Pay No Attention to the Numbers Behind the Curtain

The Star, on RIM’s latest quarterly results:

But subscriber growth was weaker than expected, coming in at 5.1 million new users, consistent with the company’s guidance but below the analyst forecast for 5.2 million. RIM said it shipped 14.2 million BlackBerries in the quarter, up 40 per cent from a year earlier. The result brings its base of subscribers to 55 million.

RIM says it will no longer report subscriber growth in future quarters.

Recall Michael Mace’s critique of RIM from earlier this week. Subscriber growth is a key metric.

★ Friday, 17 December 2010