RIM

Nokia continues to lead smartphone market; outpacing rivals

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:15 -0500

Much has been made of the rocketing growth of Apple, RIM and HTC in the smartphone market, while Nokia has been lambasted for failing to recognise the trend and has missed out on this fast growing handset segment.

However, IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker continues to position Nokia as the overall leader in converged or smartphone shipments with the popular flagship device, the N97, driving its market share to 37.9 per cent in Q3/09, compared to 37.1 per cent a year ago.

RIM has overtaken Apple to gain 2^nd place, albeit that its shipment volumes were largely North American-based. However, the company also posted significant improvement internationally, with some regions recording triple digit growth year over year.

Apple recorded its highest volume yet in a single quarter, driven by the near worldwide availability of the iPhone 3G S which triggered another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists. However, while the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes (although early reports would seem to indicate otherwise).

HTC retained 4^th position, excluding phones sold under another company's brand, and remains the largest provider of Windows Mobile-powered devices. Samsung returned to the top five vendors during Q3/09, although volumes were flat from a year ago. The company saw marked improvement in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and EMEA, and has been a big supporter of Windows Mobile.

For more on this story:
Evertiq

Don't be a midrange handset vendor, warns analyst

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:36:28 -0400

The strongest demand segments for handsets over the next five years will be for high-end and entry-level phones, says a new report from Juniper Research. The firm claims that these two bookends of the market are expected to account for nearly 80 per cent of all new mobile phones by 2014, or just over 1 billion units in total.

To this end, Juniper analyst Andrew Kitson believes that Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry maker RIM are well positioned to meet the strongest demands over this period, with the mid-range sector being dominated by LG and Samsung as they continue to see demand for these products in Latin America, Asia and parts of Europe.

However, Kitson claims the iPhone has changed the game for everyone, and that Motorola and Sony Ericsson might not be able to adapt sufficiently to survive.

"If a phone has wireless broadband, MP3/MP4 media players, touch-screen interfaces, etc., it's likely to do well. Hence, there have been so many iPhone emulators in recent months," said Kitson. However, he maintains that the growing acceptance of the iPhone and Blackberry among consumers have dealt blows to Motorola, which failed to innovate after its success with the ROKR and RAZR mid-tier lines.

The report states that low-cost handset shipments will number more than 700 million in 2014, up by 31 per cent from levels seen in 2008, albeit slightly down from a peak of 716 million in 2012, as some users begin to upgrade to costlier devices. "At the same time, smartphone shipment volumes will grow continuously across the forecast period, reaching almost 360 million by the end of the period. We therefore expect that midrange device sales volumes will fall by more than 41 per cent over the period," concluded Kitson.

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Eweek

LTE: Acquiring Nortel's LTE knowledge provides muscle, says Ericsson

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:07:37 -0400

Following approval from the Canadian and US courts that Nortel assets could be transferred to Ericsson--despite RIM's continued protestations--the Swedish equipment manufacturer has expressed quiet satisfaction with the LTE knowledge and experience it would be gaining.

While the company said that the US$1.3 billion takeover of Nortel's wireless networking division would provide Ericsson with an increased presence in North America, it confirmed plans to continue with Nortel's initial development of LTE and would take on at least 2500 ex-Nortel employees, of which 400 were working on LTE development. "The acquisition significantly expands Ericsson's footprint in this region, particularly as the US is emerging as an early adopter of LTE technology," said the company.

Speaking to investors, Hans Vestberg, Ericsson's CEO-in-waiting, said the Nortel deal would "add LTE muscles" to its existing development efforts in that area, describing it as a "step increase" in its LTE investment.

This comment provoked RIM's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, to express his extreme disappointment that Nortel's world-leading technology seemed destined to leave Canada and that Canada's own Export Development Corporation was preparing to help by lending C$300 million to another bidder. He suggested that the development of Nortel's LTE technology, funded in part by Canadian tax-payers, ought to remain under Canadian, rather then foreign, ownership.

For more on this story:
Semiconductor Today

Nortel's LTE patents - the scramble to acquire begins

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:46:30 -0400

While Ericsson's knockout bid of US$1.13 billion should have triggered the end to the squabbling over the LTE and CDMA assets of Nortel, it has become apparent that this sale to the Swedish infrastructure vendor only included a small number of patents. Vitally, Nortel has retained ownership of its LTE patents and has only licensed the use of them to Ericsson.

A Nortel lawyer, Tay Tuesday, said that the perception the company was selling its LTE assets to Ericsson was wrong, fed by misinformation in the media, spread in part by RIM. Of the 5,500 patents owned by Nortel, only 600 have been transferred to Ericsson, claimed Tuesday, with none of the LTE intellectual property having being sold. Instead, Nortel will be licensing them to Ericsson, claiming it invested around US$200 million annually developing LTE technology.

RIM, which failed in its US$1.1 billion bid for Nortel's LTE/CDMA business, is reported to have held negotiations over the LTE patents for months in the lead-up to its thwarted offer. Its interest, according to Research Capital analyst Nick Agostino, would be to save on royalty costs of future LTE-based RIM handsets. "The opportunity is here now for them to own the hopefully material patents, and I think it's also going to be a benefit on the margins."

Any future auction for Nortel's LTE patents seems sure to increase nationalist feeling over the government's lack of action to save the Canadian technology developer. Local speculation has RIM marked as being an aggressive bidder for these LTE patents, with pressure being applied on the federal government to support its efforts. Last week, RIM claimed that allowing Nortel's wireless assets to slip into foreign hands constituted a national concern.

However, while waving the Canadian flag might provoke rousing comment, Nokia Siemens Networks, which bid US$1.0325 billion for the LTE/CDMA business, is likely to remain interested, while the private-equity firm MatlinPatterson could reappear.

For a nationalistic viewpoint on the sale of Nortel's assets read this article in The Star.

For more on this story:
Seeking Alpha and Canada.com

Rumour mill: Orange to drop RIM Bold?

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:46:53 -0500

Having experienced problems with the RIM Bold in October, Orange is now thought to be on the edge of dropping the handset from its portfolio as the number of customer complaints continues to rise. Return rates for the Bold are reported to be way above normal thresholds, with users complaining of dropped calls and poor reception, among others.

Speculation within the industry pointed towards Orange dropping the Bold when it first encountered the problems in October. However, it backed away having believed a batch of software updates would fix the problems.

Meanwhile, Vodafone is having its own problems with the RIM Storm handset which has suffered a barrage of criticism because of a number of software glitches that make it painfully slow to execute certain tasks that other smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, carry out with ease. Vodafone's US joint venture Verizon Wireless has already been forced to issue a number of software patches for the device.

For more:
- go to The Guardian

Related articles:
Blackberry Bold not fit for purpose, claims Orange
BlackBerry Bold delays earn it a spot on Wireless Turkeys 2008 list

Vodafone gets RIM Storm exclusive--hopes for iPhone-killer

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:10:20 -0400

After months of speculation, RIM has launched its Blackberry Storm handset which will be offered exclusively next month by Vodafone and Verizon Wireless. What is hoped, particularly by Vodafone, is that this new touchscreen cellphone will provide the company with something to fight back against the runaway success of the iPhone.

According to Vodafone's global director of terminals, Jens Schulte-Bockum, he had met with RIM co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis, last summer and implored him to develop a breakthrough device that would help Vodafone to reposition RIM from a pure enterprise tool into the consumer space, "to the heart of the consumer space".

Early reports of the Storm handset would indicate that RIM's touchscreen device might have stolen a march over the iPhone by providing easier and more precise typing. Unlike the iPhone, the Storm has a ‘clickable' touchscreen, which apparently responds much more like a physical keyboard.

Tim Renowden, a research analyst at Ovum, commented that it was clear RIM was attempting to make its Storm handset more attractive to consumers, as well as enterprises. "It will be interesting to see how well the touchscreen works in practice," said Renowden. He also pointed to RIM's partnership deals with Facebook, MySpace and other consumer-focused applications such as instant messaging, as evidence that RIM is seeking to broaden its appeal to consumers.

Vodafone has failed to detail pricing for the Storm, although insiders strongly believe that the device will be free with two-year contracts.

For more on this story:
- go to Mac World and Silicon.com

Related articles:
RIM downgraded because of Bold delays. RIM story
Verizon's launch of Blackberry Storm delayed until November. Verizon story