Has Research In Motion (RIM), creator of BlackBerry smart phones, hit a home run with their new BlackBerry Torch?  Perhaps.  Sales figures from the latest quarter look promising for the Canadian company.

According to Yahoo! News, the new BlackBerry Torch was shipped to several cell phone carriers.  What seems to be RIM’s answer to the popular Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry Torch features RIM’s trademark mini keyboard along with a touchscreen.  It also features a better browser application.  The phone currently competes with Apple iPhone and phones running Google’s Android operating system.  Competition may be complicated in the future when Apple iPhones hit Verizon and when Android-running phones become available internationally.

Despite the threat of competition, RIM appears to be doing very well in terms of sales.  It was reported that 14.2 million BlackBerry smart phones were shipped in the most recent quarter, translating to $5.49 billion in revenue.