[Updated] RIM’s sales down 15% in the US, up 112% outside the US

[Updated] RIM’s sales down 15% in the US, up 112% outside the US: "

First, a round-up of the quarter’s numbers:

• 14.2 million devices shipped, sell-through: 12.3 million


• expect to ship 14.5 to 15 million units in the next quarter


• ASP of approximately $315


• US, UK and Canada are 56% of sales


• US represented 34% of the total revenue


• Last year US represented 57% of revenue


• BlackBerry Torch launched in over 75 new markets, Torch launched with the $99 pricing from AT&T


• BlackBerry Curve 3G launched with 118 carriers in 48 countries


• China Mobile introduced BIS for small-to-medium sized businesses. The service starts at $14 per month


• App World applications grew 60%


• More than 16,000 applications available


• 2 million downloads daily


• 1,000 vendors registered for PlayBook apps


• Revenue: $5.5 billion


• Net subscriber additions: 5.1 million


• Top three customers: 12%, 9%, and 9% of revenue


• The same quarter a year ago: 25%, 13% and 10% of revenue


• Service revenue in Q3: $835 million


• Software revenue: $78 million


• Gross margin in the quarter was 43.6%


• Cash: $2.5 billion

For comparison, here are a select few vendors’ smartphone reported shipments. RIM is the first to report and we’ll be hearing the the rest by the end of January.

The number most RIM “bears” focus on is the new subscriber additions. At 5.1 million out of 14.2 million units sold implying that the new subscribers added per unit sold is 0.34, a new low.

The bulls will argue that the gross margin is healthy and slightly higher than anticipated.

My observation is that the company is finding growth outside its traditional markets. Given the figures above, the US went from $1.65b in revenue to $1.87b; a mere 13% growth while the company experienced 89% overall growth in revenues.

The following chart illustrates the situation:

Of the total increase in sales ($1.6 billion), the US contributed -15% while the rest of the world accounted for 112%.

This can be seen as positive news since RIM has been weak internationally for many years and they really need to penetrate world markets. However, a -15% growth in the US is implies significant share loss in a rapidly growing and traditional stronghold.

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