RIM Ships 14.9 Million BlackBerrys in Q4 – Investors Worry About Guidance

BlackBerry PlayBook Game On

RIM broke their device records again in their fiscal Q4 report. They shipped 14.9 million BlackBerrys in the past quarter and 52.3 in total for the whole of fiscal 2010. Investors are kind of grumpy since RIM pointed out that the first quarter of this year has been heavily focused on selling lower margin devices in the first quarter of this year. That makes sense since RIM did not have new products come out during that time. RIM also said that there is an increased level of investment in their platform and Tablet initiatives. They also throw in that the range of growth might be larger because of supply chain issues that may arise from the earthquake in Japan.

The thing is that I don’t really understand these skeptical investors. First of all RIM has been selling lower margin devices because they are cooking up a new batch of devices that they promise will blow our minds. They are also stretching into the PlayBook market along with developing QNX which explains the investment in future growth. Last but not least I can’t think of any electronic manufacturer that will not be effected in some way by the earthquake in Japan.

All in all I think RIM has a pretty solid set of quarters for the next year. The PlayBook will be a major test for RIM but so far critics just seem to harp on the lack of apps or lack of email client. On the apps side the device will support about 6 development platforms so it should attract developers if significant quantities sell. In terms of an email client are we really worried that RIM will not be able to develop one?

All I can say is times are changing at RIM and they are starting to move quickly. They were a little too complacent but its nice to see them get aggressive.

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