Carriers seeking an alternative to Apple, Google may turn back to BlackBerry

By on Aug 26, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Business August 26, 2011

Research In Motion will benefit in the near term from the ongoing launch of its new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, which are being described as the vendor’s strongest devices in some time. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu upgraded his rating on RIM stock to Buy from Neutral, increasing his price target to $35 from $28. Wu sees near-term opportunity in RIM, and he thinks new BlackBerry handsets like the Bold 9900 will be well received. ”The key differences this time include a refined user interface and improved hardware including faster processors, better graphics and displays as well as better build quality with its greater use of premium materials,” Wu wrote on Friday. “The company recently launched the new Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 and we see the upcoming launch of the full touchscreen Torch and new lower-end Curve in upcoming 1-2 quarters as future catalysts. RIMM has undoubtedly lost some customers but for loyalists still using 2-3 year old models, these refined updates are a worthy upgrade.” Read on for more.

Wu goes on to add that RIM could capitalize while Nokia transitions from Symbian to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, though he did add that there is still concern surrounding s RIM’s long-term fundamentals and the risk of falling handset margins and increased competition. Perhaps most interestingly, however, the analyst says carriers are relaying a desire to broaden their portfolios to include a viable alternative to Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS platform, which now dominate the smartphone market. ”In our conservation with carriers, they are increasingly concerned with the growing dominance of GOOG and AAPL and want a viable No. 3 alternative,” Wu wrote. “We believe RIMM benefits being the incumbent and with now a stronger product set.”

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  • Max

    Listen up you BB Dopes. Listen good. You aren’t gonna ‘recruit’ new RIMjobbing Morons. Ain’t gonna happen. So how’s ’bout you keep your little clique to yourselves, sit down, and stfu.

    • Anonymous

      You sound cute.

    • zacamandapio

      Can’t hear anything.

      Ohhh.  You meant read.

    • Applesucksfatties

      Keep our little clique to ourselves?  Aren’t you out here trolling on an article focusing on BlackBerrys and Android devices?   …and speaking of STFU… you should try it some time.  Your halfwit comments about RIM are almost as old as the plaque on your teeth.

    • Anonymous

      your sister has octagon tits

      • Steve Jenkins

        hey, leave my punanny alone… ;)

      • zacamandapio

        :D

  • Walt Larson

    I wonder how much this headline cost RIM?

    They are all but non-existent and dead for people under 30 and they survive on law firms and other such businesses that are either too arrogant to admit better devices are out there.

    Paying for a BES server and licenses… seriously?  This is 2011!
    I tiny screen?
    Wi-fi absent on many devices?

    It’s absurd.  I dumped RIM a year ago after years of loyalty and buying new Blackberry devices that were essentially the same as the previous devices on Sprint and Verizon, and I have had the greatest time using my awesome and easy iPhone 4 and my wife’s Droid SGX540.

    If only I had sold my RIM stock!

    BGR does seem like it’s headlines are bought or contrived.

    Is it me, or was BGR a lot more of a real news site just 6 months ago?

    • Big Troy

      “Is it me, or was BGR a lot more of a real news site just 6 months ago?”
      =================
      It’s not you, pal.  BGR seems to really be going toward misleading or trolling headlines.  Couldn’t agree more and lots of people are saying the same on here.

    • HSimonson

      Theres always peeps who hate every mobile, but I think many know that Blackberry is last in innovating and last in peoples minds unless they are company grunts or gits.

      BGR is all over the map with the headlines raving for apple, raving for droid, and now even pretending that Blackberry is on the verge of a comeback, YEH RIGHT, so is Gerry Cooney, I guess.

    • zacamandapio

      Walt,
      IMHO you should go and take out your anger somewhere else.
      Your loss with RIMM Stock and all the other better devices will be with you forever.
      Sorry my friend.

      • Walt Larson

         It’s just so frustrating to see what has happened to RIM and so annoying to have “news” sources pretending like they aren’t done and buried.  They are and it is so obvious.  When nobody und34 30 in the marketplace even considers you, your days are over.

        It’s three years past when they needed to roll out completely new designs and form factors and touch screens and bigger screens.  This old form is so tired and the OS has been slow and painful for years on end now.

        Like I said, I’m a RIM supporter, but a very frustrated one.  It’s sort of like when your sports team is doing well and then decides to sell off top players to other teams that it never replaces or fire the head coach because the owner thinks they can do it all themselves.

  • Anonymous

    So according to this “analyst”, Carriers are getting together saying that “oh no!  We need something to fight the evil 199 and 249 iOS and Android devices… We should go out and get the latest Blackberries, which look JUST like the ones from 3 yrs ago and sell them at 299 on contract!!!  YES!!!!!  Awesome idea!!!  That will show apple and google…

    • zacamandapio

      That’s correct.
      That’s exactly what they’re saying. 
      Tell me more, please, please. 

  • zacamandapio

    GIggaGigga BlkBurry
    Come SuK my BlkBurryBurry.

    Oh man,  I can’t keep going.  Where are you BoldBurry!!!??

  • Joe P.

