Sales of RIM's BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet in the United States have struggled to keep up with those of more powerful and content-rich devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad as well as a slew of Android-based devices from the likes of Samsung and HTC Corp that are heavily subsidized and marketed by U.S. carriers.

RIM said it had U.S. revenue of $1.03 billion in the three months to late November, a 7 percent drop from the previous quarter. It had U.S. sales of $1.88 billion in the year-before quarter.

The Canadian company, however, expanded elsewhere, with sales outside the United States, Canada and Britain increasing 31 percent from a year earlier to $3.17 billion. Those sales made up 61 percent of RIM's total sales in the quarter, up 5.4 percentage points from the year-before period.

RIM's shares fell again on Tuesday, down 2.8 percent at $12.54 on Nasdaq in the early afternoon, and down 3.4 percent at C$12.90 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Last Friday, the shares fell 11 percent after RIM offered a dismal outlook and said it was delaying release of its make-or-break new smartphones until late 2012.

They have lost more than half their value since the day before the company reported its second quarter earnings back in September.

Two years ago, RIM made more than half its sales in the U.S. market. Last quarter, less than one in every five dollars of RIM revenue came from the United States.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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