“Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail phone, missed analysts’ profit estimates for the first time in five quarters and gave a disappointing forecast amid higher spending to take on Apple Inc.’s new iPhone,” Ville Heiskanen and Whitney Kisling report for Bloomberg.
“The shares fell [7.94%] after Research In Motion reported first-quarter profit of 84 cents a share, trailing the 85 cents predicted by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Earnings this period will be as little as 84 cents, compared with the 92- cent average prediction,” Heiskanen and Kisling report.
“Co-Chief Executive Officer James Balsillie boosted sales and marketing expenses by 84 percent in the quarter to counter the buzz of the iPhone… Apple will release a faster iPhone next month that costs $199, cheaper than some BlackBerry models. That may hinder the BlackBerry’s expansion beyond its base of corporate users. ‘They’re ramping up spending, and it’ll be mostly for marketing,’ said Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt,” Heiskanen and Kisling report.
“With the new iPhone, Apple is making a stronger push to lure corporate users, which account for the majority of Research In Motion’s customers. The device adds business e-mail features and runs on third-generation, or 3G, wireless networks, meaning it can receive data at least twice as fast as the previous model,” Heiskanen and Kisling report.
“Research In Motion’s profit forecast suggests that its response to the new iPhone, the BlackBerry Bold, will go on sale later than the company planned, Global Crown Capital analyst Pablo Perez-Fernandez in San Francisco said. The company unveiled the device last month and said it will go on sale in the U.S. this summer for $300 to $400. ‘Our fears about the Bold being late are probably true and that’s why the stock is down,’ said Perez-Fernandez,” Heiskanen and Kisling report.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Samir” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: When you’ve got nothing, you ramp up the marketing spending and try to prey on the ignorant. You know, like Verizon, LG, Samsung, HTC, and all of the rest of the iPhone lookalike-not-workalike peddlers; say the word “touch” a lot, hope nobody notices you never mention “multi,” and pray while you attempt to prey. You think this is bad, RIMM shareholders? The real bloodbath begins in just two short weeks from this Friday.
Bloodbath? iPhone beee-otch?
Yep, users don’t want a virtual keyboard, touch screen, real web browsing, media playback or a usable UI.
Just give ’em push email, they will be happy.
We the common people in this forum told it was going to happen.
Magazine analysts with half a brain (Dvorak & Co.) said it was not going to impact RIM.
Monkeyboy Ballmer laughted at the iPhone.
And the common people was right.
Sounds like a Buying opportunity
…for Apple stock!
crash, he he, ho ho, blah blah blah etc says:
they are just building in the touch system in their failing MBA into their failing iPhone that nobody is buying! nokia has 146% of the smart phone market! microsoft makes way better software! Apple software sometimes has bugs too! there are even forums for going to with your MAC problems where people have been known to post actual problems they actually had with their MACs! suck that MAC dorks!
you lemmings just get anything Apple makes, unlike the lemmings that follow the 90% windows share hurd! the only reason people buy iPods is because everyone else has them! that doesn’t apply to MS products though!
<random right wing nut job comment! random capitalized words! random anecdotal evidence, random link to article that actually proves the opposite of what the poster claims!>
Let’s see:
1. RIM didn’t meet Wall Street shareholder expectations for profits;
2. RIM’s iPhone “competitor” is late and getting later;
3. RIM’s iPhone “competitor” will cost 50% to 100% more than an iPhone;
4. Blackberries need RIM’s service center and can’t work (at least not full-featured) without it. Apple’s iPhone can, and can even do more with MobileMe services.
I don’t think I would recommend RIM stock to anyone at this time. Or maybe not ever.
@shen
Ya’ know, shen, it is more than a little amusing when you WinTrolls call US lemmings. If there is, or ever has been, a metaphor more appropriate for you furballs who follow the great mindless herd of PC wildebeests, I don’t know what it is.
To you and your kind, market share is everything. Nothing else matters but what OTHERS think, do, and buy, right? For your ilk McDonalds makes the greatest hamburger in the known world, for they sell more than anybody.
Mind-numbed robots, you PeeCee users. Get your oil cans out (to mix a metaphor a bit); you’re gonna need ’em.
Oh, and by the way . . . “hurd” does not equal “herd.” Dumbass.
“…Balsillie boosted sales and marketing expenses by 84 percent in the quarter to counter the buzz of the iPhone…”
Is that so? You can spend a lot of money trying to create a new American idol, but the public decides the winner. Right now, the winner is clearly iPhone, and the iPhone 3G is going to be a world champion for some time to come (presumably until Apple releases the next iPhone design).
The only time that Apple will fail to increase its share of the market is when it runs out of iPhones while transitioning to the next generation design.
Nice strike, shen!
“The company unveiled the [Bold] last month and said it will go on sale in the U.S. this summer for $300 to $400.”
Hope (for RIM’s sake) that’s without the subsidy or it doesn’t stand a chance.
Actually, RIM more than doubled revenues and profit and added more than 2 million new subscribers. They also issued no disappointing forecast.
