Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) today reported a 68% rise in quarterly profit, proving the BlackBerry maker is far from dead. The shares rose in after-hours trading.

Profit was $797 million, or $1.46 per share, in the three months ended Aug. 28, from $476 million, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2011 was $4.62 billion, up 31% from $3.53 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 79% for devices, 17% for service, 1% for software and 3% for other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 12.1 million devices.

Approximately 4.5 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was over 50 million.

Shares were up nearly 6% to $48.79. The stock is down from its 52-week high of just over $88. Investors have been concerned that RIM will lose its lead in the smartphone market to Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and handsets made with the Google Inc. (GOOG) Android mobile operating system.

The effect of Q2 share repurchases on second quarter fiscal 2011 earnings per share was approximately $0.02 per share.

The earnings were of interest to Wall St. but the company’s forecasts were much more important. Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ending November 27, 2010 is expected to be $5.30 billion-$5.55 billion. Gross margin for Q3 is expected to be about42%. Net subscriber account additions  are expected to be 5.0 million-5.4 million. Earnings per share for the third quarter are expected to be $1.62-$1.70 per share.

Apple has not won the smartphone wars yet.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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