RIM’s Q2 profit crashes by almost 60 per cent year-on-year in Q2

Research In Motion (RIM) posted fiscal Q211 financial results for the three months ending August 27, with sales of the PlayBook tablet being particularly disappointing.

Just 200,000 units of the QNX-based device were shipped in the period, a number much lower than forecasted. Revenues in the quarter amounted to US$4.2 billion, with service revenue having passed US$1 billion for the first time. However, revenue was down from US$4.62 billion in the same period a year earlier

Net income for the period amounted to US$329 million, down a staggering 59 per cent year-on-year.

Good news came in that RIM managed to ship 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones in the three months to end-August, with the Canadian manufacturer expecting things to improve in the next quarter when the sales of the newly launched BlackBerry OS 7-based smartphones are set to have a bigger impact.

The manufacturer claimed that its subscriber base grew by 40 per cent year-on-year to surpass 70 million as of August 27.

RIM also announced that seven new smartphones were launched over 90 carriers in 30 countries during the latter part of Q2.