RIM, owner of the BlackBerry brand and service, has increased projections for subscriber growth, but still expects revenue to come in at the lower end of expectations.

Back in December RIM reckoned another 2.9m punters would have acquired the CrackBerry habit, at which time the company expected revenue to be around $3.4bn. Today's announcement puts 20 per cent on the subscriber figures, and maintains the revenue projections, but drops profit to the lower end of predictions.

The lower-than-expected profit was attributed to sales of the Storm - a pretty but low-margin device - and enterprise users not upgrading as quickly and often as the company would like. Older models of BlackBerry make more money for the company, but aren't selling into companies in expected volumes despite RIM's celebrated 50 millionth device shipping in January.

Full details of RIM's performance at the tail end of last year won't be public until April 2, but the company's share price dropped 15 per cent on today's warning. ®

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