RIM stock tanks as BlackBerry sales weaken

Poor RIM can't catch a break these days. First the iPhone comes on the scene and grabs all the attention in the smart phone space, a market that had been dominated by RIM for the better part of a decade. Now come cuts in its sales and earnings forecasts, with analysts starting to worry that people just aren't buying BlackBerrys like they used to.

While one analyst at Pacific Crest Securities calls overall sales trends "slightly disappointing," signs point to some pretty troubling weaknesses in all of the company's new products: Sales of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip are being described as "tepid at best," and sales of both the standard Curve and new Bold are weak overseas (where the Bold is already on sale).

Reviewers have been relatively kind to the Bold, but most note that the new hardware doesn't really reinvent RIM in a way that makes it competitive to the iPhone. The Bold has also been stricken with software problems and delays, one of which was severe enough that it embarrassingly had to be pulled from sale in the UK last week.

Meanwhile, the upcoming BlackBerry Storm will be RIM's first touchscreen BlackBerry, but many are likely nervous that problems similar to those with the Bold may follow, especially considering the Storm is such a radical shift from the way all of the company's other devices work. The upshot: Consumers appear to be a little wary for now.

The damage due to the analyst coverage today has been brutal: The Nasdaq average is up over 3 percent, while RIM stock fell over 8 percent.

Normally I don't write about the vagaries of individual stock prices but I'm curious how all of this impacts readers' buying decisions: Has iPhone swayed any RIM loyalists away from the platform, or is this just a hiccup that the company is temporarily facing? Will the highly-anticipated Storm turn things around (and have you pre-ordered one?) or are you willing to wait and see?