RIM shares fall on mixed results

Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion fell more than 11 per cent in trading Friday, a day after the Waterloo, Ont.-based firm reported mixed financial results.

RIM shares closeddown $7.01, or 11.5 per cent, to $54.08 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

After markets closed on Thursday, RIM reported earnings of $768.9 million US, or $1.38 per share for the company's first quarter and revenues of $4.24 billion. RIM keeps its books in U.S. dollars.

The markets liked the earnings, but some analysts had expected better revenue gains.

The average estimate by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had been for earnings per share of $1.33 and revenues of $4.3 billion US.

Early responses from analysts were lukewarm, with UBS analyst Phillip Huang lowering his price target on RIM to $65 USfrom $70 following the earnings report.

Technology analyst Nick Agostino said shortly after the results Thursday that the first quarter was "mixed" while the outlook for the second quarter was "in line to slightly better than expected."

Competition growing

The BlackBerry maker's continued international growth is being challenged not just by Apple's iPhone but also by the growing popularity of Google's Android smartphones among consumers.

"There's more competition on the smartphone front in North America than there ever has been," said IDC senior analyst Kevin Restivo.

"Android and the devices that Google's partners are making have very quickly become hot commodities in the United States," Restivo said from Toronto.

But RIM has made the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America priorities, as those regions are quickly adopting smartphones, said Restivo, of IDC's worldwide mobile phone tracker unit.