RIM faces a difficult quarter despite stream of product announcements

Research in Motion (RIM) has made a host of announcements at its BlackBerry World Conference in Orlando, Florida. However, the company faces a difficult first quarter as it lowered its earnings outlook last week, due to weak BlackBerry sales.

"The shortfall is primarily due to shipment volumes of BlackBerry smartphones now expected to be at the lower end of the range of 13.5-14.5 million forecast in March as well as a shift in the expected mix of devices shipped towards handsets with lower average selling prices," said RIM in a statement.

The firm explained that it expects earnings per share of $1.30-$1.37 (£0.8-£0.83) in the quarter ending 28 May, lower than the $1.47-$1.55 forecast just a month ago.

Meanwhile, among the announcements at its US event, RIM unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones, the 9900 and 9930, which the firm claims are the lightest and most powerful to date.

The handsets will also be the first to support the BlackBerry 7 operating system, which offers improved browser and search performance and the integration of BlackBerry Balance.

The Balance system allows users to separate personal content from business data, securing corporate information from applications such as social networking and games. The platform is RIM's effort to solve lingering security questions among enterprises.

It also announced a new Facebook app for the much-anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook tablet device, and a multi-platform BlackBerry device management enterprise solution to provide security, management and control of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets.

According to Computing's sister web site, V3.co.uk, RIM has also announced an application designed to allow users of its new PlayBook tablet to carry out video calling over Wi-Fi, as the firm goes head-to-head with Apple and the iPad 2.

The Video Chat application contains features such as the ability to make one-click video calls to contacts, use both rear- and front-facing cameras during calls, and many similar features to standard voice calls such as call logs and call-screening.

The company has also launched its fourth annual BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge, through the BlackBerry Partners Fund.

Developers of BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook applications can enter their applications in a series of competitions, and stand to win $3m (£1.8m) in prizes.

Winners will be selected on a regional basis across four global regions – North America, Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific.