A new record, but revenues still slip below expectations.
The sales total beat the previous best of 10m, and vindicated RIM's drive into the consumer market for BlackBerry.
For the three months that ended Feb. 27, RIM's revenue was $4.08 billion, up 18 per cent over the same period a year earlier, but short of the $4.31 billion expected by analysts.
The company blamed reductions in inventories held by carriers and lower-than-expected average selling prices. Shares of the Canadian company dropped 4.6 per cent to $70.55 on Wednesday after the report came out.
RIM said it added nearly five million net subscriber accounts in the quarter, bringing the total to more than 41 million. According to Gartner, it had 50.3 per cent of the smart phone business in North America in 2009, down from 50.7 percent in 2008 but still well ahead of Apple.
Worldwide, however, RIM has just 20 per cent of the market. In the fourth quarter, 48 per cent of its revenue came from outside North America.
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2010 will be a major challenge for RIM, with Apple on the rise and Android gaining momentum fast. The company has made some significant shifts, though, introducing touchscreens, developing a new browser and bringing in new tools for third party app makers.
