Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, surged in late trading after forecasting sales and profit for the current quarter that beat analysts’ estimates.

Sales in the three months ending in February will be $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion and earnings per share will be $1.23 to $1.31, Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said yesterday in a statement.

RIM jumped 12 percent in after-hours trading to $70.90. It fell $1.21 to $63.46 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has climbed 56 percent this year.

Palm, maker of the Pre mobile phone, reported its 10th straight quarterly loss as it struggled to match RIM’s and Apple’s gains in the smart-phone market.

The second-quarter net loss narrowed to $85.4 million, or 54 cents a share, from a loss of $508.6 million, or $4.64, a year earlier, when the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company had a tax expense.