“The rollout of Apple Inc.’s 3G iPhone was seen as a direct shot at the dominance of Research In Motion Ltd. in the smart-phone market. Now at least one analyst is saying the BlackBerry’s already taking some hits,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.
“Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf cut his rating Wednesday on RIM’s stock to underperform — the equivalent of sell — from his previous rating of hold, saying that the company’s strength in the consumer market ‘is bound to come under siege because of the iPhone,'” Crum reports. “Wolf also lowered his 2008 earnings estimate for RIM to $3.70 a share from $4.05, and cut his 2009 outlook to a profit of $4.80 a share from $6.25.”
“Wolf said the introduction of the 3G iPhone means that “the days of no competition are over,'” Crum reports.
“Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha had some of the same thoughts on RIM when he initiated his coverage of the company with an underperform rating. Garcha, who issued his rating before the new iPhone was released, wrote in a research note that RIM’s earnings are likely to slow down due to losing some market share in North America, along with pressures on its gross margins over the next 12 months,” Crum reports.
“The Needham analyst said that RIM is attempting to fight back. The company launched its BlackBerry Bold in the spring and is said to be releasing a new BlackBerry Thunder model in late summer. But he added that those efforts might be a little too late, as the system software in the iPhone ‘makes the device one of a kind,'” Crum reports. “‘Research In Motion has no hope of catching up on the software front, which promises to be the next battleground in the smart phone market,’ according to Wolf.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “bc” for the heads up.]
Rim is picking cherries, their products are blue as they grasp at straws
“The company launched its BlackBerry Bold in the spring and is said to be releasing a new BlackBerry Thunder model in late summer.”
They’ll have an enormous marketing edge in the burgeoning American Gladiator market.
Hello! Who’s there?
“The company launched its BlackBerry Bold in the spring and is said to be releasing a new BlackBerry Thunder model in late summer.”
Correction:
“The company TRIED TO COPY THE IPHONE with its BlackBerry Bold in the spring and is said to be releasing a new BlackBerry Thunder model in late summer.”
I am BB forced user (my company requires me to use it) but I have a iPhone for personal use.
Does any body knows some body who actually got a BB for personal use? any body that wasn’t obligated to use it?
I was given a BB for company use and I will not use it. My boss is not happy but I told him that I’d pay my own phone expenses. BB is piece of sh-t. The keyboard is a joke – you can’t enter numbers properly on the small keyboard. The manual is an inch thick and confusing.
The phone is still in its box sitting under my desk and I am still submitting my monthly expenses for my iPhone. The Sprint network sucks. I refuse to use an inferior method of communication.
What else can I say.
Coming in a few weeks, you’ll want to try the BlackBerry Summer’s Eve and early next year, look for the refreshing BlackBerry Splash Spring Blossom.
You’ll feel like you’re breezing through your calls while running across a sunny field of daisies in a light, cotton dress, clean and fresh as the morning dew.
Have you seen how many models of BBs there are? There must be at least 22 different models!
Models 8000, 8001, 8002, 8003, 8004, 8005, 8006, 8007, 8009, blah, blah, blah. And that’s just the 8000 series… heh, heh, heh.
When faced with choices like that most consumers will never be happy with their purchase.
Apple offers two models and they’re flying off the shelf. Two models and the only differentiation is storage capacity.
Crackberry begins it’s slow circling of the toilet bowl RIM for the eventual climatic FLUSH TO HELL!!!
Dem./socialism sucks, just ask any school teacher about their lack of decent pay…
Apple is a capitalistic, profit oriented corporation under the guise of being pro-socialist.
Imagine that!
@Ampar
Does it vibrate too? Are there attachments for it?
I love the smell of exploding BlackBerry in the morning!
It will be interesting to see what the next summary of the Smartphone marketplace says about the growth. The report from the last quarter indicated that the market grew strongly. However, when you looked at the numbers, all of the growth was absorbed by the top three vendors: Nokia, RIM and Apple. Each appeared to grow approximately in line with their current market share. The real losers last quarter were the Windows Mobile smartphones and the feature phones. (Can you say “Razor?”)
Somehow, I suspect that this trend will continue. Personally I think that the Smartphone market place is growing too quickly to see any real competition between the top three, but only time will tell.
The only way RIM survives is forced adoption by IT and closed minded thinking. Thats the only hope RIM has. Feed the FUD like MS does and they will forever be used in the corporate world.
@Ampar
These sound like feminine hygiene products!
%-0
@Ampar
I’m beginning to worry about you.
How dim are we talking here…?
Dim like the type of back room of the brothel the Corleone Family fixes problems in.
Dim like the shadow Mordor cast over Middle Earth (except no Gandalf to save the day)
Dim like the dark crevices created by the folds in Ballmer’s midsection?
Dim like Job’s fate in the old testament (before he got better)
Dim like the Death Star just eclipsed your view of the Sun?
Dim like George Ou, the first person ever fired by ZDNet?
Dim like I wonder why Fanny Mae hasn’t gotten back to me about my mortgage refinancing yet?
If you could use the iPhone landscape keyboard in any area of text insertion, it would go a long way toward dismantling the myth that physical keyboards are superior. The problem is that you spend most of your time using the skinny vertical keyboard and that won’t cut it for lots of folks.
The BlackBerry Thunder is purported to allow the universal use of a landscape keyboard and it will probably leave users with the feeling that it’s better to type on than an iPhone even if it lacks in prettiness.
Research in motion: People throwing their blackberries out the window!
Well tomorrow is launch of iPhone 3G in France and I will wait online to get mine and one for my wife. I can’t wait. One year to replace my crapberry. I have a 3G bb for more than a year but I can”t access the internet as it is incompatible with Orange network. Thanks for the rip off.
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The only thing with crapberry it’s unbreakable! My Noia never lasted a year. I hope my iphone will last at least til the next one is out
I won’t regret the bb at all, I am amazed that no one speaks about those JVM errors I keep on having with my bb. few more hours to wait…
And later this fall – the RIM Dingleberry – this year’s Zune.
@loloontheair
I’ve carried my original iPhone since June 29, 2007. I’ve tossed it, sat on it, dropped it on the pavement. Works like a champ. Love it so much that even if I upgrade to a future iPhone I will be keeping this original in my collection. It’s a work of art!
PS- My wife’s Samsung lasted less than 3 months before the case fell apart. Some people don’t take into account the time they lose replacing cell phones. They are usually a different model and require new set and learning curves. The fact that my iPhone has not only stood up to me usual cell phone abuse AND gained so much functionality through software updates is a boon!
I could swear I’m reading the comments of a bunch of children bragging about their new toy. Don’t you understand that the Blackberry is a man’s phone?.
I doubt Blackberry’s would be thrown out a window, but better used to wedge under a door to hold it open at a M$ store. All the while they goad the masses back to the dusty Zune shelf while the employee’s worship a bust of Ballmer’s bald head. and show them the new version of ME.
I doubt Blackberry’s would be thrown out a window, but better used to wedge under a door to hold it open at a M$ store. All the while they goad the masses back to the dusty Zune shelf while the employee’s worship a bust of Ballmer’s bald head. and show them the new version of ME.
The iTunes App Store is a candy store for iPhone users, a brilliant concept that lets everyone turn their iPhone into a highly-customized personal expression. No doubt Apple could have built alot of extra functionality into the iPhone themselves, but how much cooler to let users build their own iPhones!