RIM shares get a boost
Posted Nov 16, 2011 04:58:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Research In Motion got a boost Tuesday on a rare analyst upgrade and after the BlackBerry maker unveiled a pair of upgraded handsets.
The shares rose five per cent to close at $19.54 in Toronto after RIM launched the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and the BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones.
RIM also said its cloud-based BBM Music service is being rolled out in the U.K. after being launched in the U.S., Canada and Australia early this month.
The Bold 9790 offers a keyboard and high resolution touch display and expandable memory, while the new Curve is the first in the line to replace a keyboard with a touch display.
The Bold 9790 resembles a slimmed down version of the BlackBerry Bold 9900, a mainstay with enterprise customers, offering a smaller touch screen and slightly less processing power.
The consumer-focused Curve features pre-installed social networking apps, which include BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and Twitter.
Both handsets are expected to include near-field communication technology to enable swipe payments and will be offered at undisclosed prices by global carriers in “the coming weeks,” RIM said in a statement.
The handsets expand RIM’s lineup of devices running on its BlackBerry 7 operating system, architecture in place while the company moves to a more powerful platform based on software acquired with its purchase of Ottawa-based QNX Software Systems last year.
Northern Securities analyst Sameet Kanade, meanwhile, upgraded RIM shares Tuesday to speculative buy from sell and bumped his price target to $26 US from $18.
The Toronto-based analyst said the company is no longer on a growth trajectory relative to its peers, but does retain significant value on the strength of its 70 million BlackBerry subscribers who produce stable service revenue of more than $4 billion annually.
He also said the company’s move to open its network operations centre to rival devices has the potential to boost service revenue in the enterprise segment.
RIM has seen its share price collapse this year as it suffered significant market share loss in the U.S. to Android smartphones and Apple devices.
Kanade said RIM has room to lower prices on its handsets and enjoys market advantages in near-field technology thanks to its focus on data security.
He added in an interview that RIM’s launch of its BBX operating system based on QNX, scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, could be delayed to the second half as RIM works to win carrier certification for the new smartphones that will run on the OS.
On Tuesday, research firm Gartner Inc. reported that global smartphone sales grew 42% in the third quarter over last year.
It said the Android platform accounted for 52.5% of devices sold in the third quarter, more than double the share a year earlier. RIM’s share fell 4.4 percentage points to 11% over the period.
