Research In Motion adds new BlackBerry phones, OS

SAN FRANCISCO - Research In Motion Ltd. lifted the wraps on its new operating system and a pair of new BlackBerry smartphones on Monday, as company executives faced questioning from analysts following a surprise earnings warning last week.

The new devices - updates to the company's flagship BlackBerry Bold line - are the first in what are expected to be a slew of new products from the company in the later half of the year that will run on the new BlackBerry 7 operating system.

RIM is giving a preview of the new platform at its annual developers conference taking place this week in Orlando, Florida. The company kicked off its BlackBerry World conference with an analyst meeting on Monday morning.

Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-CEO, opened the meeting and took questions from analysts, who quizzed the company on its ability to re-gain momentum in the smartphone market as its aging base of handsets loses share to rival products such as Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices.

"We were delighted with the way the world was going in terms of grow, grow, grow. Then what happened is that the industry went into a very turbulent cycle of innovation," Balsillie said at the meeting.

"All that change happened faster than we expected." Last Thursday, RIM announced that it was lowering its earnings guidance for the quarter ending in May, as the sales mix has shifted to more lower-end devices that is not being offset by more expensive products at the higher end.

That warning caused the stock to slide more than 14 percent to a new six-month low - and drew several brokerage downgrades as more analysts questioned the company's outlook. On Monday, Balsillie was optimistic on the company's outlook, saying that carriers around the world are demanding new high-end devices built on the BlackBerry 7 platform.

He also said there is strong enterprise demand for the company's first tablet - the PlayBook - which went on sale two weeks ago.

"There is no question that CIO's have tablets on the brain right now," Balsillie said, calling the tablet market a "two-horse race," implying that enterprise clients are evaluating the PlayBook against the iPad from Apple Inc.

RIM also announced two new models of the BlackBerry Bold line - the 9900 and 9930. The new devices are expected to be launched at wireless carriers this summer, though no specific target date or price was given.

They will be the first handsets to feature the BlackBerry 7 operating system. The new Bold's also feature a touch-screen along with the standard BlackBerry QWERTY keypad. The company said they were also "the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet" at just 10.5 millimeters thick.

The devices feature a 1.2 GHz processor and a Liquid Graphics display.

MarketWatch