Shares of Research In Motion Ltd fell 12 percent in pre-market trade on Friday, a day after the Blackberry maker slashed its first-quarter outlook as product delays hurt sales in the United States and Latin America.

RIM's outlook cut heightened analysts' worries over further product delays at the Canadian company as it battles Apple Inc and Google Inc in a fiercely competitive smartphone and tablet market.

RIM will likely face continued execution issues, product delays, and lackluster product launches for the next year, analysts said, even though the company promised a turnaround from a line-up of new BlackBerry smartphones it will unveil next week.

But consumers are tired of waiting for RIM's innovations to kick in, analysts said, and were instead voting with their dollars, spending much of them in Apple stores and on Google's Android platform.

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets and National Bank Financial downgraded the stock to sector perform from their top rating, while Jefferies & Co lowered their rating by two notches to underperform.

We've heard for too long about RIM's great product roadmap. Consumers are not listening nor waiting, National Bank analysts said.

RIM does not even seem to have dual cameras on its upcoming BlackBerry product line-up. The last time we checked, video is the future, they added.

RIM is also facing a difficult transition as it launches its PlayBook tablet computer with a completely overhauled operating system, QNX, that it expects will run its new phones from early next year.

But analysts expressed doubts over the timing of these product launches.

We believe Blackberry OS 7.0 and QNX will be delayed and that carriers are withdrawing support, Jefferies analysts said, adding that they expect this to result in lower subsidies and less marketing support for RIM.

Analysts at Jefferies, RBC and seven other brokerages lowered their price target on RIM shares.

RIM shares are likely to remain pressured until visibility on the company's earnings momentum improves, RBC analysts said.

Nasdaq-listed shares of RIM were down $6.94 to $49.65 in pre-market trade on Friday. They closed at $56.59 on Nasdaq on Thursday. RIM shares closed at C$53.83 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.

(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee and Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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