The economic downturn in the U.S. and elsewhere is taking its toll on more device makers, with smartphone maker RIM lowering their financial outlook for Q3 in the face of declining demand and increased competition. Particularly, the company says it now expects quarterly revenue to fall between $2.75 billion and $2.78 billion – down from a previous estimate of $2.77 to $3.10 billion.


The company blames the current poor economic conditions along with the delayed product launches for both the BlackBerry Bold and the long-awaited touch screen Storm – even though they claim to have “experienced particularly strong momentum in recent weeks” following the launch of the latter. Though they arguably still enjoy a comfortable lead over Apple in the business world with its traditional BlackBerry lineup, their Storm device is going to conspicuous lengths to try and appeal to the same crowd the iPhone does. This is an especially important concern to RIM, seeing as Apple has reached nearly 17% of the smartphone market.

Editor’s note: This story was partially rewritten due to some inaccuracies. Our apologies about that.