RIM: BlackBerry demand just swell; Earnings more than double

Research in Motion said Thursday that it added 1.65 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts for the third quarter ended Dec. 1 and shipped more than 3.9 million devices. That demand added up to RIM doubling its earnings.

For the third quarter, RIM (all resources) reported earnings of $370 million, or 65 cents a share, on revenue of $1.67 billion, up 22 percent from a year ago. In the third quarter a year ago, RIM reported earnings of $175.2 million, or 31 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 62 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.

But what had Wall Street jazzed--RIM was sharply higher in afterhours trading--was the outlook. RIM projected fourth quarter earnings to be 66 cents a share to 70 cents a share compared to Wall Street estimates of 65 cents a share. RIM projected fourth quarter revenue of $1.8 billion to $1.87 billion.

RIM said it was seeing strong demand across enterprise, SMB and consumer markets. In a statement, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said "we are also pleased with the excellent consumer sales results achieved so far in the holiday buying season."