RIM Hits 78 Million BlackBerry Subscribers, Up From 70 Million In September 2011

Today on RIM’s Q1 2013 conference call, CEO Thorsten Heins admitted that “this was a challenging quarter for the company,” but announced 78 million subscribers with “churn remaining high.” He admitted particular success with the BlackBerry Bold product.

For a little context, RIM hit 70 million global subscribers all the way back in September of 2011.

Subscriber base grew in Asia, Middle East and Europe, particularly. He also mentioned that U.S. revenue has stabilized, though the outlook for the next few quarters is “very challenging.”

Along with the subscriber update, Heins announced 260,000 PlayBook shipments, and said that new versions of the PlayBook are on the way. Regarding BB10, it’s on its way in Q1 2013. “I will not deliver a product to the market that is not ready for our customers or doesn’t have the outstanding user experience that I expect Blackberry to have. I will not compromise on this issue,” he said.