Research In Motion is ramping up spending in anticipation of "what could be its strongest second half ever," the company said on a conference call late Wednesday.

The comment came after RIM, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, released largely in-line first-quarter financial results, but provided lower-than-expected second-quarter earnings guidance.

RIM forecast second-quarter net of 84 to 89 cents a share, below the Thomson Reuters mean estimate of 90 cents. Revenue is expected to come in at $2.55 to $2.65 billion, above the mean estimate of $2.439 billion.

Investors have so far honed in on the tepid earnings forecast, sending RIM shares sharply lower after-hours on fears that the hyper-growth cycle that RIM has experienced in the past 18 months could be waning. After closing regular trading at $142.30, shares were trading at $130.87.

During the call, RIM co-Chief Executive, Jim Balsillie, stressed that the increase in operating expenses is needed to maintain RIM's stellar growth. While execution will be key, Balsillie said RIM has a history of investing wisely, which is "why we've grown so well" and investors have benefited.

RIM plans to launch advertising campaigns in Europe and North American to accompany upcoming product releases. It is also investing in new research and development centers in Germany and the U.S. The company has also opened a new network operating center outside of North America, and it has been scaling its network infrastructure in anticipation of coming growth.

In all, RIM expects operating expenses in the second quarter to increase by 26 to 28% over the $491 million spent in the first quarter.

RIM is expected to unveil a touch-screen BlackBerry, as well as a clamshell version of the device later this year. The company has already announced a 3G-enabled BlackBerry called the Bold that is expected to be introduced by AT&T in the U.S. sometime this summer.

Balsillie said RIM is seeing strong growth in international markets, with 33% of its subscribers based outside of North America. That is flat with the previous quarter. Balsillie said 60% of first-quarter subscriber additions were non-enterprise customers. That is up substantially from 38% the previous quarter. Overall, 40% of RIM's 16-million plus subscribers are non-enterprise customers.

Analysts didn't quiz RIM much about the potential for heightened competition from Apple's upcoming 3G-version of its iPhone. One analyst did ask if RIM is seeing a lot of overlap with the iPhone, to which Balsillie replied, "Naaahhh."

Genuity Capital analyst Deepak Chopra said he believes the smartphone market is growing so fast that there is enough room for RIM and Apple to continue to grow. He said the BlackBerry and iPhone account for just 2% of the global-handset market, leaving ample room for each company to take marketshare from other rivals.

RIM posted first-quarter net of 84 cents a share, up from 39 cents a year earlier but 1 cent below the mean estimate of 85 cents. Revenue rose to $2.24 billion from $1.08 billion. The company added 2.3 million subscribers and forecast additions of 2.6 million in the second quarter.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires