The rout came after a steep, after-hours sell-off following dismal results released Thursday evening.

The selling pressure triggered a short-sale restriction alert from Nasdaq. Just after the bell, RIM was down $1.34, trading recently at $7.79 on Nasdaq. Early Friday, analysts circulated a fresh series of pessimistic notes following the earnings call, increasing bearish sentiment.

"RIM's prospects appear to be turning from bad to worse," wrote Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in a Friday morning report. After RIM delayed on Thursday the launch of its BlackBerry 10 operating system, Bank of America does "not believe RIM will be able to build its own ecosystem" to challenge smartphone market leaders Apple Inc. and Google Inc.'s Android and new competition from upstart player Microsoft Corp.