Research in Motion’s latest quarterly results were disappointing, raising fears that other smartphone makers were eating away at the BlackBerry maker’s market share.
Reported profit, revenue and phone shipments were below market expectations, and shares fell more than five per cent after opening trades today.
Although BlackBerry did shift shift a load more devices than the same point last year, it is still less than what analysts were expecting.
It wasn’t all bad news. RIM reported better than expected subscriber growth, strong growth in international markets, and good sales of high-margin phones.
RIM said the below average results were simply a one-time inventory adjustment by phone companies as we left the Christmas season and went into 2010.
But it didn’t disguise the fact that RIM is being left behind when it comes to a new generation of touchscreen 3G capable smartphones.
The BlackBerry Storm for example, went down like a lead balloon with users wanting a better excellent user experience than it delivered.
The iPhone has slowly eaten away at its market share, while manufacturers are now bringing out Android-based phones which are getting a good reception from those in the know.
Noticeably, the most recently hyped phones like HTC’s Legend and Desire and Samsung Galaxy, as well as the upcoming Windows 7 Mobile Series, all carry touchscreens rather than keyboards.
The BlackBerry is still the preserve of the business user, and is very popular.
But it does seem that RIM is standing still rather than reacting to the potential threat, which is not a wise thing to do in a market that moves as fast as smartphone technology does.
A lot of humans on this planet bought BB phones, and many will be crackberry addicts from here on in.
Kudos to RIM for putting a lot of money into the bank for a war chest, for acquisitions, building factories, like in Brazil and India, etc.
In due time, they will be introducing enough new products to keep the crackberry addicts happy and attracting enough world buyers.
Just imagine, how many people on this planet turn age 18 and they walk into a mobile phone store and see the beautiful BB phones on display. They got a choice, including colors! The phone is affordable, durable, and offers free texting to other BB users.
In foreign countries, it is a lot of prepaid and there are great deals for them with BB phones.
We here in the USA typically think about the local competition, but, it is all about international sales. Ask Coke and Pepsi if that is not true.
Meanwhile, BB sales people, and mobile phone carriers are getting fantastic sales to foreign corporations, employees, and govt worker, due to security and encryption demands.
Moreover, BB is just getting started with Red China and India, a market of 1/3 of the human beings on this planet.
Stupid Wall St people are selling and shorting RIM as they just like to take advantage of this stupid Iphone and Google competition business in the USA.
It is a matter of time they will be burned on this and have to switch gears an go long on RIM stock. Or just watch on the sidelines.