RIM doubles down on earnings

With a slowing economy and the threat from Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, investors were certainly jittery about Research-in-Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) fiscal Q3. In fact, there was a bulging short position in the stock.

Well, there was nothing to worry about as revenues doubled to $1.67 billion. And, earnings more than doubled to $370.50 million, or $0.65 per share. In all, RIM notched about 1.65 million new BlackBerry accounts, with a total of 12 million.

Why all the growth? One reason is that RIM has a solid product line, with a strong technology foundation (after all, it's built for the enterprise).

Moreover, RIM is making inroads with the consumer market because of its extensive relationships with carriers (about 35% of the subscriber base is non-enterprise). For example, AT&T (NYSE: T) included BlackBerry products in its back-to-school promotions; Verizon (NYSE: VZ) featured the Pearl in national print and online advertising campaigns; and there were retail promotions in Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Sam's Club, Costco (NASDAQ: COST), Radio Shack (NYSE: RSH) and so on.

Going into Q4, RIM forecasts revenues of $1.8 billion to $1.87 billion, with earnings of $0.66 to $0.70 per share.

In today's trading, the stock is up 12% to $119.91.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.