• Los Angeles Times, Friday, September 16, 2011 12:02 PM

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion isn't too healthy. While no surprise to market watchers, the severity of RIM's illness is now gasp inducing. The Canadian tech company reported profits of $419 million, or 80 cents a share, for the three months ended Aug. 27, compared with $796.7 million, or $1.46, in the same period last year. "Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted a more modest drop to 88 cents," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Worse still, RIM reported that revenue fell 10% to $4.2 billion, compared with $4.6 billion a year earlier. "Analysts say that the company is continuing to struggle against rivals Google and Apple, which are eating up market share from the once wildly popular maker of smartphones and tablet computers," writes the LA Times.

"Credibility sinks further as it's apparent to us that visibility remains very low and investor risks remain elevated," Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a research note Thursday. Holding out a sliver of hope, analysts say RIM's health depends heavily on the release of new BlackBerry phones that run on RIM's new QNX operating system.

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