RIM Results Positive After Handset Sales Growth
We can’t be right all the time. Techdirt makes some good predictions, but here’s a topic we can’t seem to nail: wireless e-mail specialist RIM’s latest quarterly results show a doubling of revenue, thanks largely to increased sales of Blackberry handsets. While we’ve maintained the future is promising for RIM, we have also predicted that the strength would be in software licensing, not hardware sales. RIM continues to surprise with strong performances in both categories. So while we eat crow, we’re left a little wiggle room if we say it’s all a matter of timing. The long-term prospects for RIM hardware must contend with the fact that the hardware is largely manufactured in Canada, with labor costs far in excess of Asian nations. Either RIM needs to reduce the cost-of-goods, or competitors will soon offer cheaper yet equally capable devices – often with Blackberry software licensed from RIM.
