RIM (RIMM) Sucks Says Wall Street

Shares of Research In Motion Limited (Nasdaq: RIMM) are getting crunched Friday after mixed fourth-quarter results and disappointing first-quarter guidance.

The BlackBerry maker reported fourth quarter EPS of $1.78, $0.03 above the analyst estimate of $1.75. Revenue for the company jumped 36 percent to $5.6 billion for the quarter, compared to consensus of $5.63 billion.

While the fourth quarter was essentially in-line with what investors had expected, the important first-quarter forecast, which will see the launch of RIM's PlayBook tablet, was disappointing. RIM said it sees earnings of $1.47-$1.55 a share, missing the Street's view of $1.65 a share.

For the full year 2012, guidance was stronger. The company sees earnings over $7.50 a share, compared to the Street's outlook of $6.81. Although the company firmly gave this internal guidance, Wall Street is not convinced that it will achieve this number and believes it will have to come down. Even some of the most bullish RIM analysts see 2012 below this "aggressive" figure.

"With no QNX on handsets until CY12, we think RIM will likely continue to lose share to Android smartphones whose prices are rapidly falling," Detusche Bank analyst Brian Modoff said. "We believe fully-powered Android phones will be available for $100 by early 2012, and this will threaten RIM’s growth in all markets,"

RIM was trading at $57.01, falling $7.08, or 11.04 percent, as of 12:01 PM EDT.




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RIM (RIMM) Now Taking Orders on PlayBook

Retailer Best Buy (BBY) announced it'll now be taking orders on Research in Motion's (Nasdaq:RIMM) tablet offering "Playbook," moving the share price up in early trading, although it has pulled back some as the day has gone on.

These are pre-orders being offered, as the BlackBerry PlayBook won't be available in stores until April 19 in the North American market.

Playbooks will be available in "Best Buy stores and Best Buy Mobile stores in the US, as well as Best Buy and Future Shop stores in Canada, on April 19, 2011," said the company.

You can go to the website of Best Buy and click on a link to pre-order the device.

Prices for Playbook are lower than originally put forth, starting off at $499.99 for a 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi model, and runs through $699.99 for the 64GB version. This is similar to the price being asked for for Apple's iPad 2 (NASDAQ:AAPL).

As the sale of Playbook rolls out, RIM said they have close to 20,000 retailers to distribute the tablet in North America.

Research in Motion was trading at $62.29, up $0.12, or 0.19 percent, as of 11:55 AM EDT.

iPad 2 (AAPL) Ready to Take on RIM (RIMM), Motorola Mobility (MMI), Verizon (VZ), HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL)

RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM), Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), HP (NYSE:HPQ) are all taking aim at Apple's (NASDAQ:GOOG) iPad, as the anticipated unveiling of the iPad 2 is set for Wednesday.

Research In Motion Ltd., maker of Blackberry, is expected to ship its PlayBook tablet in either March or April at a price-point close to the iPad, which starts at $499. The PlayBook's major selling point: it will have tighter security and integration with corporations' back-software.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., meanwhile, just launched Xoom, a tablet that will support 4G, the next generation high-speed wireless network, through Verizon Wireless for $599 with a two-year contract.

Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Motorola Mobility, and Toshiba Corp. are all also preparing tablets to launch in 2011.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) Releasing Playbook on Two More High Speed Standards

In order to better compete with competitors, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) announced they're going to release their Playbook tablet on two more high-speed network standards in order to have access to major wireless networks.

RIM said they'll offer LTE and HSPA+ versions of its PlayBook in the latter half of 2011, which will allow Playbook to accessed through all major network carriers in the North American market.

Playbook at its initial launch won't include a cellular connection, although it'll include Bluetooth and WiFi.

User of Playbook will be able to connect using the existing BlackBerry smartphone, but there would no reason for carriers to subsidize the device or market it in that scenario.

