RIM may lose more ground in smartphone market: analyst

TORONTO (Reuters) - Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion could well cede a much larger chunk of market share in coming months, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue warned on Monday, the eve of the company's annual showcase, BlackBerry World.

"In the ever competitive smartphone market, Nokia, RIM, Motorola, Sony, LG, and a slew of others are donating market share, while Samsung and Apple continue to gain market share," Sue wrote in a note to clients.

Sue said that although RIM is set to launch a new generation of BlackBerry 10 smartphones later this year, the company could soon see its share of the global smartphone market dip below 5 percent.

RIM had an 8.8 percent slice of the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter, according to research firm Gartner, down from 14.6 percent a year earlier. Apple and Android smartphones accounted for almost three-quarters of the market, up from less than half a year earlier.

Sue, who has a $13 price target on shares of RIM, also moved the stock to the "speculative risk" category from the "average risk" category.

RIM shares closed at $14.30 on Nasdaq on Monday.

Sue's warning came a day before Tuesday's start of RIM's big annual BlackBerry World event in Orlando, Florida, where the bring out applications for its devices.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Peter Galloway)