CaribPR Wire

CaribPR Wire, MIAMI, Fl, Fri. Mar. 25, 2011: RIM completed the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 with record smartphone shipments and financial performance.

In fiscal 2011 BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew 43%, revenue grew 33% and earnings per share grew 47% over the prior year.  The adoption of BlackBerry smartphones in international markets continues to expand and BlackBerry was named the number one selling smartphone brand for 2010 in several markets including the United States, Canada, Latin America and the United Kingdom. 

 BlackBerry PlayBook

Earlier this week, RIM announced that the BlackBerry PlayBook would go on sale in the US and Canada on April 19th and early reactions from customers indicate that the BlackBerry PlayBook will be well received.  The BlackBerry PlayBook will be available for purchase in over 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada and will come in three models, featuring 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage with an MSRP of $499, $599 and $699 respectively. 

 Expanded Application Ecosystem for the BlackBerry PlayBook Announced

 RIM also made a number of exciting BlackBerry PlayBook platform announcements that will significantly expand the application ecosystem for PlayBook.  RIM announced plans for the BlackBerry PlayBook to support both BlackBerry Java apps and Android apps, as well as native C/C++, HTML5, Flash and AIR apps.

 RIM also confirmed that it is working with leading gaming and application development technology providers such as Ideaworks Labs and Unity Technologies to implement their native engines and application development platforms.

 Support for BlackBerry Java and Android apps on PlayBook is expected to be available from BlackBerry App World this summer. The full press release can be found at: http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=4935

 Revenue for Q4FY11

 Revenue for Q4 FY11 was $5.6 billion, up 36% from $4.1 billion in the same quarter of last year. RIM’s revenue for fiscal 2010 grew 33% to $19.9 billion from $15 billion last year.

 Units Shipped during Q4FY11

 During Q4, RIM shipped approximately 14.9 million BlackBerry smartphones for a total of 52.3 million smartphones in fiscal 2011.

 Guidance for Q1 FY12

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 ending May 28, 2011 is expected to be in the range of $5.2 – $5.6 billion and shipments are expected to be 13.5 – 14.5 million smartphones. PlayBook shipments will be broken out when RIM reports next quarter. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be in the range of $1.47- $1.55 per share diluted.  During the conference call RIM said that it currently expects to grow fully diluted earnings to over $7.50 per share in FY2012.