Research in Motion shed BlackBerry users for the first time ever last quarter, the company reported yesterday.
The number of BlackBerry users dipped to 79 million in the three months ended Dec. 1 from 80 million the previous quarter, it said.
Despite losing an average of 11,000 users a day in the period, the Waterloo, Ont.0, company’s results topped analyst forecasts and it expanded its cash holdings, staying on stable footing ahead of the launch of new BlackBerry 10 devices early next year.
“RIM continued to execute on its product road map plans and to deliver on key financial metrics as it gets set for the global launch of BlackBerry 10,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said in a statement after the market closed.
RIM shares fell more than 8 percent in extended trading, to $12.95, after rising 3.6 percent during normal trading hours.
Wall Street has poured back into RIM’s stock in the past three months ahead of the launch its new phones, seeing a silver-lining of potential for the revamped platform.
In the past three months, RIM shares are up more than 100 percent — while the stock of rival Apple, which devastated the BlackBerry with its iPhone — are down more than 25 percent.
In the latest quarter, Wall Street expected a 32 cents loss per share, but RIM posted an adjusted loss of 22 cents compared with a profit of $265 million in the same period a year ago.
Without counting onetime costs related to restructuring, RIM posted a profit of $9 million in the latest quarter.
Revenue of $2.73 billion also topped analyst estimates of $2.7 billion.
RIM’s business has struggled to maintain customers who are leaving the BlackBerry’s for more advanced Apple and Google platforms.
Its subscriber base has held up better than most analysts expected, and only started seeing its first user losses this quarter, its last before launching its next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones.
Plus, RIM has not burned through money as it had in quarters past — increasing its cash $600 million this quarter to $2.9 billion.
“Looking forward to the launch of BB10, the more cash they have the better it is for them,” Neeraj Monga, an analyst with Veritas Investment Research, told Bloomberg.