Monday, October 27, 2008
Presidential Candidates and Their BlackBerrys
I've posted some images of the candidates toting BlackBerrys HERE.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Bold 9000 to go on Sale November 4
AT&T will start selling RIM's Bold 9000 in the US Nov. 4. This new flagship BlackBerry model was initially expected in the summer, but as RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis suggested in San Francisco, the Bold was still being tested by AT&T, and the carrier was being extra careful with network problems after widely publicized problems with Apple Inc.'s latest iPhone 3G. Apparently, if too many 3G users got on the network at once, it slowed considerably. Also 3G signals do not appear to penetrate buildings as well as 2G.The Bold 9000 did launch in Canada and some overseas markets, but not in the the US, and the apparent delay has been partly blamed for the recent decline in RIM shares.
The Bold features a HVGA (480 x 320 pixels) resolution display, 1 GB of internal memory into, a microSD card slot for up to 16 GB of extra memory, tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth and GPS. Other features include a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom, improved QWERTY keyboard with thin metal strips between each row and a 3.5mm headphone jack. All this running on a 624MHz StrongARM processor with full MMX, the fastest CPU that can be found on a handset.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Why Microsoft Won't Buy RIM
A number of analysts and RIM followers have speculated that the free-fall in the value of RIM's shares, from $148.13 in June to about fifty bucks in late October, might lead to a takeover bid from Microsoft.
Analysts give several reasons:
* Deepening rivalry with Apple (AAPL) and an economic slowdown that threatens to curb demand for BlackBerrys.
* Concerns that heavy spending in the face of competition will eat into profit margins. On Oct. 20, Bindu Benjamin, an analyst at broker First Global, downgraded RIM to "market perform with an under-perform bias," and Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt cut his 2009 revenue growth forecast to 84% from 92%, saying RIM faces a tougher economic environment.
* Slowing sales. James Faucette of Pacific Crest Securities said sales of the Pearl Flip have been "tepid at best," and sales of the Curve have been bumpy in Canada and Britain.
* MS needs RIM. Peter Misek, an analyst at Canaccord Adams, thinks that RIM would be a better fit for MS than Yahoo. "If RIM's management would be willing to entertain the discussion, and if [RIM executives] are willing to partner up, I think Microsoft would take their call.... Microsoft has already lost the war over search as currently defined. It's now at risk for losing the next search war, in the mobile world." [BusinessWeek.com, 8/1/08].
* Microsoft's MS Mobile platform is dying a slow death.
Then again, most analysts say it won't happen.
As Faucette of Pacific Crest notes, founders Balsillie and Lazaridis together control more than 12% of RIM shares. "These guys are not sellers and have never really sold any of their shares." The Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY) control another 18% of RIM's equity. "You'd be hard-pressed to find shareholders willing to sell a company at $50 that was trading at almost $150 only three months ago," says Faucette.
Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities (NMR) in London says MS would probably have to pay a 20% premium, "which would make it $36 billion, and even massively depressed, that's massively expensive." Microsoft has plenty of cash, but on Sept. 22 the company committed to buying back as much as $40 billion of its stock.
Finnish wireless giant Nokia (NOK) is not in the picture, even though it yearns to penetrate the North American market. With only $17 billion in cash, "Nokia couldn't swallow RIM," says Windsor.
[Source: Arik Hesseldahl, Sci-Tech Todya.com and others]
Analysts give several reasons:
* Deepening rivalry with Apple (AAPL) and an economic slowdown that threatens to curb demand for BlackBerrys.
* Concerns that heavy spending in the face of competition will eat into profit margins. On Oct. 20, Bindu Benjamin, an analyst at broker First Global, downgraded RIM to "market perform with an under-perform bias," and Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt cut his 2009 revenue growth forecast to 84% from 92%, saying RIM faces a tougher economic environment.
* Slowing sales. James Faucette of Pacific Crest Securities said sales of the Pearl Flip have been "tepid at best," and sales of the Curve have been bumpy in Canada and Britain.
* MS needs RIM. Peter Misek, an analyst at Canaccord Adams, thinks that RIM would be a better fit for MS than Yahoo. "If RIM's management would be willing to entertain the discussion, and if [RIM executives] are willing to partner up, I think Microsoft would take their call.... Microsoft has already lost the war over search as currently defined. It's now at risk for losing the next search war, in the mobile world." [BusinessWeek.com, 8/1/08].
* Microsoft's MS Mobile platform is dying a slow death.
Then again, most analysts say it won't happen.
As Faucette of Pacific Crest notes, founders Balsillie and Lazaridis together control more than 12% of RIM shares. "These guys are not sellers and have never really sold any of their shares." The Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY) control another 18% of RIM's equity. "You'd be hard-pressed to find shareholders willing to sell a company at $50 that was trading at almost $150 only three months ago," says Faucette.
Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities (NMR) in London says MS would probably have to pay a 20% premium, "which would make it $36 billion, and even massively depressed, that's massively expensive." Microsoft has plenty of cash, but on Sept. 22 the company committed to buying back as much as $40 billion of its stock.
Finnish wireless giant Nokia (NOK) is not in the picture, even though it yearns to penetrate the North American market. With only $17 billion in cash, "Nokia couldn't swallow RIM," says Windsor.
[Source: Arik Hesseldahl, Sci-Tech Todya.com and others]
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
RIM to Launch App Store
Developers can start signing up now for the BlackBerry storefront opening in March 2009, said Mike Lazaridis, in a speech to the RIM developer conference in Santa Clara.
