Another remarkable year at RIM
Posted Jul 14, 2010 03:30:08 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calling it “another remarkable year,” Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie addressed an audience of shareholders in Waterloo last night at the company’s annual general meeting. Balsillie pointed to the launch of six new BlackBerry smartphones and revenue growth of 35% as signs the Waterloo-based tech giant continues to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. Earnings are up 31% year-over-year and 36% of RIM’s revenue growth came from outside North America. RIM shipped 37-million BlackBerry units in fiscal 2010 and its 100-millionth unit in the first quarter of fiscal 2011. Its BlackBerry subscriber base now sits at 46-million, growing by 5-million subscribers in the previous quarter.
Despite the gaudy numbers, there is little doubt as to the focus of the company’s energies. In his address, co-founder Mike Lazaridis talked about the evolution of the BlackBerry from a business device to a consumer device. Lazaridis spent considerable time talking about RIM’s entry into the “consumer space” and its future with “BlackBerry 6.0,” an operating system that is expected to be launched in the fall.
Shareholders did press the executives on RIM’s stock price and marketing strategies. On the issue of share price, Balsillie speculated that markets reflect a mix of performance and sentiment, adding that sentiment was a function of several factors including competition, opportunity and capacity to execute. But he stressed that RIM has a solid strategy to perform and it has plenty of opportunity mixed with challenges in the fiscal year ahead. As for marketing strategies, a shareholder was curious as to why he doesn’t see hotly-anticipated overnight line-ups for new RIM products, akin to product launches by Apple. That answer was deflected to the company’s chief marketing officer who said he got the message “loud and clear.”
RIM also shared its new advertising campaign with shareholders and it was clearly aimed at consumers. The campaign focuses on BlackBerry Messenger, a service which RIM says grew by 500% in fiscal 2010. But RIM did not divulge further details on the anticipated release of its new touch screen smartphone that is supposed to be an answer to Apple’s i-Phone.
RIM and Apple are No. 1 and 2 in North America, but the gap is narrowing and the appeal of smartphones using Google’s open-source Android operating system is growing.
