Blackberry-maker storms ahead

Blackberry-maker RIM (Research in Motion) has boosted Q1 turnover by 158 per cent on the figures for the same period last year. The company is also now sitting on a cash mountain of $1.55bn.

It is predicting that revenue for the second quarter will hit the $290m to $310m range and for the third quarter will be between $340m and $360m.

Turnover for the first quarter was $269.6m - a 28 per cent improvement on the last quarter of last year. Net income for the quarter was $55m, compared with $41.5m for the prior quarter.

The company said that the number of Blackberry subscribers had increased by 270,000 in the quarter to a total of 1,340,000. Revenue breaks down as 68 per cent for handhelds (478,000 units shipped), 19 per cent for services, 9 per cent for software licences and four per cent for other revenue.

The company does not break down revenues by region, so there are no hard figures for its success in the UK and Europe. In the quarter, it has pulled off a string of European deals including ones with Siemens, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, SFR in France, Orange UK and Vodafone in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Sweden and Ireland.

RIM also signed a deal with PalmSource to make Blackberry Connect available to Palm licencees.

Rick Costanzo, RIM VP Commercial Relations for Europe, said in a statement: "This is a really exciting time for RIM in Europe. We are seeing astounding growth with BlackBerry now available from 28 operators across Europe. In addition, all the major handset manufacturers including Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, PalmOne and Nokia have now joined the BlackBerry Connect programme bringing BlackBerry to a much wider audience."

RIM first announced a profit in August of last year.