RIM doubles up profits, revenue

Just as forecasted, Research in Motion has delivered quite the Wall Street-pleasing results in the fiscal third-quarter. The BlackBerry maker's recently released numbers showed a staggering $370.5 million profit compared to "just" $175.2 million in the same quarter last year. Furthermore, the firm's Q3 revenue rose to $1.67 billion from $835.1 million last year. According to co-CEO Jim Balsillie, it's pretty "clear [that] BlackBerry smartphones have crossed over from being viewed as a primarily enterprise product to being marketed as a strong mainstream offering," and considering the results, it's hard to argue that point. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen enough digits in one post, it should be noted that RIM shipped out more than 3.9 million handsets and added around 1.65 million BlackBerry subscribers in Q3, also. Not too shabby, eh?

[Flashpoint @ Dec 21st 2007 9:21AM]

I have a company issued Blackberry 7290 (cingular) and I'll be upgraded to the Curve or whatever model RIM deals us.

I don't believe that there is any phone out there more business minded than a Blackberry.

Everything on them is nearly perfect from the keypad - entering contacts, editing address book (copy and pasting) ,etc

...to the jog dial, which allows you to easily scroll through everything.

...to the internet.

These things even have great power consumption and I only charge every 3 days. The screen on mine is easy to see in normal light without using the backlight.

I'm glad to see RIM making big profits. I just hope they use it to bring more perfection to the product.

BLACKBERRY TOUCH !!!!!

[AcidElement @ Dec 21st 2007 9:54AM]

The BlackBerry platform has one of the worst browsing experiences on the market. I love my Curve, but take your head out of your ass and don't make false claims.

Tool.

[Yoshi Likes Boys @ Dec 21st 2007 10:41AM]

Yeah, the browser is pretty weak. However, yeah, the Curve 8310 is pretty easily the best device I've ever owned. I literally boxed up the HTC 8500 and gave it back to my brother the day I got this one.

[kevinm @ Dec 21st 2007 10:45AM]

You can get Opera Mini like I did with my Curve.

[Shaun McManus @ Dec 21st 2007 11:06AM]

I purchased a Blackberry 8830 from Sprint on October 17, 2007. I have had nothing but problems with the internet connection. As I write this I still have no internet on the phone and Sprint does not seem to know what is wrong.

[Daryl Gregg @ Dec 21st 2007 9:26AM]

I just switched from a WinMo Q to a Curve and man what a difference. The phone is built well and actually performs tasks without delay. Something I couldnt say about the Q. It was always slowing down, And my previous Treo 700w was way worse.

[tom @ Dec 21st 2007 11:58AM]

Honestly, I found Q to be a POS, nothing like a BB. RIM's report card is well deserved=D

[NP @ Dec 21st 2007 9:34AM]

I had a Palm Treo 700p that was flaking out since soon after I bought it. I finally got fed up of it crashing and hanging that I called up Sprint to break my contract and go to AT&T for a BB Curve. They offered me a free swap for a BB 8830 and I couldn't be happier. None of the issues with the treos and it includes GPS, excellent integration with Google apps I use like gmail, hosted gmail, google talk and others. Hello RIM, goodbye Palm, goodbye forever!

[frank @ Dec 21st 2007 9:38AM]

The power consumption issue continues to amaze me. If you have a WinMo device, charging it every single day is a necessity that you eventually get used to but it's a pain in the ass nonetheless. How is it that Blackberries can go for days?

[striggity @ Dec 21st 2007 9:44AM]

I've been a blackberry user ever since summer of 2005. Since then, I've had 4 different models on 3 different carriers. I currently have the Pearl on Tmobile, and I've come to the conclusion that BB's are my favorite wireless devices, hands down. Go RIM!

[Cirian75 @ Dec 21st 2007 10:04AM]

Yep, I'll joining the Blackberry club in Jan08

well done RIM for showing Nokia, SE, HTC etc how its done.

[Chaj @ Dec 21st 2007 10:46AM]

Good thing I picked up 300 shares of RIMM while it was at 98 the other day....

[Dan S @ Dec 21st 2007 11:00AM]

I got really interested in blackberry because of the iPhone. I think the process went something like "ooh, I phone, except cincular blows in my city... and the iPhone is very apple 1.0.... oh wait, the BBs do what I want anyway... why not just buy that?". Anyway, I wonder how much of blackberry successes is part of the good old "A rising tide lifts all boats".

[Bad Beaver @ Dec 21st 2007 11:09AM]

The browsing experience is horrible, the interface bland, the Mac support abysmal, and the business-model is to force push-mail upon you whether you like it or not if you want to use the devices for eMail at all. Bah.

[PChang @ Dec 21st 2007 11:10AM]

I think the Pearl is the phone responsible for helping BB become accepted as a mainstream phone. The older BB devices were just too large for most everyday phone users.

[Bob @ Dec 21st 2007 11:35AM]

The curve has an AWESOME browsing experience!!! Get Opera Mini you knuckle heads!

[helloUser @ Dec 21st 2007 12:02PM]

I've been considering a blackberry after a friend showed me its mp3 player and the use of the scroll ball thing, which as said by flashpoint, scroll through everything, including long live sets (which is one of the few reasons why id actually buy an ipod). Anyway, im hesitant, the only thing i need to know is; sound quality and battery life. It does the rest the way things should be done: UMS, ID3 tag browsing, no need for proprietary crap like itunes or whatever.

iphone fails terribly compared to blackberry, typing on the iphone proves to be as slow and tedious on a normal 9 key pad cell phone where 3 letter are on each key. The inaccuracy of the touch screen makes the iphone a total failure. Why its flying off shelves is obvious: the general public (ie, engadget readers) wants a nice looking gimmick, because they are stupid, functionality and practicality mean nothing to them.

[Adagio @ May 29th 2008 1:52AM]

Eh, I have a blackberry curve 8310, and a iphone. I use both on a daily basis and I can type just as fast on the iphone as I can on the blackberry.

However, feel free to keep making assumptions about me, because we all know what Samuel Jackson says about making assumptions...

[Urbalist @ Dec 21st 2007 12:27PM]

I just got a Blackberry Pearl and so far I really love it. The native browser does suck , however you can download Opera mini which is a lot better in my opinion. The ability to download applications and change your theme was a big draw for me. I'm glad to see that RIM is pulling a large profit from these great devices.

[Bryant @ Dec 21st 2007 1:23PM]

"and considering the results, it's hard to argue that point"

Argue *with* that point. Arguing a point means you're promoting it.

[Walid Safwat @ Dec 23rd 2007 8:15PM]

Is anyone at PALM reading this??

[Cyjeff @ Dec 27th 2007 4:21PM]

I had to walk away from BB a couple of years ago.

BB's are great as email clients... but I use my cell phone to make calls too and the phone stunk! I could be standing still on a street corner in Manhattan and the call quality would drop and then spike and then drop. Terrible.

I have heard that the quality has gotten better since the Pearl... now if BB would only realize how great 3G is, I might just come back.