RIM also revealed that an informal inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into past stock-option grants has been upgraded to a formal investigation, adding it plans to continue co-operating with the regulator.
The company said it earned $187.9 million, or 99 cents a share, in the three months ended March 3. That met expectations and was up from a profit of $18.4 million, or 10 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier.
The company's adjusted income was $192.8 million, or $1.01 per share. All the results the company released on Wednesday are preliminary as RIM works to bring its financials up to date in wake of a in how it granted stock options in the past.
According to Reuters Estimates, analysts were expecting the company to earn 99 cents a share before one-time items on revenue of $936 million.
The results also met forecasts that RIM provided to investors in December, when it said it would have net earnings of between 92 cents and 99 cents a share and adjusted earnings of between 95 cents and $1.02 a share.
"We are entering fiscal 2008 with very healthy subscriber growth momentum, a strong slate of products and services, exceptional partnerships and a growing market leadership position," co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said in a statement.
The company said it added 1.02 million BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter and finished the period with a total account base of about 8 million.
Revenue spiked to $930.4 million from $561.2 million a year earlier.
For the upcoming first quarter, Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said it expects revenue of $1.025 billion to $1.075 billion and to add between 1.125 million and 1.15 million subscribers. It expects net earnings of between 99 cents and $1.07 a share and adjusted earnings of $1.01 to $1.09 a share.
Discuss: RIM profit jumps; SEC upgrades probe
Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.