Blackberry 2012 Annual Report Download - page 16

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NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE BUSINESS
Overview
RIM, a global leader in wireless innovation, revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in
1999. BlackBerry products and services are currently used by over 77 million customers around the world. Founded in 1984 and
based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM’s common shares
are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (NASDAQ: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM).
With the BlackBerry platform, RIM believes it offers a market-leading wireless communications experience with push-based
connectivity, industry-leading security and enterprise manageability, excellent radio performance and differentiated social
applications such as BBM that provide immediacy, productivity and collaboration.
RIM believes the global smartphone and tablet markets are still in their infancy. BlackBerry is the leading smartphone in several
markets around the world. The primary regions contributing to the Company’s recent growth are Latin America, Africa, Indonesia
and parts of the Middle East and Western Europe. Some of RIM’s main competitors include Apple Inc, Google Inc, HTC
Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Microsoft Corporation, Nokia Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, LG
Electronics Mobile Communications Company, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. and ZTE Corporation.
RIM continues to focus on providing manageability and scalability solutions to BlackBerry users. With BlackBerry Balance, personal
and work data are managed on a single device allowing work life balance management and information protection. BlackBerry
Mobile Fusion gives information technology (“IT”) departments the ability to manage BlackBerry devices and other platforms
through a single interface that provides a unified view for managing all mobile devices.
RIM maintains a strong balance sheet with negligible debt and approximately $2.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments
as of March 3, 2012. In fiscal 2012, RIM had annual sales of $18.4 billion. Net income was $1.2 billion, or $2.22 per share.
RIM made a number of strategic acquisitions in recent years including Torch Mobile, The Astonishing Tribe, New Bay, Gist and
Tungle that are intended to accelerate RIM’s ability to innovate and deliver compelling products to market. In June 2011, RIM also
participated in a successful bid for the Nortel patent portfolio as a part of a consortium of companies.
9
•
Announced BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express which offers basic BlackBerry Enterprise Server features free of cost to mos
t
Microsoft Exchan
g
e users; and
•
BlackBerry Internet Service customers exceeded BlackBerry Enterprise Server as a percentage of the subscriber base for the
first time.
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