Strong sales of BlackBerry smartphones helped Research in Motion report a 72 per cent increase in fiscal second-quarter net income on Thursday, but the Canadian company’s shares fell by 16 per cent in late trading after it forecast lower-than-expected third-quarter profits, reflecting higher marketing spending to support a slew of new products.

RIM, which shipped 6.1m devices in the latest quarter and accounts for 54 per cent of the US smartphone market, will launch at least three BlackBerry handsets before the end of the year.