The surging global demand for the BlackBerry was confirmed by an unexpectedly strong sales report on Thursday, just a day before the debut of Apple’s iPhone threatened to put its smartphone rival in the shade.

Some 2.4m BlackBerry devices were sold in the latest quarter, double that of a year ago, Research in Motion, the portable e-mail gadget’s Canadian maker, reported. The company also said it added 1.2m subscribers in the period, taking the total to 9m.