AppleInsider Staff
As RIM begins to ramp-up availability of devices running its new BlackBerry 7 mobile operating system, Apple is expected to hold an event in the coming weeks to announce its fifth-generation iPhone. That next iPhone, in the eyes of analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities, will "steamroll" RIM's BlackBerry 7 lineup.
White said RIM's BlackBerry fresh was simply too little, too late, and the Canadian company's struggles will only add to Apple's momentum. He sees that momentum going "off the charts" in October, when Apple's so-called "iPhone 5" is expected to debut.
As for RIM's PlayBook, White sees the touchscreen tablet following in the footsteps of HP's TouchPad with a potential discontinuation. He said the PlayBook is poised to be the "next casualty of iPad's tablet dominance."
RIM announced on Thursday that it shipped 10.6 million BlackBerry phones and 200,000 PlayBooks in the previous quarter. Its profits were down 47 percent year over year, and sales came in well below Wall Street estimates.
For the next quarter, RIM gave investors guidance for revenue of between $5.3 billion and $5.6 billion, with BlackBerry shipments forecast to be 13.5 million to 14.5 million. But White said he finds it tough to take RIM's "optimistic output" seriously.
"Having repeatedly provided an overly optimistic outlook and the iPhone 5 poised to launch soon, we believe RIMM will again come up short," he wrote in his note to investors.
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95 Comments
So who's gonna buy RIM?
Sounds to me like Google might try.
I think Apple certainly aught to.
I wish Apple would just release the iPhone 5 already..... getting seriously tired of waiting!
I second the idea that Apple might want to buy Rim, although might as well wait another couple of quarters so that their value halves.
So who's gonna buy RIM?
Sounds to me like Google might try.
I think Apple certainly aught to.
Nah, Google is buying Motorola. Even Google's smart enough to know that picking up another handset company would make integration really challenging. Google will have its hands full just trying to integrate Motorola. Their company cultures are really far apart and I suspect the acquisition will not go well.
Apart from any patent portfolio, RIM has very little of value to Apple.
RIM would garner more interest from someone with no presence in telephony (e.g., Dell, Acer) or another handset manufacturer that has no presence in North America or on the high end (some of the Chinese manufacturers would qualify here).
As a Canadian I feel sad about this. It seems like it's been a never ending stream of great companies - Corel, ATI, Nortel, and now RIM that reach a certain level of success and then get gobbled up by the American behemoths down south.
I use an iPhone at work, mostly because our President wanted one and I had to support it - but 99% of our users run Blackberry's. I honestly think Blackberry's are a better product in the corporate world, but as we all know Apple is the media darling so gets all the headlines and therefore mindshare.
RIM isn't going anywhere anytime soon. They are still heavy in the enterprise market. Maybe they spin off their consumer market.