Top Tech News

TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion reduced its acquire prognosticate by 11 proportionality for the underway quarter on weekday because of slower BlackBerry shipments, sending its shares plunging 12 percent.

In an unusual warning just a punctuation after RIM reportable quarterly earnings and disappointed investors with a weak short-term outlook, the consort said it expects weakened earnings between $1.30 and $1.37 a deal for the punctuation to the modify of May, downbound from the $1.47-$1.55 arrange it prognosticate in New March.

Before RIM's March forecast, analysts had on average expected the consort to acquire $1.65 a deal for the underway quarter.

"This is the prototypal of the slide," said prince Snyder from Charter Equity Research. "It's feat to be like expose coming discover of a balloon slowly."

He said RIM has struggled to ready up with pure rivalry at the broad modify of the smartphone market, where Apple's iPhone and devices streaming Google's Android operative grouping steal most of the thunder.

"Increasingly RIM is existence relegated to the baritone end, quasi-smartphone. Without a flagship touchscreen, high-end smartphone they are feat to move to retrograde traction."

RIM said the shortfall was mainly due to slower shipments of its BlackBerry smartphones and an increasing certainty on income of its cheaper devices.

It said shipments will probable be at the baritone modify of the 13.5-14.5 meg prognosticate the consort gave in March, and that revenue would woman the arrange of $5.2 1000000000 to $5.6 1000000000 that it had prognosticate in March.

But RIM maintained its burly prognosticate for full-year earnings of $7.50 per share, saying it would make up the shortfall after in the assemblage with newborn creation launches and cost cutting.

The Canadian consort is straddling a difficult transformation as it launches its prototypal paper computer, the PlayBook, with a newborn operative grouping it expects will run its newborn phones from early incoming year.

"It's not enthusiastic news but in this transformation punctuation there are a aggregation of drawing that are moving around and I don't conceive we can view it as that incremental," said Wunderlich Securities shrink Matthew Robison. "Transitions are ever a challenge."

RIM said it has not old momentous cater disruptions from the Japan seism and shipments of its PlayBook paper are on track.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Janet Guttsman and saint Galloway)

Source