RIM Earnings: Live Blog

TheStreet live-blogged the Research In Motion(RIMM) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release and analyst conference call after the bell Thursday.

There was a little tension built into this story. RIM's BlackBerry sales have been falling in the U.S. amid the rise of Apple's(AAPL) iPhone and the assortment of Google(GOOG) Android phones.

But as business in the U.S. weakens, sales abroad have grown. RIM's fourth-quarter report reflected these trends: The BlackBerry maker beat analyst estimates for adjusted earnings, posting $1.78 a share vs. the expected $1.76. As for quarterly revenue, RIM posted in-line numbers at $5.56 billion, up from $4.08 billion a year ago.

During the company's conference call with analysts, RIM execs warned of lower revenue for the quarter, with co-CEO Jim Balsillie emphasizing a "time of cutting over" as the firm gets set to release its new, enterprise-minded tablet, the Playbook.

"It's a time of enormous investment and transition," said Balsillie. "[It arrives] in Q2 -- if life was perfect, I'd pull it in [by] three months, but we can't."

RIM announced that the PlayBook will run on the firm's own QNX software, and will feature support for Android apps.

RIM's stock plunged in after-hours trading Thursday finishing down 10.5% at $57.33 on volume of nearly 10.1 million.

-- Blog written by Scott Moritz in New York and Chris Stuart in Boston.

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