Research In Motion executives announced the financial results of the company's quarter ending December 1. The good news for fans of the Waterloo, Ontario-based maker of the BlackBerry and PlayBook is that the company continued to reduce its hemorrhaging. RIM actually saw a slight increase in the sale of its PlayBook tablet.

The bad news is the company did so on less revenue, while shipping even fewer products than the last quarter and less than half the number of BlackBerry phones it sold this time last year. But if the BlackBerry 10 is even a moderate hit, RIM's improved financial performance could mean a return to profitability next year.

And there's reason to hope. "More than 150 carriers are currently completing technical acceptance programs for the first BlackBerry 10 products," RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said in a prepared statement. "And beta trials of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are underway at more than 120 enterprises, including 64 Fortune 500 companies." BlackBerry 10 launches on January 30.

In the meantime, the currently available inventory is not doing so well. RIM's revenue from September to December was $2.7 billion, five percent less than in the previous three months and slightly more than half the company's 2011 revenue for the same period of $5.2 billion. It shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry handsets, down from 7.4 million in the previous three months; in September to December in 2011, RIM shipped 14.1 million BlackBerries.

While the PlayBook's sales were up, they were still relatively anemic in comparison to the tablet's competitors. RIM shipped 255,000 PlayBooks in the last three months, nearly double the company's June-to-September shipment numbers.

Buried in the numbers is the continued financial turnaround being driven by CEO Thorsten Heins. The company's net income as a percent of revenue continues to climb, showing RIM continues to become more financially efficient in its operations.