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"Research In Motion (RIM) has enjoyed a welcome increase in its share price after the BlackBerry maker posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.  RIM stock was up nearly 18% in after-hours trading on the back of the announcement of a net loss of $235 million (\u00A3145m) for the quarter ending September 1. This was compared with a profit of $329m for the same period last year, but excluding one-time restructuring items the loss was $142m, less than analysts were expecting.    Crucially, the maker of BlackBerry phones was also able to increase its cash pile to about $2.3 billion from $2.2bn. This reserve is considered crucial for the firm as it pins its future on the success of BlackBerry 10, the new operating system that will power the next generation of BlackBerry phones.  Earlier in the week, the firm showcased the latest features of full touchscreen BB 10 phones, and also renewed its pitch to third-party developers to favour its platform over rivals.  RIM intends to use its cash muscle to promote the operating system as part of attempts to claw back market share from other operators.  BlackBerry was the early pioneer in smartphone design with its handsets featuring distinctive physical keyboards and styling.  But the brand has more recently lost ground to rivals, most notably Apple&amp;#039;s iPhone, and was hit by a damaging three-day service outage last year (along with another blackout this month).  Realistically, BlackBerry is now locked in a battle for the third-place mobile operating system with Microsoft&amp;#039;s Windows Phone. The market continues to be dominated by Google Android devices, followed by Apple&amp;#039;s iOS which runs on the iPhone, along with iPad and iPod Touch.  In the quarter ending September 1, RIM sold 7.4m BlackBerry smartphones and just 130,000 of its struggling BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.  Revenue in the quarter was $2.9bn, up 2% from $2.8bn in the previous three-month period. In a statement, RIM president and chief executive Thorsten Heins said that the firm&amp;#039;s latest quarterly results show a business in &amp;quot;transition&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;Despite the significant changes we are implementing across the organisation, our second quarter results demonstrate that RIM is progressing on its financial and operational commitments during this major transition,&amp;quot; he said.   &amp;quot;[BlackBerry] subscribers grew to approximately 80mn global users, revenue grew sequentially from the first quarter, cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments increased by approximately $100m to $2.3bn, and carriers and developers are responding well to previews of our upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform.  &amp;quot;Make no mistake about it, we understand that we have much more work to do, but we are making the organisational changes to drive improvements across the company, our employees are committed and motivated, and BlackBerry 10 is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013.&amp;quot; RIM said that there will be &amp;quot;continued pressure&amp;quot; on its operating results for the rest of the financial year (ending April 2013).  This is based on the increasingly competitive smartphone market, along with increased marketing costs associated with the launch of BlackBerry 10 next year.  The company expects to report another operating loss in the next quarter as it continues to work through the transition to its next generation of handsets.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/smartphones/news/a408885/blackberry-maker-shares-up-18-after-promising-results/>