RIM rings up sales of 11 million BlackBerries

RESEARCH In Motion is expected to report this week that it sold a whopping 11 million BlackBerries in its latest quarter, which may offset the impact of falling prices and narrower profit margins.

As RIM moves further into the broad consumer smartphone market, it has been offering cheaper devices to compete with Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid. Sales and subscriber growth have gone up as a result.

But analysts said the brisk demand for low-end devices, which drives down the company's average selling price, may pressure profit when RIM reports its results tomorrow.