TORONTO (AP) — Shares of Research In Motion plummeted more than 16 percent after hours after the BlackBerry maker reported its net income and revenue declined in its fiscal second quarter.
The company continues to struggle to compete with the iPhone and smartphones running Google's Android system.
RIM said Thursday its net income was 419 million, or 80 cents per share, in the three months ended August 27. That's down from $796.7 million, or $1.46 per share, a year ago. Analysts expected 90 cents per share, according to a poll by FactSet.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said revenue fell 15 percent to $4.2 billion.
"They are just not selling. They are not competitive," said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in New York. "They are getting really hit hard by Android phones."
Misek said RIM's future depends on it releasing new BlackBerrys with the company's long-promised new QNX operating system, designed to compete with iPhones and Android phones. RIM has vowed to release phones with that software in early 2012.
"They need them out as soon as possible. They need to be good, and they need to be well received by consumers," he said. "If they are not, they will be in a lot of trouble. It will be very difficult to envision a turnaround if they do not get those out as soon as possible."
More bad news: RIM said it sold about 200,000 PlayBook tablet computers in the quarter. That was far short of what analysts had expected.
Shares fell $4.85, or 16.4 percent, to $24.69 in after-hours trading.
Although BlackBerrys have dominated the corporate smartphone market, their popularity in the consumer market has been short-lived. U.S. consumers have moved on to phones with big touchscreens like Apple Inc.'s iPhone and various models that run Google Inc.'s Android operating system.
