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Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry series of smart phones, saw $3.46 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009—up 24.5% from $2.78 billion in the previous quarter and up 84% from $1.88 billion in the same quarter last year. The breakdown was about 83% for devices, 12% for service, 2% for software, and 3% for other revenue.

Revenue for the fiscal year ending February 29, 2009, was $11.07 billion, up 84% from $6.01 billion last year. RIM shipped approximately 7.8 million devices in the fourth quarter and about 26 million devices during fiscal 2009. Also, the company added about 3.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts during the fourth quarter, bringing the total subscriber account base to about 25 million.

Net income for the quarter was $518.3 million, or $0.90 per share diluted, compared with net income of $396.3 million, or $0.69 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $412.5 million, or $0.72 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. There was no material foreign exchange impact on RIM’s tax rate in the quarter. For the fiscal year 2009, net income was $1.89 billion, or $3.30 per share diluted, up 46.3% over fiscal 2008. 

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 ending May 30, 2009 is expected to be in the range of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion. Gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 is expected to be approximately 43% to 44%. Net subscriber account additions in the first quarter are expected to be between 3.7 million and 3.9 million. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be in the range of $0.88 to $0.97 per share diluted. 

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and long-term investments was $2.24 billion as at February 28, 2009, compared to $2.49 billion at the end of the previous quarter, which is a decrease of $250 million over the prior quarter. Uses of cash in the quarter included capital expenditures of $252 million and the acquisition of intangible assets of $222 million.