RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, posted Q3 results that were basically in line with expectations (after those expectations were managed downward by the company). Here's the summary of results from Reuters:

RIM said it earned $396.3 million, or 69 cents a share, in the three months ended November 29. That was up from a profit of $370.5 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue was $2.78 billion, up from $1.67 billion in the same quarter of last year.

However the company also said that it had gotten off to a fast start for Q4 and the holiday shopping season, causing its shares to climb in after-hours trading:

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion, and earnings per share of 83 to 91 cents.

That was better than analysts expectations for revenue of $2.97 billion and earnings per share of 83 cents as compiled by Reuters Estimates.

"We have enjoyed our best-ever start to the holiday-buying season over the past few weeks," RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a statement.

There had been a recent spate of rumors that the much-hyped Storm was being returned by as many as 40% of buyers. But Verizon issued a statement contradicting those rumors:

“The Storm has the lowest return rate of any of our PDAs and at this point in its life cycle, it has the lowest return rate of any PDA we currently sell.”

In my brief experiences with the device in the Verizon store I didn't particularly care for it; but I'm not a BlackBerry user and didn't really have enough time to make a fair assessment. Apparently initial satisfaction levels with the device are decent but not as high as the iPhone. According to Silicon Alley Insider quoting an RBC/Changewave consumer survey:

Dec RBC IQ / Changewave data (new Storm owners) shows Blackberry Storm lags iPhone on initial satisfaction; 33% of Storm owners were Very Satisfied, 46% Satisfied -- vs. 77% of iPhone (original) owners initially Very Satisfied and 15% Satisfied.  These satisfaction ratings are lower than iPhone but inline with satisfaction ratings for initial owners of other phones.

Regarding Potential Returns: 2% of respondents are Very Likely and 7% Somewhat Likely to return the Storm – not an alarming result, but higher than typical (est. 1-2%) returns.  Reasons for returning: battery life (21%), touchscreen (20%), difficult to use (20%).

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Related: Palm reports another loss:

The company reported a net loss of $508.6 million, or $4.64 a share, including a tax charge of $396.7 million. That compared with a loss of $9.6 million, or 9 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue dropped by 45 percent, to $191.6 million from $349.6 million.

Excluding charges, Palm said it lost $80 million, or 73 cents a share. Analysts expected a loss of 38 cents on sales of $207.3 million, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.