TORONTO�Research In Motion Ltd. reported its second consecutive quarterly profit and decent sales for its new flagship phone Thursday, but perhaps the biggest revelation from its chief executive was a risky strategy to revive the company.
The plan: Roll out a portfolio of mixed-price phones to help shore up the company's dwindling smartphone-market share and the expected declines in service-fee revenue.
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Close Bloomberg NewsAt a mall in Jakarta, customers purchase the new BlackBerry Z10 on March 15, the first day it was available.
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With cost cutting and layoffs mostly done, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said he has been encouraged so far with the rollout of the BlackBerry Z10, the first phone running off RIM's new operating system.
With only a month of sales from a limited number of markets, it is still far from clear that launch is a success.
Compare SmartphonesSee a side-by-side comparison of the specifications of recent phones, including the BlackBerry Z10.
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But Mr. Heins said he is already turning his attention to a series of new, as-yet-unseen products due out later in RIM's fiscal year�signaling he is eager to go after several different markets with low- and midprice versions of the new phones.
The shift, which Mr. Heins has alluded to in the past, appears to be an acknowledgment that no matter how big a hit the Z10 may prove, the BlackBerry isn't likely to compete in the same league any time soon with market leaders Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
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