Research in Motion’s (RIM) push into the consumer space appears to be reaping rewards, with the BlackBerry maker reporting a stronger-than-expected set of fiscal fourth-quarter results that saw shares jump more than 20 percent in after hours trading last night. The company said it earned US$518.3 million, or 90 cents per share, in the quarter ended 28 February, up 26 percent from the same period a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of 84 cents per share. Revenue jumped 84 percent from the year-earlier quarter, to US$3.46 billion, slightly higher than the US$3.42 billion analysts were expecting. RIM added approximately 3.9 million new BlackBerry subscribers during the quarter, bringing the total to 25 million. For the full-year, sales grew 84 percent to US$11.1 billion, whilst profit grew 46.3 percent to US$1.9 billion. A Times report noted that expectations had been dampened from an announcement in February, but analysts stated the company is instead holding up and gaining market share. Encouragingly, RIM also expects a good quarter ahead despite the global downturn. Sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, ending 30 May 2009, is expected to be in the range of US$3.3 billion to US$3.5 billion, with around 3.8 million new subscribers and profits of about 93 cents a share.

Once regarded primarily as a corporate device manufacturer used by enterprise employees to access email on the move, RIM has made a huge effort recently to move into the consumer space, with the launch of new smartphones such as the touchscreen Storm, the HSPA-enabled Bold, and the clamshell Pearl. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the vendor claims that consumers now make up half of all BlackBerry users. In an effort to further tap into the consumer space, RIM this week announced the launch of ‘BlackBerry App World,’ its rival to similar application stores from the likes of Apple and Google. RIM is already enticing developers by giving them 80 percent of application sales, 10 percent more than other stores offer.