Blackberry Over iPhone - Holler!!

A few months ago, we reported that the Blackberry Curve was outselling the iPhone, and today, it looks like that trend is continuing.

RIM, the company behind the Blackberry, is leading the way in smartphone sales domestically, beating out the iPhone, the Google Android phones, and the Palm Pre.

But, despite sales being up, RIM (Research In Motion) said Thursday (September 24) that they sold fewer Blackberrys and pulled in less revenue than expected.

The news sent the company's stock tumbling yesterday, but their CEO says they're in good shape.

"This stuff (smartphones and mobile applications) is going much more mainstream," he said during the conference call. "And we are teed up to go much more mainstream. If this crosses over, as I think we are doing, we are in a good position and a very prosperous position."

Still, for the third quarter, which ended on August 29th, RIM earned $475.6 million, compared to profits of $495.5 million for the same period a year ago.

They shipped about 8.3 million BlackBerry devices during the quarter, adding about 3.8 million new subscribers. However, they were expected to add 4 million new subscribers on shipments between 8.5 million and 8.6 million.

What hurt them for the quarterly earnings report was they paid out $112.8 million for a settlement of a patent dispute with Visto.

They hiccup won't stop RIM though. They expect strong sales during the holiday season, especially with new Blackberry models such as the Tour and Curve, both of which debuted during the summer. They're also expected to launch the next version of its touch-screen BlackBerry Storm on Verizon Wireless before the end of the year.