Ahead of the Bell: RIM annual shareholders meeting

Executives from Research in Motion Ltd. will face its investors Tuesday as its stock is trading near a nine-year low. RIM is holding its annual shareholders meeting in Waterloo, Ontario, at 10 a.m. Tuesday, less than two weeks after announcing disappointing financial results, deep job cuts and the latest delay in its BlackBerry 10 software.

Its stock closed Monday at $7.67, down 43 cents, or 5.3 percent, for the day. That's near a nine-year low of $7.14.

Analysts believe RIM is running out of time to turn itself around.

Sales of the once-pioneering BlackBerry phones fell 41 percent in the latest quarter and likely won't pick up again until new phones come out next year.

Google and Apple beware.

By then, people will have even more choices, including a new iPhone expected from Apple this fall and phones running the latest version of Google's Android software, called Jelly Bean. Phones running a revamped version of Microsoft's Windows system are also coming this fall.

Although BlackBerrys were once a staple in corporate environments because of their reputation for security and reliability, they've lost their cachet as iPhones demonstrated that smartphones are good for more than email.

The BlackBerry's U.S. market share has plummeted from 41 percent in 2007, when the first iPhone came out, to less than 4 percent in the first three months of 2012, according to research firm IDC.

RIM portrays BlackBerry 10 as its way of catching up. It promises the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand.

Associated Press