Shares in Research In Motion were on the rise after the BlackBerry maker announced its expectation-beating Q4 results and Q1 forecast.  The company said it expects revenues to double to as much as $2.3 billion in the first quarter, beating analysts’ average expectation of $2.01 billion.

 

Revenue for Q4 was $1.88 billion, up from $930.4 million in the same quarter of last year. Revenue breakdown for the quarter was about: 81% for handsets, 14% for service and 3% for software. Revenue for the fiscal year that ended March 1 was $6.01 billion, up 98% from $3.04 billion last year.  RIM shipped 4.4 million smartphones in Q4 and approximately 14 million handsets during the fiscal year.

Rim reported adding 2.18 million net new BlackBerry subscribers, a record for customer additions in a single quarter.

“We are pleased to report another year of very strong growth with shipments of approximately 14 million BlackBerry smartphones and total revenue of $6 billion,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM, in a statement. “Looking forward, the prospects for RIM and the industry are more exciting than ever and we will continue to work closely with a thriving ecosystem of partners to build on our momentum during the year ahead.”

RIM said it expects to add another 2.2 million subscribers in the current quarter.