RIM announced their quarterly results today, and missed estimates for revenue and earnings per share. Wall Street had no sympathy – punishing RIM’s share price with a 20% decline in after hours trading. It’s RIM’s second quarter in a row of missed financial expectations. It begs the question – is this the result of an iPhone effect? RIM dismisses that idea and instead wants to focus on maximizing the “growing smartphone opportunity” rather than worrying about minor financial setbacks or competitive implications of the iPhone. Silicon Alley Insider has the details on RIM’s numbers. It’s not going to get any easier, even with the rosy outlook RIM has on smartphones. You can add T-mobile’s new G1 to the growing smartphone landscape. Sure, there will be significant smartphone growth, but there is also corresponding growth in the number of non-RIM handsets chasing that opportunity. RIM does have some tricks up its sleeve, including the forthcoming BlackBerry Storm, their touchscreen entrant that will launch on Verizon’s network later this year. Stay tuned.
Well, I’m sure they’ll be hurting more next quarter when the Google G1 Phone launches. RIM is getting less and less portion of the smartphone pie.