"The new BlackBerry application storefront and BlackBerry application centers will further support the growing BlackBerry ecosystem and help bridge consumers with developers and carriers as more and more innovative and interesting applications arrive," he said. "This platform has been developed, evolved and perfected in the most demanding markets around the world," Lazaridis said to a large group of developers. "The consumer wireless data market is taking off, and that's a great opportunity for all of you."
RIM is working with PayPal for transactions, and content creators will be able to keep 80% of the revenue generated from their application, compared to 70% from Apple and 0% from Google's forthcoming Android Market.
Lazaridis said organizations that have deployed BlackBerry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry Professional Software will control what applications can be downloaded to BlackBerrys within their corporate deployments.
"The new BlackBerry application storefront and BlackBerry application centers will further support the growing BlackBerry ecosystem and help bridge consumers with developers and carriers as more and more innovative and interesting applications arrive," he said. "This platform has been developed, evolved and perfected in the most demanding markets around the world," Lazaridis said to a large group of developers. "The consumer wireless data market is taking off, and that's a great opportunity for all of you."
RIM is working with PayPal for transactions, and content creators will be able to keep 80% of the revenue generated from their application, compared to 70% from Apple and 0% from Google's forthcoming Android Market.
Lazaridis said organizations that have deployed BlackBerry Enterprise Server or BlackBerry Professional Software will control what applications can be downloaded to BlackBerrys within their corporate deployments.
BlackBerry Nation Web Support Site Now Open
I welcome your comments, and let me know if you want to make any contributions to the site.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Street Reviews the Storm
Senior Technology Correspondent Gary Krakow gets a look at the first BlackBerry touchscreen smartphone -- called the Storm -- coming from Verizon.
Curve Most Popular Handset in Stores
Avian Research polls 100 service reps at retail stores of the four major US wireless providers.
This September the BlackBerry Curve continued holding down the top spot, helped by a promotion at Sprint Nextel stores that priced the smartphone at $100. Apple's iPhone outperformed the BlackBerry and all other smartphones in the US during the summer.
Five of the top 10 devices are smartphones and four are equipped with a touchscreen.
RIM Blackberry Curve 26.1%
Apple iPhone 9.2%
LG Dare 7.9%
RIM Blackberry Pearl 6.6%
LG Voyager 6.5%
Samsung Instinct 5.8%
LG Rumor 5%
LG Shine 3.5%
Palm Centro 2.9%
Nokia 5310 2.5%
Overall, Motorola Inc.’s Razr V3 remains the top-selling handset in the US, according to recent data from NPD Group.
Smartphones hold three of the top five slots, with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G at No. 2 and Research In Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry Curve at No. 3 and Pearl at No. 5. LG Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Chocolate rounds out the top-five list at No. 4.
This September the BlackBerry Curve continued holding down the top spot, helped by a promotion at Sprint Nextel stores that priced the smartphone at $100. Apple's iPhone outperformed the BlackBerry and all other smartphones in the US during the summer.
Five of the top 10 devices are smartphones and four are equipped with a touchscreen.
RIM Blackberry Curve 26.1%
Apple iPhone 9.2%
LG Dare 7.9%
RIM Blackberry Pearl 6.6%
LG Voyager 6.5%
Samsung Instinct 5.8%
LG Rumor 5%
LG Shine 3.5%
Palm Centro 2.9%
Nokia 5310 2.5%
Overall, Motorola Inc.’s Razr V3 remains the top-selling handset in the US, according to recent data from NPD Group.
Smartphones hold three of the top five slots, with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G at No. 2 and Research In Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry Curve at No. 3 and Pearl at No. 5. LG Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Chocolate rounds out the top-five list at No. 4.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
How the Storm Was Named
David George-Cosh reports in the Financial Post on "The Story Behind the BlackBerry Storm's Name".
Rogers 2009 Offerings
The Boy Genius reports the following BB lineup for 2009 from Canadian provider Rogers:* Q1 - The BlackBerry Curve 8900
* Q2 - A BlackBerry Storm variant
* Q3 - The BlackBerry 9220 "Magnum" (Curve 8900 with 3G)
* Q4 - The BlackBerry 9900 "Pluto" (Bold with a touch screen)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
RIM Vulnerable to Takeover?
This possibility was first broached by Mark McQueen of Wellington Financial in Toronto. He notes that "Without a doubt, RIM is and will continue to be a profitable company with plenty of cash, no debt and a bunch of new products (Bold, Storm and Pearl Flip) are rolling out at this very moment around the world. But, that sadly doesn’t mean that it will be able to resist an oppotunistic takeover offer from the likes of Microsoft, et al."
RIM's market cap has shrunk from US$83 billion in June 2008 to US$31 billion today.
According to Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, “RIM is a massive strategic fit” for Microsoft. “I’m fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share).”
I don't buy it. Microsoft has dropped as well, and most tech companies are now sporting much more healthy P/E ratios.
Also, a lot of RIMM shares are owned by management and friendly funds. And the upside of BlackBerry is better than the upside of MS.
I have no doubt that RIM, Apple and Google will continue to be the tech darlings of NASDAQ.
RIM's market cap has shrunk from US$83 billion in June 2008 to US$31 billion today.
According to Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, “RIM is a massive strategic fit” for Microsoft. “I’m fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share).”
I don't buy it. Microsoft has dropped as well, and most tech companies are now sporting much more healthy P/E ratios.
Also, a lot of RIMM shares are owned by management and friendly funds. And the upside of BlackBerry is better than the upside of MS.
I have no doubt that RIM, Apple and Google will continue to be the tech darlings of NASDAQ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)