Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry, said on Thursday that it sold a record number of smartphones in the first quarter of its fiscal year.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it shipped 11.2 million devices in the quarter that ended on May 29 compared with 10.5 million units the previous quarter.
RIM posted a quarterly net profit of US$769 million, up 19.5 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Revenue grew 24 percent to US$4.24 billion.
The results came in slightly under RIM’s revenue forecast and shares in the company were trading 4.61 percent lower at US$55.88 dollars in after-hours electronic trading.
SUBSCRIBERS
The Canadian handset maker said it added 4.9 million BlackBerry subscribers during the quarter, about the same number as during the previous quarter, for a total of 46 million.
“We continue to be focused on growing our business globally,” RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said in a statement.
“We believe that the range of exciting new BlackBerry products being released in the coming months will create significant opportunities to accelerate RIM’s growth.”
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that RIM is developing a touchscreen smartphone with a slide-out keyboard and a tablet device to serve as a larger-screen companion to the BlackBerry.
KEEPING UP
The newspaper said the moves are designed to prevent the BlackBerry from losing more ground to Apple’s iPhone and iPad and mobile devices running Google’s Android operating system.
RIM’s touchscreen smartphone, the BlackBerry Storm, has failed to match the popularity of the iPhone, whose latest version, the iPhone 4 hit stores around the world on Thursday.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday that more than 160,000 Android-powered devices were being sold worldwide every day.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
CHIP EXCEPTION: An official said that an exception for Taiwanese semiconductors would have a limited effect, as most are packaged in third nations before being sold The Executive Yuan yesterday decried US President Donald Trump’s 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods announced hours earlier as “unfair,” saying it would lodge a representation with Washington. The Cabinet in a statement described the pledged US tariffs, expected to take effect on Wednesday next week, as “deeply unreasonable” and “highly regrettable.” Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the government would “lodge a solemn representation” with the US Trade Representative and continue negotiating with Washington to “ensure the interests of our nation and industries.” Trump at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS