Research In Motion (RIMM) 01 (Sep 08 - Oct 11)

[millionairemind]

BlackBerry model courts main market
By Paul Taylor in San Francisco
Published: September 10 2008 23:38 | Last updated: September 10 2008 23:38

Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the BlackBerry family of smartphones, has launched its first flip-phone style device, on the first day of the US mobile industry’s CTIA trade show in San Francisco.
The design of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8200, one of several new handsets RIM is expected to launch before the end of the year, marks a radical departure.

The company’s products have appealed primarily to business professionals and followed the distinctive, albeit traditional, BlackBerry styling with a thumb-operated keyboard mounted underneath the screen.

The launch of the Flip 8200, which looks more like a classic clamshell-style mobile phone, underscores the company’s determination to expand the user base for its family of wireless e-mail devices with a range of handsets that appeal to mainstream consumers as well as business users.

Analysts believe this strategy, which began with the launch of the candy bar-style BlackBerry Pearl two years ago, is also designed to help RIM answer the challenges posed by rival manufacturers including Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer, and new entrants such as Apple with its touch-based 3G iPhone.

RIM has more than 16m subscribers worldwide and claims that “non-enterprise” customers represent more than 40 per cent of that total.

“RIM is expected to launch a broad consumer assault in [the second half of 2008], with multiple handsets, including the Bold, a touch-screen, flip, slider, 3G Pearl and others,” Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients last month.

The vast majority of handsets sold in the US and elsewhere are flip phones, though more advanced smartphones that enable users to send and receive wireless e-mail, access the mobile internet and run wireless applications on their handsets represent the fastest-growing segment of the handset market in most developed markets.

“The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously around the world and the introduction of this new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further,” said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive of, RIM.

Like earlier Pearl devices, the new Pearl Flip features the pearl-coloured mini trackerball and has a reduced-key keypad with two or more letters on each key, rather than the full Qwerty keyboard favoured by heavy wireless e-mail users. For consumers, a new application makes it easy to synchronise iTunes digital music collections with the pearl Flip.

While the handset is a ‘world phone’ featuring a quad-band GPS/Edge radio that enables it to operate anywhere there is a GPS-based mobile network, and also supports WiFi and VoIP internet telephony using so-called UMA technology, unlike most new smartphones including the latest iPhone, it does not the support higher data rates available on the latest 3G networks or come with built-in GPS navigation features.

The new device will be available in the US from T-Mobile USA this autumn. RIM has yet to announce pricing or availability for other countries.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

[millionairemind]

Microsoft, Research In Motion Strike Search Deal (Update3)
By Dina Bass and Vivek Shankar

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd. agreed to put Microsoft Corp.'s Internet search engine on BlackBerrys, giving the software maker a foothold on the top-selling e-mail phone in the U.S.

Microsoft's Live Search will be available on BlackBerrys this year, the companies said in an e-mailed statement today. BlackBerry customers can use the search engine to find nearby businesses and attractions.

The deal may help Microsoft prevent competitors Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. from staking out a dominant share of mobile- phone searches, a market projected to increase almost tenfold over the next three years. This week, AT&T Inc. said it chose Yahoo as its default search engine for handsets.
Full story
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... technology

[kennynah]

kana hammered down 25% booz....losing ~$25 and shares now ~72.50

[iam802]

will be acquired down the road...

[kennynah]

oh isit? did u hear a rumour? share share...maybe singtel equipment will buy them?

[iam802]

no... I just forecast...

not too sure what are they planning beyond current portfolio.

it is a bit like Palm.... very popular and doing well initially...at some point in time... they are stuck and cannot go beyond their inital success

No more innovation and change direction too fast.

Happens to lots of tech companies.

[kennynah]

agree...if they cant come out with holographic projections from their breakbury, then will eventually be done for... hv u ever used their devices before...it's a piece of crap... i used to load a 3rd s/w on palm, ipaqs and the email solution worked very well... that s/w was called GOOD (produced by this company name Good Technology). this fellas smart cookies...happily sold themselves to Motorola...and motorola now saying they are throwing away their phone device business...fucking idiots ...cant even strategize their business beyond a 1 year plan...!!!

breakbury is a all in one device and they have a sense of design equal to some china panty designs....big, bulky and totally unappealing...some model are even repulse me...hahaha...i mean breakbury models...

[blid2def]

I think there's a difference between Palm and RIM? Palm was a hardware play (fine piece of hardware though), which can be likened, I guess, to what Apple used to be. My impression of RIM is that it's not just a hardware play - there's the wireless services/solutions piece to it as well (which ties to their hardware... so cross-selling).

Then again, I might be wrong, as I'm going by impressions, not research results.

[kennynah]

RIMM's only compelling solution was, has been and is still her mobile email platform integrated into their phone.

that advantage was constantly challenged by email solution provider; like Good Tech, i mentioned, and there was Seven, and whole lot of other 3rd device agnostic s/w producers. In fact, we even have our homegrown EDB supported companies doing this email piece, such as M-Orange...needless to say, complete flop.

you will know that HP employees have a email piece on their mobile devices...that solution cannot be from RIMM, of cos...conflict of interest ...competing in the same device space...so, HP subscribed to Good's solution...worldwide adoption...i know, becos i brought Good to HP.

anyways....RIMM has a stable base of customers and telcos who pay them hand and leg to have breakbury enterprise solutions for corp customers around the world...this means, they will get recurring revenue...

but just like TV sales...over time, you need to evolve from sony trinitron, to maxitron, to whatever...more pixels, more clarity, better colour, thinner sides, better speakers, eventually can have image leap out from screen innovations.... RIMM dont do this...they will find it difficult to appeal to new generation users...

the biggest threat will be free and very wide broadband everywhere in the world...when this becomes very prevalent....who wants to pay GSM data charges...better i use wifi to access my corp email server...centralised solution again....hahaha... this is tech for all of us...decentralize, then centralize then decen again...f**k lah...IT creating jobs for themselves..

[kennynah]

WTF !!!

lost 50% of it's stock price value in ONE month...

this is really a break and bury case...