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Revenue surged to $2.24 billion in the three months ended 31 May - up 107% from a year earlier - as the company added 2.3 million subscribers, or about 100,000 more than it expected.

About 60% of the new subscribers came from outside the company's base of business customers, a plus for RIM as it works to diversify.

But first-quarter earnings of $482.5 million fell just short of the average estimate of analysts. More importantly, RIM offered an outlook for its second quarter that appeared to be a letdown for investors.

"The disappointment is on the guidance side and hence the reason for the sell-off," says Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino, as RIM shares fell by 8% on the back of the news.

"It appears as if they are forecasting earnings for the

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next quarter to be slightly lower than the consensus estimates," said Duncan Stewart, president of Duncan Stewart Asset Management in Toronto.

The results were a departure from the Ontario-based company's recent quarters, when it comfortably beat analyst forecasts amid rapid growth.

In its outlook, the company said it expects second-quarter sales of between $2.55 billion and $2.65 billion, and earnings of between 84 and 89 cents a share. It also said it expects to add about 2.6 million new subscribers.

The company said it pushed deeper into the retail market during the first quarter, becoming less reliant on its mainstay business customers.

The company is betting that new product launches, such as its recently announced BlackBerry Bold, will fuel growth for the balance of the year and beyond, despite a slowdown in the US economy.

While top-end handsets like the Bold might appeal mostly to large corporate and government clients, RIM also offers a range of multimedia features for consumers with its Pearl and Curve smartphones.

"To support the anticipated growth in the second half, we have been investing and expanding in a number of areas to ensure that we can scale to meet the opportunity ahead of us," Balsillie claims.