Research In Motion Looks to Rebound After Four Straight Sales Misses

It was reported on Wednesday that Research In Motion

is hoping that tomorrow's earnings will see the company avoid a fifth straight sales miss, with investors looking to the new CEO for an immediate turnaround. According to

, since March 2011, RIMM shares have dropped 16% on average the day after earnings have been released. The online chatter seems to be pointing to another negative quarter for the company, the first results for new German-born CEO Thorsten Heins who took over at the beginning of the year and promised to do something “dramatically different” to reverse the slump. His problem is that he has to rely on a product line considered stone-age by tech-heads. In that regard, Apple

and Google

, the latter with its Android software, both have a distinct advantage. “The competitive landscape is getting more and more intense,” Jim Suva, a Citigroup Inc. analyst in San Francisco, said in an interview on the “Bloomberg Surveillance” radio show. “We expect the outlook to be pretty bad.” On Tuesday, Sterne Agee published a research report stating that due to much lowered expectations with the Street cutting estimates aggressively over the past few weeks, it believes RIMM may report a decent quarter and guide less worse than expected. Because of this, it would not be surprised to see a near-term relief rally in RIMM shares. “Based on our supply chain analysis, we believe RIMM may report a decent quarter, in-line with consensus estimates at $4.55 billion in revenue and $0.82 in EPS, which is already at the lower end of its guidance range of $4.6-4.9 billion in revenue and $0.80-$0.95 in EPS.”