Research in Motion reported a decline in profits on Thursday, although the company shipped more PlayBook tablets than expected. RIM also said it would implement a series of layoffs, the scope of which was not immediately clear.

Research in Motion reported a decline in profits on Thursday, although the company shipped more PlayBook tablets than expected. RIM also said product delays would force a series of layoffs, which executives called a "streamlining".

RIM reported profits of $695 million on revenue of $4.9 billion for its first fiscal quarter, versus $934 million in profits a year ago. Revenue rose 16 percent from the same period a year ago. A year ago, RIM reported revenue of $4.24 billion.

RIM shipped 13.2 million smartphones during the quarter, RIM said, below the 13.5 million smartphones that RIM gave during at the end of April. The company shipped about 500,000 PlayBook tablets; analysts polled by Reuters had expected the company to sell 366,000 units. Fall will see WIMAX, LTE, and HSPA versions, executives said.

"Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start," said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive at RIM, in a statement. "The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter. RIM's business is profitable and remains solid overall with growing market share in numerous markets around the world and a strong balance sheet with almost $3 billion in cash. We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part of fiscal 2012."

Products launched on BlackBerry OS 7 will launch in late August or early September, followed a month later by the launch of the QNX- based "superphones". The latter will be built on the PlayBook platform, executives said. Lazaridis said that the BlackBerry 7 products are designed to be lower cost, for "messaging communications".

The delays have caused RIM to miss back-to-school promotions, which has led to lower-than-anticipated shipments, Balsillie said during the call.

Why the delays?

Why did RIM experience delays? Because RIM recognized that the current hardware wasn't cutting it, and had to upgrade to more powerful chipsets, co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis said. The first will be the that RIM recently showed off.

"This now enables the largest global launch of BlackBerry products in our history and allows us to roll out a rapid succession of launches over the next several months," Lazaridis said.

"Many of you have asked why we didn't move to QNX on BlackBerry handsets immediately," Lazaridis added. "There are a number of reasons why this wasn't a feasible alternative. First of all, a hard cut over between platforms at the time meant abandoning our strong and loyal BlackBerry developer community. It also would have been nearly impossible to deliver a multi-core QNX smartphone this year given that the dual-core baseband processors are only just becoming available. It would also have been unrealistic to try to build a whole new tablet platform and to port BlackBerry to that platform at the same time."

"I truly believe we are approaching the final phase of this transition," Lazaridis said. "While I can't promise that there won't be bumps in the road ahead, I can assure you that Jim and I have never been more committed to the business and that our interest remains closely aligned with those of our shareholders."

However, RIM also said that it would begin a "cost optimization program" that will include layoffs during the second quarter, RIM said. It will include a one-time charge during the quarter, the amount of which has not been determined.

"This realignment will be focused on taking out redundancies and a reallocation of resources to allow us to focus on the areas that offer the highest growth opportunities and align with RIM strategic objectives, such as accelerating new product introductions," the company said.

Executives called it a "streamlining," not a "restructuring".

RIM also said that it would launch a share repurchasing program.

Meanwhile, Dolby Laboratories on Wednesday said that it had sued RIM in the United States and Germany, asking courts there to halt sales of the PlayBook and other BlackBerry devices. At issue are patents relating to High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC), an international audio standard that Dolby said its own technology is used within. all other smartphone makers have licensed the technology, Dolby said.

"Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the use of Dolby's technology," said Andy Sherman, executive vice president and general counsel of Dolby, in a statement. "We have a duty to protect our intellectual property."

RIM also projected second-quarter revenue to be $4.2 and $4.8 billion, with the company selling between 11 million and 12.5 million units, most of which will be in-life products at the low end of RIM's price range, the company said. Earnings per share for the full year fiscal 2012 are now expected to be between $5.25 to $6.00 diluted, RIM said, excluding any one-time charges or share repurchases.

Editor's Note: Correction: RIM reported profits of $934 million a year ago. The company also shipped 500,000 PlayBook tablets, not 366,000 as the story earlier stated. This story was also updated at 9:50 PM with additional details.