* RIM sees Q1 EPS $1.30-$1.37; earlier forecast $1.47-$1.55
* Says shortfall due to shipping fewer BlackBerrys
* Keeps full-year outlook on new launches, cost cutting
* Shares fall 12 percent in after-hours trade (Adds details, analyst's quote. In U.S. dollars unless noted)
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, April 28 (Reuters) - Research In Motion
In an unusual warning just a month after RIM reported quarterly earnings and disappointed investors with a weak short-term outlook, the company said it expects diluted earnings between $1.30 and $1.37 a share for the period to the end of May, down from the $1.47-$1.55 range it forecast in late March.
Before RIM's March forecast, analysts had on average expected the company to earn $1.65 a share for the current quarter. [ID:nN24175647]
"This is the beginning of the slide," said Edward Snyder from Charter Equity Research. "It's going to be like air coming out of a balloon slowly."
He said RIM has struggled to keep up with intense
competition at the high end of the smartphone market, where
Apple's
"Increasingly RIM is being relegated to the low end, quasi-smartphone. Without a flagship touchscreen, high-end smartphone they are going to continue to lose traction."
RIM said the shortfall was mainly due to slower shipments of its BlackBerry smartphones and an increasing reliance on sales of its cheaper devices.
It said shipments will likely be at the low end of the 13.5-14.5 million forecast the company gave in March, and that revenue would miss the range of $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion that it had forecast in March.
But RIM maintained its robust forecast for full-year earnings of $7.50 per share, saying it would make up the shortfall later in the year with new product launches and cost cutting.
The Canadian company is straddling a difficult transition as it launches its first tablet computer, the PlayBook, with a new operating system it expects will run its new phones from early next year.
"It's not great news but in this transition period there are a lot of numbers that are moving around and I don't think we can view it as that incremental," said Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Robison. "Transitions are always a challenge."
RIM said it has not experienced significant supply disruptions from the Japan earthquake and shipments of its PlayBook tablet are on track. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Janet Guttsman and Peter Galloway)