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Is BlackBerry in the catbird seat or the doghouse?
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The future for BlackBerry appears cloudy, given several recent, contrasting views on the company presented by leading analysts. On one side, GC Research analyst Tero Kuittinen warns Research In Motion has been "lulled into complacency" with recent successes and the company's lineup will face stiff competition from the likes of Palm, Apple and Android. On the other side, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu recently raised his rating RIM's stock and contends the firm has "sustainable competitive advantages."
Investors, it seems, appear somewhat worried about the situation. RIM's stock has declined during the past few weeks from a high of $85.44 per share to around $66.93 this morning. (Though, to be clear, the decline is what sparked Wu's upgrade on the stock due to what he described as "resetting high expectations.")
The contrasting views on the BlackBerry maker come on the heels of the high-profile launches of the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS and the unveiling of T-Mobile USA's Android-based myTouch 3G, due in stores in August. Indeed, the rhetoric surrounding RIM is gaining steam ahead of the commercial launch of the company's Tour device, set to land at Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Sunday.
The Tour "has the potential to be one of the best BlackBerries yet," wrote Kaufman Bros.' Wu, adding that "our checks with industry and supply chain sources indicate a high level of interest, with high likelihood that its large installed base will upgrade."
However, GC Research's Kuittinen counters that the Tour is "extremely close to the aging Curve in look and feel" and lacks WiFi support. "2009 is a tough period to let your product development program spin its wheels," Kuittinen contends.
Surely all eyes will be on the Tour's progress during this summer of smartphones, as well as the possible October launch of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm 2.
For more:
- see this Barron's post
- see this Barron's post
Related Articles:
RIM releasing BlackBerry Tour for Sprint, Verizon
RIM planning new version of BlackBerry Storm
iPhone 3G S weekend sales forecast to top 500,000
RIM adds 3.8M new BlackBerry accounts
Updated: Lines across the country for Sprint Pre launch
More stories about Verizon Wireless touchscreen T-Mobile Sprint RIM iPhone Google BlackBerry Tour BlackBerry
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 11:36am
The Tour will blow away the competition!! for users using the 8850 this will be an awesome upgrade. Don't be fooled RIM will continue to be a leader. as for Palm, dont hold too much hope for the Pre. it will be Apple and RIM in the end
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 12:19pm
No Wi-Fi? Wi-Fi is consistantly one of the most convenient features on my BlackBerry, and I would never buy a device without it. It is, literally, rediculous to produce a converged device without Wi-Fi. Penny wise, pound foolish.
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 2:09pm
I have to say.. No WiFI, no me! I wouldn't buy a dumbed-down 'smart'phone that is crippled w/o WiFi...
I have FiOS at home... why would I want to give up 5 Mb in the uplink & 20 Mb in the downlink for much slower 3G speeds?
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 3:08pm
The search trends and insights strongly indicate worldwide that the iPhone is sought after far above Blackberry, excluding Canada. Look beyond the product. The organization moves extremely slow . They were slow to enter the Asian market, slow to address the iPhone App store and slow relative to hires amongst other corporate organizational issues. The iPhone experience at the moment cannot be beat. RIM with their 2 CEOs has and is complacent and arrogant.
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 4:19pm
If you want to know why it has no Wi-fi check Verizon's line up. NONE of their phones do. It's not that RIM can't or doesn't want to provide Wi-fi. Verizon doesn't want it. They want you to use their network not your own! There's no money in it for them.
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 6:54pm
Verizon - are you listening? No Wi-Fi in the Smartphones, no orders from me. RIM - you should demand that Verizon accept WiFi and unlock the mapping software as well. Customers - you have to take the message to Verizon... RIM - the Storm 2 better work as promised - it could mean the company...
Posted by Anonymous | July 9, 2009 - 7:16pm
As far as I can tell, the HTC Diamond, sold at Verizon, HAS WIFI. If I'm wrong, someone correct me.
Having said that, it sucks that more Verizon phones don't have wifi and that we have to pay $10/mo for VZ Navigator.
Posted by Anonymous | July 11, 2009 - 10:02am
RIM made it by selling itself to the carriers. As the carriers suffer from revenue transfers to Apple like App Store, money goes back to application developers who bring real value to users (1 billion downloads on the Apple App store is real interest from users).
As carriers suffer from Apple superior strategy they put more pressure on RIM that will finally sink not being able to channel innovation to their soon to be obsolete handsets.
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