CORRECTED - UPDATE 3-BlackBerry maker slashes forecast, shares tumble

(Corrects RIM's full year earnings forecast to $5.25-$6 a
share, from $4.25-$6 a share)

* Q1 EPS $1.33, revenue of $4.9 bln

* Ships 13.2 mln BlackBerrys, 500,000 PlayBook tablets

* Shares drop 15 pct after-hours

* Announces share buyback, expects job cuts

(Adds analyst quote, details)

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO, June 16 (Reuters) - Research In Motion's (RIM.TO)
(RIMM.O) quarterly profit dropped and revenue missed its own
limp forecast, forcing the BlackBerry maker to slash its
outlook and sending its shares down 15 percent on Thursday.

Facing intense pressure from Apple (AAPL.O) and Google
(GOOG.O) in the smartphone market, RIM also warned that its
latest models would not hit U.S. stores until well into the
valuable back-to-school shopping season. The delay will likely
add to the disappointment felt by investors after RIM's botched
launch of its PlayBook tablet computer this spring.

"The company is going into the abyss of a transition, and
even if they get a new model, it's a new model on the old
platform," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis, one of many
who has criticized RIM's product development pipeline.

RIM has promised smartphones next year running on its new
QNX platform, now featured in the PlayBook, but only after it
releases a series of devices with an upgraded version of the
current operating system. But even those upgrades to its Bold
business workhorse, new Torch and Storm models won't go on sale
until late August, RIM said on Thursday.

That delay pushed RIM to forecast shipments of between 11
million and 12.5 million smartphones in the current quarter,
sharply lower than the more than 14 million eyed by analysts.

RIM shipped 13.2 million BlackBerrys in the three months to
May 28, missing its own estimate.

It shipped 500,000 PlayBook tablets in the six weeks after
its April launch, exceeding the average analyst forecast of
366,000. Even so, the number represents a small fraction of
Apple's iPad sales.

RIM, once a byword for corporate mobile communications, has
lost allure as Apple's iPhone and later Google's Android
operating system changed the rules of the game.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Graphic on key RIM metrics r.reuters.com/ner22s
As RIM struggles, talk of change at top [ID:nN27162387]
Instant view [ID:nN16222773]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

JOB CUTS

Up against that competition, analysts had thought it was
only a matter of time before RIM abandoned a $7.50 a share
earnings outlook for the year to late March 2012. On Thursday,
it did just that, recalibrating expectations to between $5.25
and $6 a share.

In a tacit acknowledgment that it needs to do more to play
catch-up, the company said it plans to cut jobs and focus its
resources on accelerating its product pipeline. The company did
not disclose the number of job cuts, but indicated that it
intends to begin this reorganization immediately.

"RIM is in this situation because its phones aren't
competitive and they're not competitive because they've fallen
behind on development and product cycle," said Charter Equity
analyst Edward Snyder. "Now they need to accelerate the models
to market, but at the same time they are cutting staff."

To help boost its sagging share price, RIM intends to buy
back up to 5 percent of its outstanding shares and said the
board did not expect that the spending would have a negative
impact its growth plan. Its full year forecast for earnings per
share did not calculate any impact of the share buyback.

BY THE NUMBERS

RIM expects earnings in the current quarter of between 75
cents and $1.05, sharply lower than the already pessimistic
average view of $1.40. It sees revenue of between $4.2 billion
and $4.8 billion.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company's net profit dropped to
$695 million, or $1.33 a share, on revenue of $4.9 billion.
Analysts had expected profit of $1.32 a share on revenue of
$5.1 billion.

A year ago RIM earned $1.38 a share on revenue of $4.24
billion.

The company said its gross margins, among the highest in
the smartphone industry, will likely slip around 5 percentage
points to some 39 percent in the current quarter.

Shares of RIM -- which reported its results after the close
-- fell to nearly a five-year low during the regular session
after the company said a senior executive had taken medical
leave. [ID:nN16216489]

RIM shares fell more than 15 percent further to $29.84 in
trade after the closing bell in the United States.

(Additional reporting by Euan Rocha, Allison Martell and
Trish Nixon in Toronto and Sinead Carew in New York)