Even with its hit BlackBerry Storm smartphone, mobile-device maker Research In Motion is feeling the economic storm. On Tuesday, the Canadian company lowered its outlook for the current quarter, sending its stock price down.
RIM did say that the strong demand for the Storm was expected to continue into its new fiscal quarter, which began Monday.
In the Wake of the Storm
In September, the company had forecast earnings of between 89 cents and 97 cents per share on sales of $2.95 billion to $3.1 billion, and some analysts had been projecting even rosier numbers. But now RIM expects earnings of 81 cents to 83 cents per share on revenue of between $2.75 billion to $2.78 billion.
RIM also reported new BlackBerry accounts of about 2.6 million. While nearly 60 percent higher than last year, this was lower than the 2.9 million the company projected. RIM noted that its best day ever for new BlackBerry accounts was Nov. 21 when the Storm was released in the United States.
RIM’s reduced sales projections come shortly after its successful launch of the BlackBerry Storm. The Storm offers a touchscreen that depresses slightly when the user touches and, on release, there’s a click sensation comparable to a key being pressed on a keyboard. This unique feature is intended to compensate for the lack of physical confirmation that some users miss from an on-screen keyboard on a device such as, let’s say, Apple’s iPhone.
When the Storm first became available exclusively through Verizon Wireless, there were reports of lines out the doors of many of the carrier’s stores. The demand was so great that supplies were quickly exhausted, and some observers have estimated that as many as 120,000 units were sold in the first weekend, with another quarter-million orders made on the Web or for later fulfillment…