Research in Motion Releases new BlackBerry Line-Up to Compete with Rivals: Bold 9900, Torch 9810, Torch 9850 on BlackBerry 7 OS.

In a much better attempt to compete with its rivals, Research in Motion (TSE: RIM) is releasing three new touch screen enabled phones. The biggest development is their decision to release a phone with no QWERTY keyboard at all, which looks more like many Android models. All of the new phones will run on RIM's new BlackBerry 7 operating system, and have faster processors than their predecessors.

The BlackBerry 7 OS will offer better web browsing and approximately 40 percent better performance than BlackBerry 6. The new system will surely be powerful, but investors are still waiting on the release of the QNX operating system, which should be on RIM's next models to mesh better with the user experience of the PlayBook.
The specifications for the new models are detailed below. The new Torch 9850 will be the new game changer for RIM, and should receive some initial success, and give the company and its investors some time before the release of their QNX phones.

Bold 9900

• 2.8-inch 640×480 (VGA) screen
• full QWERTY keyboard. 
• 1.2GHz processor 
• 8GB of on-board storage 
• MicroSD card slot
• 5MP camera that can record 720p video. 
• NFC chip (could be used as a wireless credit card)

Torch 9810

• 3.2-inch “high resolution” touch-screen
• 5MP camera with autofocus and “HD” video recording
• slide-out QWERTY keyboard. 
• 1.2GHz processor

Torch 9850

• 3.7-inch screen, the largest of any BlackBerry smartphone, 
• Liquid Graphics technology
• 1.2GHz processor
• 4GB of internal storage
• MicroSD
• 5MP camera with autofocus

Importantly, the company is releasing their phones simultaneously throughout their developing markets and North America, which should lend them a sales increase and an influx of cash for new research and development. Overall, the release looks promising and investors should now wait a couple of quarters to see how earnings, and free cash flow, come in the door.

Happy Investing : )

Why Microsoft Should Buy Canada's Research in Motion. It is a Better Target than Nokia or Yahoo.

In a recent article for the Rhodes Capital Blog, Sean Farhy outlines an excellent argument in favour of Microsoft's acquisition of Canada's Research in Motion. The price he mentions that would be appropriate is $49 per share, well above today's current price of around $27 and a healthy premium for investors should a deal like this ever materialize. To be sure, if the situation at RIM gets much worse, the management will shop around for a suitor and happily take a fat golden handshake... leaving their shareholders with a wad of cash on hand, or ownership in a stronger combined entity. 


"Microsoft (MSFT), like City Hall, is the established bureaucracy and its stakeholders often feel like powerless constituents. Unfortunately for the small investor, the lack of a democracy in a stock proxy only empowers Steve Ballmer and his administration. Mr. Ballmer will play the role of our Mayor, a career politician who has done absolutely nothing for the stock price since he has come into office." 


Microsoft sits on almost $50 billion in cash, or $5.78 a share and also pays a dividend of 2.7%. Earnings are expected to be over $20 billion going forward- Mr. Ballmer, surely you can do better than maintaining your failed policy of executing the status quo? The first trial into the smartphone market failed within weeks and the likelihood of creating another profitable organic hardware system like the X-Box is virtually nil. What needs to be done is something extremely logical and affordable. Rumors were that Microsoft was going to partner with Nokia (NOK) and there was even more speculation that Microsoft was then going to buy some or all of that company. Forget about buying Nokia (which you’ve done, correctly I might add). If Microsoft is on the acquisition path, Research in Motion (RIMM) is more compelling purchase.


"Research in Motion’s market cap is now under $20 billion, with no debt, plenty of cash flow, and a solid footprint in the smartphone market. Nokia on the other hand is larger, leveraged with high-yielding debt, and offers product lines not applicable to Microsoft’s core business. Blackberry currently supports Windows and MS Office so further integration would appear to be easy to accomplish. So if the rumors are right, and Microsoft is going to make an acquisition- Research in Motion would appear to make the most sense."


Abstracts are from the Rhodes Capital Blog


Happy Investing : )

BlackBerry to use Bing as Microsoft Contends with Google's Android now Leading the Smartphone Market.

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM, TSE: RIM) has announced that Microsoft's Bing search engine, the perennial loser in the struggle for search engine market share, will be the default engine on it's BlackBerry devices. This announcement was made by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer at BlackBerry World, the industry conference hosted by RIM in Orlando, Florida.


Rival Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) dominates the search market and this move by Microsoft is hoping to take away some of Google's dominant market share. Google's Android phones, however, are beginning to take hold of the smartphone market as well, which has been bad for RIM and many other handset makers. Many industry watchers say that the Android phones are more user-friendly and open to third-party apps than are the phones of their rivals.


According to recent Nielson surveys, Android now has a 29% market share of smartphones in the US. Blackberry is now at 27%, while Apple's sits at 27% as well. Of course, it is important to note that Apple and Blackberry are also handset makers, while Google is not, they simply generate the operating system or OS.