoother user interface, and a better platform for apps that are critical to the success of smartphones.
