Research In Motion Limited (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, has reported a nearly 59 per cent decline in net income to USD 329 million for the three-month period ended August 27, 2011.

The company had posted a net income of USD 797 million for the May (rpt) May 28-August 27 period last year, RIM said in a statement.

Revenue for the May 28-August 27 quarter of the 2012 fiscal stood at USD 4.2 billion, down nearly 9 per cent from USD 4.6 billion in the same quarter last year.

During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

"We successfully launched a range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones around the world during the latter part of the second quarter and we are seeing strong sell-through and customer interest for these new products. Overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models," Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said.

The company''s total cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments amounted to USD 1.4 billion as of August 27, 2011, compared to USD 2.9 billion at the end of the previous three-month period, a decrease of USD 1.5 billion.

"Uses of cash included strategic purchases of intellectual property assets associated with RIM's participation in a consortium of companies that successfully bid to acquire Nortel Networks Corporation's patent portfolio, of which RIM's cost is approximately USD 780 million, capital expenditures of approximately USD 285 million and working capital requirements," the company said.

Going ahead for the third quarter of the 2012 fiscal ending November 26, 2011, the company expect revenues to be in the range of USD 5.3-5.6 billion.

BlackBerry smartphone shipments in the August 28-November 26 quarter are estimated to grow between 27-37 per cent vis-a-vis the second quarter.

Furthermore, BlackBerry smartphone shipments are expected to amount to 13.5 million and 14.5 million units.

"We will continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next generation, QNX-based mobile platform next year," Balsillie said.

During the May 28-August 27 quarter, the BlackBerry subscriber base grew 40 per cent year-over-year to surpass 70 million.