    Well, it’s all about the SDK and the apps, and Apple has the best-in-class by far, period…  While others are catching up, Apple is implementing the cloud, data and service sychronization, etc.  Are BB devices good looking, nicely made, great keyboards, etc.?  Sure!  But it doesn’t matter – it’s about what you can do with them and RIM remains years behind.  They sat on BB e-mail and messaging for way too long…
     
    The fatal flaw of the original BES enterprise architecture – upon which BB e-mail and messaging is built - is that it assumed each person would only have one mobile device (a Blackberry) from which to send/receive e-mail and messaging…  That was the conventional corporate mindset… In fact, people increasingly have and use multiple devices – computers, phones, tablets, etc.  That’s why Bridge exists and native BB e-mail on the Playbook does not – the entire BES architecture (one device per user) is fatally flawed…
     
    QNX is the promised savior, of course, but again, QNX does not solve the problem of BES.  That’s why you’ll see native Exchange first on Playbooks!  The ostensibly ‘secure’ BB e-mail and messaging is the ONLY differentiator today that RIM has to offer, yet that differentiator is doomed…
     
    The ‘lack of bad news’ about RIM does not mean they suddently have a future – they do not.  Their BES architecture – to date their one and only compelling differentiator – will not survive the transformational shift to consumers using multiple devices to access data and services on the cloud…  Even Apple did not understand this shift at first – hence the painful synchronization of iPads and iPhones to iTunes that IOS users still live with today - but they did about two years before RIM…  Game over…

    • Anonymous

      relax my friend. rome wasn’t built in a day. this is a huge transition for them. they have to get the security down before the fun stuff comes. still early.

      • Joe P.

        Well, yeah, that’s what HP said…  By the time RIM builds Rome, nobody will want to visit…
        It is a huge transition, yes, but one that they should have started four years ago, instead of laughing at the iPhone…  As for RIM ‘corporate loyalty’, read Information Week’s latest survey results published this month.  Here’s a sampler:
        Q: “If you could dictate one mobile operating system forsmartphones or tablets to your employees, which would it be?”
        A: Apple IOS – 32%
        Android – 18%
        BB – 12%
        Q: On which mobile operating system platforms are you developing enterprise applications?
        A: Apple IOS – 40%
        Android: 31%
        BB: 19%
        This is CORPORATE IT, supposedly where RIM loyalty is strongest! Game over…

  • Anonymous

    As far as “carriers seeking an alternative to Apple and Google” are concerned I think things are looking better for Windows Phone than they are for Blackberry.

    Windows Phone is a next generation operating system that is available today, with brand new high-end handsets on the way in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, Blackberry just barely released new…Blackberries.

    It seems pretty clear which platform is in a stronger position.

    • adams

      that’s why their phones are selling so well? Windows phone is a failure.

      You can say RIM and BB are failures all day- but they are still making profits and expanding. WP7 isn’t doing a god damn thing for MS OR Nokia.

      • Anonymous

        Do you remember when the HTC G1 (Dream) first launched on T-mobile? Would it make any sense at all to draw long-term conclusions about its quality or potential based on the small early sales figures? Did it mean that Android wasn’t as good as iOS when the iPhone was dramatically outselling the G1?

        Things can change pretty quickly, and it’s disappointing that Android proponents who now hold a dominant position in terms of market share are so quick to dismiss a platform based not on its technology but on its unit sales. These were the same people who saw the potential in the G1 and are unable to do the same thing now.

  • Anonymous

    BB will always appeal to BB users, period; their just as loyal as crApple users and BB’s market overseas, especially in Asia is huge.  Just got back from there and I don’t think I saw a single iphone being used.

  • Brad

    I just got the Torch. Awesome device!

  • DaveMTL

    “RIM could capitalize while Nokia transitions from Symbian to Microsoft’s Windows ”
    AND… what about RIM’s transition from their current OS to QNX, which has no significant history with phones? Something MS does have. (I’m a fan of iOS).

  • Anonymous

    Is it me, or is this article title misleading?  

    “Carriers seeking an alternative to Apple, Google may turn back to BlackBerry”

    That surely could have been phrased and punctuated a bit better.

  • Anonymous

    I just wish AT&T would release the friggin’ 9900 already. Went to Sprint and played with it. That phone looks awesome. Had a great feel to it.

  • Mahgerefteh10

    best phone ever, 9930.  hate the iphone 

  • Anonymous

    Yes, the new BB’s should propel RIM into the single digit marketshare.

    What are they?  11% now?

  • Lelouch84

    i want to be an analyst

    fucking morons change there targets more times than bgr

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6FR5COJZIYNTLLH6IONBBAQCUI Grace Solis

    i cant believe this!! me and my sister just got two i-pads for $42.77 each and a $50 amazon card for $9. the stores want to keep this a secret and they dont tell you. go here Meta Cent. c0m

  • Anonymous

    while carriers its pushing the BB at least here, the main issue rim got its how they are treating their customers, as a current 9300 user i feel screwed that i cant get OS7, its ridiculous, but yeah if i felt cheated and screwed just look at 9780 and 9800 users. Those who buy this “new” BB with OS7 are not guranteed that they will get QNX, so basically, they are buying an already outdated unupdatable smartphone platform. Hell even nokia its handing better the situation with symbian with new updates like anna and the future belle. The app selection its poor, i still cant find a single good voip app. I feel that even symbian somehow its getter better and more decent apps selection. and tho

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