The MDN FUDmasters – or bullshit as some might call it – are at it again. Does MDN have one shred of integrity or honesty?
toonie,
The article is written by Bloomberg, not MacDailyNews.
Your “FUDmasters” bullshit is misdirected. Plus, it’s wrong.
Learn how to read.
RIM missed analysts’ profit estimates and gave a disappointing forecast. And, MDN is correct, this just the beginning of RIM’s pain.
“Actually, RIM more than doubled revenues and profit and added more than 2 million new subscribers.”
I’m sure that was fairly easy with the iPhone either scarce or off the market entirely for that period.
Investors are worried about the future, however. A refreshed, more business focused iPhone 3G at $199 when RIM has little new product ready is part of a frightening picture.
@ shen
LMAO! Excellent.
Ampar: I really thought the all caps ‘MAC’ and hurd spellings combined with <random> strings was pretty fun, but satire isn’t possible when are dealing with wintrolls. It still sounds believable enough that people buy into it…..
P.S. Sorry Randian, that is not a real wintroll, it is an impression i have been working on. I also impersonate Elvis on weekends…
@ toonie,
Investors are also scared because RIM is spending lots of money in marketing and not meeting their target date with their Bold phone. this won’t be the last time RIM miss wallstreet estimates, its only the beggining.
The worst part about the Blackberry is that it has a tortured user interface and is extremely difficult to use. It is a real pain in the ass and totally unintuitive… not unlike most of Microsoft’s products.
However, ironically enough, it does several things *BETTER* than the iPhone: it lets you select any text that you want in any application, it lets you copy/cut/paste that text, it lets you delete multiple email messages at once (this is coming in iPhone 2.0), it lets you send & receive MMS messages, it has a flash with its camera, and a few other things.
Quick, seamless, simple, integrated, and FUN! That’s what the Apple experience will be once the iPhone 3G drops on 7/11 and Snow Leopard drops at Macworld ’09 or WWDC ’09. The iPhone, MobileMe, and Mac combo is gonna be too much for the competition(?) to handle.
It’s amazing the ripple effects we’re seeing already. Google is struggling getting Android going, Nokia bought up the rest of Symbian yesterday and today’s RIM outlook for next quarter is way down, along with their 3G phone being delayed.
It’s the software, stupid! Apple is a KILLER software company and you guys aren’t. I’ve said it here before: Apple is a software company masquerading as a hardware company.
Our rally cry is “iPhone, bee-yotch!”
Peace.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool smile” style=”border:0;” />
Olmecmystic
You guys are such fanatical idiots when it comes to this stuff. RIM has so much growth ahead of them it’s absurd. Take a look at the numbers and they are still growing massively. The problem was the hype going into the earnings report. Because of a new competitor they are increasing their marketing spend? Hmm, I wonder if that is a sound business strategy. You have to invest to grow the platform. The numbers are spectacular, revenue up 107%, earnings up 115% from a year ago. I love it. They will continue to prosper no matter what the fanatics think. It does not matter what analysts guesses are. I look at numbers and by all accounts this is a growing and thriving entity. Iphone will sell well also but you are fooling yourself to believe it’s game over on July 11th. Watch and learn iPhanatics…
@MacBill
Very good, pal.
That is correct. We need to see both sides of the story always. There should be something good on the ‘Berries.
However, I will ever prefer the iPhone tons of times to BlackBerry. My father owns one and it is tortuous to try to synchronize with his Mac.
@ Crazylegs
Are yours crazy legs or open ones?
The market is huge but, whatever you say, you must admit that, in some ways, iPhone is superior. Like in UI, in browsing, in synchronization, etc.
BlackBerry arrived time BEFORE the iPhone and was the best alternative on that time. But things changes and there is a new kid in the block.
You said it Olmecmystic! “To make great software you have to build your own hardware”.
Forrest – I agree that iPhone is simply an amazing device – the best mobile platform out there. BUT you guys are missing the key point that the shift from voice only “dumb” phones to full functional “smart” phones is ahead of us. This means that iPhone and Blackberry will both grow massively in the next 5 years. Don’t be foolish to believe that RIM has peaked when you are seeing so much growth in the entire space. Please remember many factors affect ultimate sales. Just look at how long Apple has had a superior computer platform but has maintained such low market share. Thank god this is starting to change but it has taken some time.
The other thing I’ll address here is the new pricing of the iPhone. The $199/$299 is a brilliant marketing ploy. Lots of folks will take advantage and sign a new contract or extend current contracts. But how about all those who cannot upgrade? How much will the iPhone cost? Remember most people outside the US are not on contracts. TIM in Italy just announce their prices and at 499 Euros ($760 roughly) for 8GB and 569 euros ($880 or so) for 16GB, this thing is really an expensive gadget. When you break it down and do a true analysis of potential buyers at these price levels, the numbers shrink dramatically.
Hey, I expect to get flamed here, but I’ll just continue to be happy owning RIMM and AAPL even if RIMM is off a few points tomorrow.
Wall Street doesn’t care about the past. That’s why Apple fell so bad. They only care about the future, 1Q and more. The past is past; the money to be made is in the future.