With High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), the Playbook would have access to the network of AT&T (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile in America, and with Telus (TSE:T), Rogers (TSE:RCIb) and BCE Inc (TSE:BCE) in Canada.

For Long Term Evolution (LTE), that is a high-speed standard Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and others are starting to use.

Research in Motion closed in New York Monday at $65.54, dropping $1.33, or 1.99 percent.

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) Playbook to be Released in Spring

According to Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) CEO Jim Balsillie, the first high-end tablet to be compete with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad will be released in early spring; sometime in the latter part of March or early April.

That seems to dispel rumors it was going take longer than that for the Playbook release.

Speaking at the World Mobile Congress in Spain, Balsillie said the progress on the Playbook tablet is moving along at a pace the company has expected.

Balsillie also refuted the continual reports by analysts that the device will be held back by low life of its batteries.

Playbook already has a deal with carrier Sprint (NYSE:S), and says believe they'll be able to secure carrier deals for the Playbook with other giants like Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T).

The mobile device should be priced at under $500, giving it a price advantage over Apple's iPad.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Loses Ground to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) in Tablet Market

There was never a doubt that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) would lose market share in the tablet market, as they were the first major entry there, and imitators would have to follow, cutting into their market share. That was confirmed with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), as their Android-powered tablets sales soared.

In the last quarter of 2010, Apple's tablet share fell from 95 percent to 77 percent.

Google continues to take bites out of Apple's iPad dominance, as they grew their tablet share from an anemic 2.3 percent in the third quarter to 22 percent in the fourth quarter, giving the iPad its first real competitive challenge in the tablet sector.

The major tablet behind Androids success is the Samsung Galaxy Tab. They and others are high on Android because of Google's additional services like YouTube, among others, as well as what is perceived as a low-cost alternative to iPad.

Last week Samsung said they had sold about 2 million tablets in the fourth quarter.

Other potentially significant challengers to the iPad are the Xoom tablet from Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI), which will also be powered by Android, and Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) Playbook.

Apple was trading at $339.06, gaining $2.96, or 0.88 percent, as of 12:56 PM EST. Google was at $600.40, down $0.59, or 0.10 percent, as of 12:57 PM EST. Research in Motion was trading at $59.05 , down $1.10, or 1.83 percent, as of 12:57 PM EST.

RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) Tablet Sales Could Reach 6 Million Units First Year

According to RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky, Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) could reach tablet sales of 6 million units in their first year, far above the 1 million units a number of analysts have estimated.

He bases his assertion on a proprietary survey of 1,100 customers, which revealed about 6 percent of respondents said they were apt to acquire a Playbook from RIM.

Noted was the ability of the Playbook to interact with the Blackberry, something consumers like about it.

Assuming an average price of $450, RBC said it could add $1.8 billion in revenue to the company.

RBC has a "Top Pick" rating on RIM, which was trading at $61.11, down $1.58, or 2.52 percent, as of 2:08 PM EST. RBC has a price target on RIM of $90.

Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) "Playbook" Impresses RBC Capital

After getting an in-depth look at Research in Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) Playbook as the Consumer Electronics Show, RBC Capital believes the offering will be very successful, saying its differentiation could be difficult to emulate.

RBC Capital said, "Hands-on PlayBook demonstrations at CES showed its differentiation in multitasking and performance, which may be difficult for Apple/Android to rival. RIM showed simultaneously running desktop/business applications, 3D games, 1080p video, mobile desktop, Flash-based browsing, apps – possibly a unique advantage, if this experience becomes 'Table Stakes' for Tablets."

RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky said it appears RIM was focused on getting the Playbook right from its beginning.

RBC has a "Top Pick" rating on RIM, which was trading at $62.09, gaining $0.41, or 0.66 percent, as of 2:14 PM EST. RBC has a price target of $90 on them.

Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) Top iPad Competitor May Be RIM’s (Nasdaq:RIMM) Playbook

The real battle in the tablet market is about to begin, with Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) standing as the giant now with over 88 percent market share.

