BlackBerry reports 6 percent drop in Q3 2011 revenue

Research In Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry
smartphones, has reported 6 percent drop in revenue at $5.2 billion in Q3 2011
from $5.5 billion in the same quarter of last year.


The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately
79 percent for hardware, 19 percent for service and 2 percent for software and
other revenue.


During the three months ended November 26, 2011, RIM
shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately
150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.


Despite the challenges faced in the third quarter, the BlackBerry
subscriber base grew to almost 75 million customers around the world. In
addition, RIM launched a range of new BlackBerry 7 based smartphones globally
and introduced holiday promotions that helped drive growth in the installed
base of BlackBerry PlayBook users.


“RIM continues to have strong technology, unique
service capabilities and a large installed base of customers, and we are more
determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent
execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial
performance,” said Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEOs at Research In Motion.


As part of our commitment to improving our performance
to better meet the expectations of shareholders and customers, we continue to
evaluate ways to improve in several areas of the Company’s operations. It may
take some time to realize the benefits of these efforts and the platform
transition that we are undertaking, but we continue to believe that RIM has the
right set of strengths and capabilities to maintain a leading role in the
mobile communications industry,” Lazaridis added.


The company’s net income for the quarter was $265
million, or $0.51 per share diluted, compared with net income of $911 million,
or $1.74 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year.


Adjusted net income for the third quarter was $667
million, or $1.27 per share diluted. Adjusted net income and adjusted diluted
earnings per share exclude the impact of pre-tax charges of $54 million ($40
million after tax) to revenue related to the service interruption experienced
in the third quarter, $485 million ($356 million after tax) for the PlayBook
inventory provision taken in the third quarter and $7 million ($6 million after
tax) for the company’s cost optimization program that was implemented in the
second quarter of fiscal 2012.


Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 ending
March 3, 2012 is expected to be in the range of $4.6-$4.9 billion. BlackBerry
smartphone shipments are expected to be between 11 million and 12 million
units.


By Telecomlead.com Team
[email protected]