Research In Motion, the force behind, perhaps, the most successful wireless device in enterprise domain – Blackberry, announced yet another extraordinary quarter, even in this downturn, when everyone is trying to stabilise than grow.

As per the impressive results for the quarterly (December 2008 – February 2009), the company earned a revenue of $3.46 billion and shipped 7.8 million handsets. Of these 7.3 million handsets were activated during the period. The average selling price for a handset was $370 and revenue from handset sale constituted 83% of the quarterly revenue.

Other segments fetching revenue for the quarter were service ($415 million), software ($59 million) and other revenues ($106 million) that constitutes repairing and servicing of non-warranty products.

The growth of blackberry is across the globe. It is not specified to a particular region or country. This quarter the non North America subscriber base reached one third of the total and countries across Europe, Asia and Middle East showed growth in sales. A lot of operators announced availability of Blackberry services/handsets during the quarter and some of the carriers launched aggressive sale plans. The company in its latest release attributed these offers for its unexpected growth in the quarter.

Blackberry is a strategically positioned handset. It has made its presence in the enterprise domain. Today, half of its customers are in enterprise segment and the remaining are from non-enterprise domain, most of whom must still be in the enterprises. So to push or launch a service in the enterprise domain, Blackberry is definitely the best handheld wireless device. The service will see lot of users and it will be a value addition for Blackberry.

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Everybody loves juicy rumors and we all want to know what the next BlackBerry model will be. These days it is getting hard to keep up as it seems like a new BlackBerry is released every month. We now know the highly anticipated Storm 2 will be released in early October and that will definitely be a huge deal. Many of us suspect the BlackBerry Essex will be the next in line but how soon after will it release?

According to Alejandro Salomon, the man behind so many of those pre-release videos and leaks, we can expect 16 new BlackBerry devices in 2010. Seems reasonable and not surprising considering what we’ve seen in 2009. The model that really interests me is the Essex. If it’s indeed released in 2010 expect it to be early in the year. I raise the question whether or not RIM will push up the release to 2009 because of so many problems with the BlackBerry Tour trackball. See the Essex comes equipped with the new trackpad, which will eventually replace the trackball. It will also have Wi-Fi, something the Tour did not have. It makes you wonder if the Essex was really supposed to be the Tour and RIM rushed it out to the marketplace. Nevertheless there are some interesting new models on the way, let’s take a look at a few.

1. Blackberry Essex:
   It’s a 3G/CDMA/WiFi new version of the already released Blackberry Tour. Aside from the WiFi it comes with a Trackpad and a little “extra surprise” that I bet you’ll love.
2. Blackberry 9100 A.K.A. Striker:
   This one is a 3G + Trackpad blackberry pearl. Aside from those two new and nice new features, its slimmer than the upcoming 9700 (Bold 2) which will give the phone that sexier look.
3. Blackberry Curve 8530:
   Just like the already released 8520, this one is just a curve, but for CDMA carriers. Expect it to be announced really soon.

(source)