Global sales of Research In Motion’s latest round of BlackBerry smartphones were solid in September according to checks performed by Canaccord’s Mike Walkley. The analyst said in a research note on Monday that initial sales of RIM’s new phones such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Torch 9810 have been strong, especially among enterprise customers upgrading from older BlackBerry smartphones. “Our September checks indicated solid global sales of new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, with strong initial enterprise upgrade sales of the Bold at Verizon, strong initial sales of the Bold in certain markets in Europe, and solid sales of the Torch at AT&T with its $49 price,” Walkley wrote, noting that sell-through to consumers has been weak at Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. Read on for more.
The analyst also stated that demand for entry-level BlackBerry 7 handsets in emerging markets like Latin American and Southeast Asia has weakened due to the onslaught of competitively priced Android smartphones. Looking forward, Walkley does not see RIM as an attractive candidate for a takeover in the near future. “Given our belief QNX has a low probability of emerging as a viable long-term smartphone ecosystem versus iOS, Android or even Windows, combined with our belief RIM will struggle to grow its subscriber base longer term, we do not believe RIM can sell the company at a large premium to the current valuation,” Walkley noted, reiterating a Hold rating on RIM stock with a price target of $28.
