Barclays downgrades RIM on product delays

(Reuters) - Research In Motion will lose more market share in the United States and see its international growth limited as the rollout of the Blackberry maker's new operating platform hits snags, Barclays said, downgrading the stock by a notch to equalweight.

Canada's most well-known company's shares fell to their lowest in seven years on November 2, as the market digested further evidence of the smartphone maker's declining share of the lucrative U.S. market. They closed at C$19.10 on Monday.

The stock has also been battered over the last year as RIM struggled to adapt its devices to a new operating platform known as QNX, which is still months away from being available on its smartphones.

"While near-term BB7 demand looks healthy, an uneven BBX/QNX migration including delays in Playbook 2.0 and likely pushout of BBX smartphones to mid 2012, is likely to prevent RIM from shaking its low multiple," Barclays said in a note to clients.

Barclays cut its price target on the stock to $23 from $40.

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)