Skip to main content

    RIM reports fiscal Q2 2012 earnings: 200,000 PlayBooks shipped, profit way down

    RIM reports fiscal Q2 2012 earnings: 200,000 PlayBooks shipped, profit way down

    Share this story

    RIM's latest earnings report isn't any rosier than the last one: just 200,000 PlayBooks were shipped, adding to the 500,000 shipped the quarter prior (which was the first quarter of retail availability). Needless to say, RIM calls the number "lower than anticipated," though it says it expects the upcoming PlayBook 2.0 software release with built-in email, BlackBerry Balance, Android support, an improved browser, a BlackBerry video store with rental and HDMI support, BlackBerry Bridge improvements, and "new consumer apps" to "reinvigorate" sales, which in turn should presumably demand an uptick in shipments. Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis says he believes it'll "ultimately be successful" in a market that's still "in its infancy." Revenue clocks in at $4.2 billion, down 15 percent from Q1 -- but income is down considerably more, just 47 percent of Q1.

    The company says that the brand-new BlackBerry 7 phone shipments are "on the high end of expectations" so far and have received an "excellent reception," so that's a positive -- and some 10.6 million handsets were shipped in total over the quarter, though that's 2.6 million lower than the last. Lazaridis calls it the "largest and most successful" launch in the company's history.

    As for fiscal Q3, RIM anticipates an uptick in phone shipments -- presumably off the strength of the Bold 9900 and other BlackBerry 7 devices -- to somewhere between 13.5 and 14.5 million units.

    Follow the break for more details from the call.

    Source: RIM

    Regarding QNX, the company says that it believes BlackBerry 7 gives it "a lot of runway" to make the transition to QNX on phones -- in other words, it believes the platform and the phones that run it are sufficiently advanced to buy it the time it needs to wrap development on QNX handsets and get them shipped. Lazaridis says that development on QNX phones is going "extremely well" and that they'll have the features and industrial design necessary to make them successful -- possibly a response to previous rumors that they'd launch without BES support. Details on development tools for the platform are expected at the company's DevCon event next month, and information on "prototype" devices are coming "soon," though it's unclear if we'll see any at DevCon itself.