This summary is based on the third quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM: chart) on December 20, 2007.

Management:

VP of IR: Adele Ebbs
Co-CEO: Jim Balsillie
CAO: Brian Bidulka

Key Investors Issues

- EPS were 65 cents a share compared to 31 cents a share last year.
- Net income was $370.5 million compared to earnings of $175.2 million for the same period last year.
- Revenue grew 100% to $1.67 billion.

Third Quarter Highlights

Revenue was $1.67 billion, up 22% from $1.37 billion in the previous quarter.

- Handheld devices represented $1.34 billion or 80% of RIM''s revenue, up from 78% of total revenue in the previous quarter.
- Total devices shipped of approximately 3.9 million were up from 3.1 million in the prior quarter. Approximately, 3.1 million new devices were activated, either for new customers or for replacements and upgrades, not including phone-only sales.
- As expected, channel inventory on a four weeks basis increased due to the launch of the CDMA Pearl 8130 in the latter part of the quarter, carrier''s stocking up for going holiday promotion, and the continued expansion of downstream distribution channels.
- Device ASPs were higher than expected at approximately $342. This was due to the mix of handsets shipped.

Service revenue was $232 million, or 14% of revenue, up $31 million from the second quarter.

With respect to monthly ARPU, it remained approximately flat with prior quarter.

- Software revenue was $60 million, or 4% of revenue.
- Other revenues such as repairs and accessories were $37 million, or 2% of revenue.

Gross margin was approximately 51%, in line with expectations.

- Operating expenses increased by 15%, more than forecasted in the last quarter.
- R&D spending was $92 million, or 6% of revenue, and selling, marketing, administrative expenses increased to $238 million and were 14% of revenue. Included in operating expense is stock option expense of approximately $9 million.
- The tax rate was approximately 28%, lower than forecast due to a tax recovery of $10.7 million arising from the favorable resolution of outstanding issue with respect to RIM''s investment tax credits relating to prior years.

Net income was $370 million, or 65 cents per share.

- Weighted average shares used in EPS calculation were $573.7 million.
- Actual shares outstanding were 561 million.
- Total options outstanding were 17.8 million.

RIM''s balance sheet continues to be strong with substantial cash reserves and appropriate working capital balances.

- RIM had approximately $2.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments. This is up $405 million from the prior quarter.
- RIM generated approximately $521 million of cash from operations.
- Primary use of cash as capital expenditures is approximately $97 million, which was lower than expected due to the delay of certain expenditures to future quarters.

- From a working capital perspective, trade receivables were up from the prior quarter, in line with top line growth, and DSOs remained flat over the prior quarter at 52 days.
- Inventory on hand was approximately $340 million versus $301 million the prior quarter.
- Inventories continued to be primarily semi-finished goods and raw materials to support demand for current and upcoming product launches.

- In the first two weeks of this quarter, the company has seen a high average weekly run rate of over 150,000. The company believes that this strong performance is due to seasonal strengths and the continuation of holiday promotions by partners.
- Almost half of net subscriber account additions were non-enterprise, versus just over 30% coming from non-enterprise in the third quarter of last year.

Demand for BlackBerry products and services was strong with approximately 1.65 million BlackBerry net subscriber accounts additions, which was inline with September forecast, and was 14% higher than the approximately 1.45 million of subscriber accounts added in the second quarter.