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BlackBerry’s Net Income Drops 71%
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December 16, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
BlackBerry maker’s RIM saw their net income fall by 71%. Competition from other smartphones has been blamed for the drop.
BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have seen their net income fall by 71%. Tough competition from other smartphones, such as the iPhone and Google’s android, has been blamed.
The Canadian firm said that revenue fell 6% to $5.2bn. They earned $265m for the quarter that ended 26 November. This compares with $911m a year ago.
The company had to sell its Playbook tablet at a discounted price. This meant they took a large accounting charge.
BlackBerry will ship between 11 and 12 million Blackberry phones during the fourth quarter, which is lower than the 14.1 million they shipped during the previous quarter.
Colin Gillis, a BGC financial analysist, has said that RIMs future depends upon its next-generation BlackBerry 10, the latest version of the smartphone. The launch of this model is expected to be delayed until February 2012, which financial experts say will be too late.
Jim Basillie, one of the company’s co-CEOs, acknowledged that the company was facing troubled times and stated that they were working to improve things.
“It may take some time to realise 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,” Mr Basillie said.
It has not been a good year for the BlackBerry. In October a faulty router left millions of users without emails, internet or BlackBerry messenger for three days.
RIM were also ranked last place in an ecologically-friendly survey conducted by Greenpeace in November.
By Louisa Guise
[Image courtesy of arrayexception]