But that type of dominance obviously won't last, but the surprising pick by a growing number of analysts for the runner-up in the race is RIM’s (Nasdaq:RIMM) Playbook.

Many analysts have been either ignoring or sneering at the offering, but some are starting to see the potential strength inherent in the Playbook, based on the strong business ties already in place with Blackberry, which will be able to automatically synch with their tablet. That could be a major plus for IT departments looking to make things work easier for them.

Even though Apple has an extraordinary lead in the segment, that's not saying being in second place or third even, is a irrelevant feat, as tablet shipments by the end of 2012 for the overall market are expected to reach close to 100 million.

At that time some analysts see Apple dropping to between a 60 percent and 70 percent share. That leaves a remaining market of about 30 million tablets to sell.

If RIM does perform as some believe they will now, it could be a major win for the company, that has needed something to turn them around from being a niche company of the past.

Research in Motion was trading at $60.62, losing $1.30, or 2.10 percent, as of 1:36 PM EST.

Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) Releasing Kindle App for Windows (Nasdaq:MSFT), Android (Nasdaq:GOOG)

The successful results of Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) releasing Kindle on Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) iPad has encouraged them to follow up on that with a version of the Kindle app being released on Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT) tablet and Google's (Nasdaq:GOOG) Android.

Some have expressed surprise at the inclusion of a Windows app from Amazon, as they haven't proven themselves in the space yet.

Conjecture is Amazon may have been afforded a look at the OS Microsoft will be revealing at CES, and they liked what they saw.

The move to develop a Kindle app for Android is a more obvious one, with the large number expected to be released in 2011.

Getting no respect at this time is Research in Motion's (Nasdaq:RIMM) Playbook. If it does gain some traction, it's probable that it will get an app from Amazon as well.

Amazon was trading at $184.63, gaining $0.41, or 0.22 percent, as of 1:56 PM EST. Google was trading at $ 602.80, down $1.55, or 0.26 percent. Microsoft was at $28.04, up $0.06, or 0.21 percent. Research in Motion was trading at $58.61, down $0.33, or 0.56 percent.

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) Playbook Hampered by Adobe's (NASDAQ:ADBE) Flash?

Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) was forced on the defensive last week when a Kaufman analyst said their soon-to-be-released Playbook tablet has a battery life far below their already-entrenched competitors. Kaufman said Monday it's probably the consequences of using Adobe's (NASDAQ:ADBE) Flash.

RIM attempted to refute that assertion, but Kaufman's Wu maintains his stance, saying to compete with the iPad (Nasdaq:AAPL) and others, it'll have to incorporate a larger battery.

Wu said, "As seen in recent tests for the new MacBook Air, use of Flash can cut battery life in half. It should be no surprise to anyone that our checks indicate Adobe is furiously working on reducing Flash’s consumption of resources to make it a viable mobile platform vs. HTML5 that both Apple and Google are moving toward."

Research in Motion was trading at $59.22, up $1.09, or 1.88 percent, as of 1:18 PM EST. Adobe was at $31.17, up $0.39, or 1.27 percent.

Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM) Attracting Too Much Bullishness?

With the computer tablet market exploding in popularity, it has generated a strong bullish sentiment toward Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM) and their offering in the space: the PlayBook.

Susquehanna has responded to the optimism by saying they think there is too much bullishness in relationship to RIM, and the expected sales are already priced into the shares of the company.

They feel the estimated 10 million units to be sold is too high, and they have an estimate of 8 million units to be sold in 2011.

The major reasoning is the large number of competitors and the targeted professional market the Playbook is aimed at. That market already has a Blackberry device and may not make the change, according to Susquehanna.

Research In Motion closed Tuesday at $61.83, gaining $2.84, or 4.81 percent. Susquehanna raised their price target on them from $38 to $45, even with their "Negative" rating on the stock.