RIM’s new BlackBerry phones faring well with enterprise, consumer adoption slow

Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry 7 smartphones are seeing strong initial sales among businesses looking to upgrade from older BlackBerry smartphones, however consumer sales have been weak according to Canaccord Genuity. In a research note, Canaccord analysts Mike Walkley and Matt Ramsay found during channel checks that upgrade sales of BlackBerry 7 devices in North America were quite strong with enterprise customers in August. Specifically, Verizon Wireless saw strong Bold 9930 upgrade sales among its substantial enterprise customer base, while AT&T and Sprint saw mixed sales. T-Mobile’s $300 Bold 9900 has not been selling well according to Canaccord’s checks. Read on for more.

 

BlackBerry YouTube Video: Flowers by Emily

 

BlackBerry’s YouTube channel has released a new which features Emily Butcher. She is the owner of Flowers by Emily in Northbridge, Sydney. Her BlackBerry is an essential part of running her business and for keeping in touch with clients, and her friends and family.

• Check out the video above and let us know what you think in the Comments below

Canaccord sees slow PlayBook sales as iPad 2 continues to dominate tablet market

Slower than expected sell-through of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has prompted investment bank Canaccord Genuity to slash its sales estimates for RIM’s first tablet. BGR noted last week that Best Buy’s Labor Day sale likely indicated slow sell-through of at least one PlayBook model, and it looks like a recent round of checks jibes with our take. Canaccord analysts Michael Walkley and Matt Ramsay wrote in a research note that multiple retailers are seeing less than impressive sales of RIM’s slate. “Our August checks continue to indicate soft sales of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook with some retailers recently lowering prices on the device in attempt to move inventory,” the analysts said. As a result, Walkley slashed his full-year PlayBook sales projection substantially to 1.5 million units from earlier estimates of 2.2 million tablets. Read on for more.

Moving forward, the firm doesn’t see PlayBook sales picking up much in the near term, especially in light of the iPad 2′s continued domination of the tablet market. “With our checks indicating the iPad 2 continues to dominate sell through trends for the tablet market and our expectation for increased competition from Android OEMs such as Samsung, HTC, and even Amazon into the holiday season, we expected continued soft sales for the PlayBook,” the note states. Apropos, Canaccord lowered its 2012 PlayBook sales projection as well to 2.5 million tablets from an earlier forecast of 3.2 million units. Walkley reiterated his Hold rating on RIM stock with a price target of $35.

BGR

RIM urged by Jaguar Financial Corporation to sell itself or patents to anyone willing to buy

 

While the month of August brought about a lot of changes in the mobile space, now that we’re well rolling into September — it doesn’t seem as though that news is slowing down any. In fact, it seems as though things are just heating up more then ever. Samsung and Apple are having squabbles, Google’s Motorola acquisition raises more questions then it offers answers, and HP seems rather lost with what, exactly to do with webOS while gaining an influx of new webOS users. As for RIM, well — their investors’ concerns are still there.

RIM Shareholders Call For Change

Its not to anyone’s surprise that RIM’s stock this year has been less than stellar. Rumors of the company selling its self to another tech giant have been circulating for quite some time now. In addition, key personnel have left the company to pursue other endeavors. The results of all this are that shareholders are becoming more restless as they continue to see their shares fall.

Now shareholders are beginning to become more vocal about their investments with BlackBerry maker RIM. In a letter to the board, Vic Albioni head of Jaguar Financial, an investor in RIM, expressed his frustrations with the company, and added some pretty bold suggestions.

RIM Loses Another Product Manager

And another one bites the dust. More troubles arise as RIM loses yet another key team member. Alex Ivanovic lead product manager for BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 has officially left the team. Alex spearheaded integrating BES with Office 365. According to reports Alex apepars to be quite happy with his new job working for nulayer, a company that specialized in developing apps for iPhones and iPads. As more and more personnel continue to part ways with RIM it leaves us wondering whats really going on inside RIM.

What are your thoughts on the frequent departure of RIM personnel? Let us know in the Comments Below and might just talk about it in our news cast.

‘AT&T is certain to lose’ lawsuit with DOJ, former FCC chairman says

Former FCC chairman Reed Hundt voiced his opinion on the Department of Justice’s decision to sue AT&T in an effort to block its planned $39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA. “AT&T is certain to lose,” Hundt told SNL. “They can litigate the case to death,” he said noting that the acquisition was anti-competitive. “It’s an extremely easy case. The Department of Justice will win the case in court. No question about it.” According to SNL, AT&T believed federal regulators would consider the acquisition based on a market-to-market analysis, rather than nationwide analysis. Hundt said the DOJ will instead determine whether the deal is anti-competitive or not based on both national and market-by-market investigations. Until recently, AT&T was confident that the acquisition would be approved by March 2012. AT&T vowed to contest the DOJ lawsuit and said it is confident the merger is in the best interest of consumers, and “the facts will prevail in court.” The carrier also said it would consider selling off 25% of T-Mobile USA in an effort to sway federal regulators toward an approval. Deutsche Telekom’s CEO Rene Obermann said on Thursday that both firms “have everything under control.”

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BGR

RIM to announce Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 results on September 15, 2011

 

With the market being as crazy as it has been the past few weeks, and the ever watchful eye set on RIM stock, this Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 results call should be rather interesting. Kevin, and his whole one share of RIMM stock I’m sure will be tuned in so that may mean we’ll live blog it just in case they make an unexpected announcements, not very likely but you never know. Sidenote: Kinda funny they mention you can listen on your BlackBerry PlayBook.

Press Release

Apple, RIM sued by software maker Openwave over patents

Openwave Systems has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Apple and Research In Motion with a Delaware federal court and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Openwave believes products from both firms infringe on five patents related to how “mobile devices connect to the internet,” Bloomberg reports. The iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry Curve were all named in the suit. Openwave said it filed the lawsuits after it did not “receive a substantive response” when it offered both firms the option to license its technology. It hopes the threat of having the ITC block imports of the products “will lead the companies to negotiate licensing agreements.” “Openwave invented technologies that became foundational to the mobile Internet,” Openwave CEO Ken Denman said. “We believe that these large companies should pay us for the use of our technologies, particularly in light of the substantial revenue these companies have earned from devices that use our intellectual property.”

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BGR

CIPOh oh! RIM says no to Apple’s “WebKit” trademark filing

 

The word WebKit has been tossed around by many companies for a few years now. It has been originally coined by Apple as the power behind the Safari browser. WebKit is essentially a “layout engine” that enables browsers to render pages. In 2005, at Apple’s WWDC, Bertrand Serlet (former Senior VP of Software Engineering) was made known that Apple was going to open-source WebKit. Fast forward to May 19th 2010 to filed trademark application 85041789 under International Class 009 – Apple applied to trademark WebKit with the US Patent and Trademark Office. International Class 009, “Computer software for use in developing internet browser software”.