On Thursday, Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) announced that it sold one million new BlackBerry 10 phones, according to The Associated Press. The phone debuted on January 31 and it surpassed the expected 915,000 sales analysts thought would be sold. The number of phones sold cover international numbers and Canada numbers, not the United States sales.
The quarter ended on March 2 and it saw RIM earn $98 million. The company’s revenue dropped by 36 percent to $2.7 billion from $4.2 billion. Even though the sales for BlackBerry were strong, the company lost some three million subscribers by the end of the quarter.
“This is going to take a couple of quarters to really see how they are doing,” Edward Jones tech analyst Bill Kreyer said.
The BlackBerry hit the market in 1999 and was perfect at the time for business people on the move. The phones struggled when the iPhone and Android phones hit the market. The company is changing its name from RIM to BlackBerry very soon.
“To say it was a very challenging environment to deliver improved financial results could well be the understatement of the year,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said during a conference call with analysts.
“I thought they were dead. This is a huge turnaround,” Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said from New York. “This is a really, really good result. It’s off to a good start.”
RIM also made an announcement that its co-founder, Mike Lazaridis, is going to retire as director and vice chairman.