RIM revenues fall again as PlayBook and BlackBerry sales plummet

RIM has posted second-quarter revenues of $4.2bn, a drop of 15 per cent from the previous quarter as sales of smartphones fell sharply and PlayBook tablet shipments slumped by 60 per cent.

The company shipped 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks in Q2, down from 500,000 in Q1, while smartphone sales dropped by just under three million to 10.6 million.

However, RIM spent $780m on Nortel patents in July as part of the Rockstar consortium, and said that revenue would have been on par with the first quarter if this "strategic purchase" had not gone through.

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of RIM, admitted that the Q2 shipments were below forecasts after a drop in demand for older BlackBerry smartphones, but remains optimistic that the launch of BlackBerry 7 and QNX devices will stop the slump.

"We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products," he said in the earnings report.

"We will continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next-generation QNX-based mobile platform next year."

Francisco Jeronimo, research manager for European mobile devices at IDC, told V3 that, although RIM posted results below expectations, the firm is making headway in the transition from BlackBerry OS to QNX.

"RIM is beginning to realise that long product life cycles don't work anymore and will have to start introducing products faster, perhaps on a quarterly basis," he said.

"PlayBook sales were down because the the device is the same price as the iPad 2. However, if RIM can add more apps to its BlackBerry App World store, price the tablet competitively and include 3G connectivity to make it less reliant on BlackBerry smartphones, shipments will improve."

Adam Leach, an analyst at Ovum expects RIM's BlackBerry OS 7 devices to boost sales, but stated that the firm needs to focus its efforts on the transition to the QNX platform.

"We expect RIM's new range of Blackberry smartphones based, on the Blackberry OS 7 to increase demand and shipment volumes for RIM in Q3," he said.

"RIM now needs to focus its attention on its next portfolio refresh and ensure a smooth transition to the QNX platform."

RIM estimates third-quarter revenues of $5.3bn to $5.6bn on shipments of 13.5 million to 14.5 million BlackBerry smartphones.

No estimates for PlayBook sales were given, and Jeronimo suggested that RIM either has low expectations or is gearing up to launch another version of the tablet before the end of the year.