Software as a Service (SaaS)

The smartphone’s maker, Research in Motion, reported strong third quarter earnings today, as revenue jumped to $1.67 billion from $835 million in last year’s third quarter. Net income more than doubled to $370 million from $175 million the year-ago quarter. The news drove RIM’s stock up 10% in after-hours trading.

RIM said its strong quarter reflected increased demand for the BlackBerry, even as tech departments are scaling back their budgets. Here are a couple of reasons why we thinks this is happening:

1) Businesses get their money’s worth when they buy BlackBerrys. We don’t have any numbers, but we can speak from experience here: The BlackBerry is a great productivity booster. Workers equipped with the devices are able to respond to emails and phone calls 24 hours a day. (We can have a separate debate about whether this is all good.)

2) Purchases like BlackBerrys are increasingly coming from a business unit’s budget — not the tech department’s – giving them some immunity from a broader tech-spending slowdown.

Looking ahead, RIM will have to deal with the impact of the iPhone – particularly the iPhone’s screen size, Web browser and overall ease of use. Regardless of whether Apple releases a business-friendly version of its device, the iPhone has changed what people expect from a smartphone.

But for the time being, it’s pretty clear that businesses like their BlackBerrys.

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