Shares in Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone device, soared in New York today as the company unveiled a 73 per cent hike in first-quarter sales.

The surge came just hours before the long-awaited release of Apple's iPhone, which could prove to be the BlackBerry's strongest competitor so far.

Shares in RIM were up $27.83, or more than 16 per cent, to $193.42 in morning trading. The group posted profits of $223.2 million, up from $128.8 million, or 67 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Sales broke the $1 billion barrier for the first time. The results were well above analyst expectations.

RIM added that it stands to pass the 10 million mark for subscribers to its mobile e-mail network next quarter.

Analysts suggested RIM is benefiting from support from those mobile phone operators in the United States frozen out of Apple's iPhone hype - all bar ATT.

"You may love the iPhone, but you may live in an area where Sprint has the most reliable phone service and [ATT]has a lot of dead spots in coverage," Thomas Weisel Partners said in a recent "white paper" on the iPhone's prospects.

"In this case, we believe most consumers will choose quality of service over quality of handset."

The BlackBerry is also available at prices, which vary from contract to contract, far below the $600 commanded by the iPhone.

Companies in the US have already sent e-mail circulars warning their customers that they do not intend to offer iPhones as company devices, suggesting that BlackBerry's core corporate market could prove immune to the hype surrounding Apple's latest gadget.

The iPhone could also be hampered because it will not run on 3G - the next generation network that allows phones to download content such as audio files, an area already tapped by RIM.

RIM could face stiffer competition in the so-called "prosumer" market, however.

Thomas Weisel Partners said: In terms of music and video player capability, the iPhone, with its next-generation widescreen video iPod, is head and shoulders above the competition.

Apple has set a target for iPhone sales of 10 million next year.

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