Hot on the heels of the emergence of a new BlackBerry 10 leak, RIM has announced its third quarter fiscal 2013 results. The BlackBerry manufacturer reports that it earned a revenue of $2.7 billion in the quarter along with an adjusted net loss of $114 million. During the three-month period, RIM says that it shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones along with 225,000 PlayBook tablets. The BlackBerry subscriber base finished the quarter at 79 million users, a slight drop from the 80 million figure reported in Q2.
Looking forward, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins says that BlackBerry 10 devices are undergoing technical acceptance programs at 150 carriers and that 120 companies, including 64 Fortune 500 firms, are beta testing BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. RIM does expect "continued pressure" in the fiscal fourth quarter, though, and it believes that its BlackBerry 10 launch event on Jan. 30 could affect BlackBerry 7 sales as some consumers may opt to wait for RIM's new smartphones.
Overall this looks like it was another tough quarter for RIM with drops in revenue, BlackBerry shipments and BlackBerry users compared to Q2, though the company did shrink its adjusted net loss a bit and grow its PlayBook shipments from the previous quarter. Considering how open RIM has been about the upcoming BlackBerry 10 launch and the fact that it hasn't released any new BlackBerry 7 phones in a while, though, it's not a surprise to see that things have been a bit rough lately. The good news for RIM is that the BlackBerry 10 launch event is now just one month out. With some fresh BlackBerry hardware expected to hit the market shortly after the gathering, everyone will be waiting for RIM's fiscal Q4 2013 report to see what kind of early numbers the new OS posts.
Via RIM
