After lowering expectations, Research in Motion Ltd. RIM-T

has beaten them.

Canada’s smartphone powerhouse released better-than-expected third-quarter results Thursday, reporting revenue of $3.92-billion (U.S.), up 11 per cent from the previous quarter, and 41 per cent from the same quarter last year. RIM shipped 10.1-million devices during the quarter and added 4.4-million new subscriber accounts. Profit for the quarter was $1.10 per share, compared to $0.69 a share during the same quarter last year.

Analysts’ consensus for RIM’s third quarter hovered around $3.8-billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.05.

“We are pleased to report record shipments of more than 10 million BlackBerry smartphones during the third quarter with higher than expected revenue, earnings and subscriber growth,’ Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-CEO, said in a statement. “RIM is experiencing a great start to the holiday buying season and the strong third quarter results and fourth quarter outlook clearly reflect the strength of our diversified product portfolio as well as the success of our efforts to expand into broader customer segments and new geographies while maintaining our strong position in North America.”

RIM’s third-quarter results are actually largely in line with what analysts had expected from the company, until RIM lowered sales guidance in September. At the time, RIM said sales in the period ending Nov. 28 will be between $3.6-billion and $3.85-billion. Analysts on average had projected sales of $3.91-billion, according to Bloomberg. RIM’s share price suffered on the news, and analysts reduced their estimates for the third quarter.

RIM’s results come at a time when the company is launching several new Blackberry models. Once a government and corporate-focused device-maker, RIM is expanding aggressively into the consumer market, an arena where its main North American competitor is Apple, the firm behind the hugely popular iPhone.

“On the plus side, RIM successfully launched a number of key products,” Raymond James Ltd. analyst Steven Li said in a note, pointing to new RIM offerings such as the high-end Storm and Bold models, as well as the lower-end Curve.

“On the negative side, our channel checks at RIM’s major carriers showed Motorola’s Droid gaining share at the expense of RIM at Verizon and some temporary pricing promotions on the new Bold 9700 at AT&T that could have hurt Curve sales.

RIM’s fortunes are significantly dependent on its major carrier partners, especially in the United States. Verizon is considered by some analysts to be RIM’s most important partner, and the carrier’s two-for-one offer on Blackberry devices earlier this year proved a boon for the Canadian smartphone-maker.

More consumers are switching from regular cellphones to smartphones – devices that are capable of doing more than just voice calls and text messages. With its Blackberry lineup, RIM is poised to cash in on the shift, but must battle with other firms such as Apple, Motorola and Palm.

According to research firm IDC, the number of mobile Internet users worldwide will climb to 1-billion by 2013, more than double the 450-million mobile Web users today. The largest mobile Internet hub in the world is China, a country where RIM has been trying very hard to create a more significant marketplace presence, fighting mobile giants such as Nokia who currently control the Chinese market.

However firms such as Nokia have traditionally dominated the market with regular cellphones, rather than smartphones that are capable of browsing the Web or running multimedia applications – a gap that smartphone makers such as RIM may be able to exploit. Indeed, by the end of the year, IDC expects mobile multimedia services to overtake text-messaging as the primary non-voice revenue-generator throughout most of the Asian mobile market.