Archive for September, 2010

The release date is later than expected, the name is different, the location was a surprise … but no one admits to being caught off guard by the announcement yesterday about the new BlackBerry PlayBook. That’s what passes for reportage these days, I guess.

To me, it’s interesting that Research In Motion is going after the Apple iPad from its core strength, the enterprise customer. Consumers will buy it, too, but I can see CIOs approving this device for corporate use because the back end administration will be secure, just like the BlackBerry.

For office use, the two cameras will be good for video conferencing and the Flash support is a promising difference from iPad. More apps will be possible, a key message to attendees at the BlackBerry Developers Conference in San Francisco where the first demonstrations of PlayBook occurred.

I like the name, and I like the fact that a 10″ model will be available sometime next year after the launch of the 7″ version. From a strategic point of view, this pre-announcement makes sense. RIM’s hope is that potential iPad purchasers will wait to see PlayBook before committing. Like the coach always said, sometimes the best defence is a good offence.

Financial results announced yesterday show a healthy disregard for all the ghoulish speculation about Research In Motion. Revenue during the last three months was up 31 per cent while earnings per share rose 76 per cent. There are now more than 50 million BlackBerry users, up 56 per cent year-over-year. And all this during an economic downturn that has confounded many companies.

To be sure, BlackBerry has lost some market share. In the increasingly competitive U.S. BlackBerry was down two points, but so was Apple. Droid, in third place, jumped five points.

For investors, it’s been a good week. Share price has risen more than 10 per cent since Monday morning, including the after hours trading on Thursday. I can only hope the young man I overheard last weekend saying he was going to short RIM (see previous post) did not.

RIM’s results bring to mind a famous Mark Twain quote: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

A lot has happened in the world of Research In Motion since my book was published six months ago. Share price is down 38 per cent and some analysts, particularly in the U.S., have gone sour on the stock. The BlackBerry Torch seems to be selling well, but the iPhone 4 may be selling better. Several governments, including India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have been holding RIM hostage trying to gain access to encrypted email messages for security purposes.

All of this reminds me of the bitter patent battle in 2005-2006 when it appeared RIM was finished because U.S. BlackBerry sales would be halted by a judicial injunction. For months, the crepe-hangers were unavoidable. In the end, RIM came through stronger than ever.

I think RIM will rise again from the current situation. Here’s why. Over the weekend we were in a restaurant and my ears perked up when I heard a nearby table talking about BlackBerry and iPhone. The conversation-stopper was someone who said, “Things have got so bad, I think I’ll short RIM stock.”

Now, let me tell you first of all that I have no time for “investors” who short any stock. But I snuck a look at the speaker, and he might have been twenty. I’m not saying a twenty-year-old can’t have views, but I think when this kind of talk has reached such levels, the worst is over.

But don’t listen to me. Second quarter financial results due to be released this Thursday will provide better food for thought than any restaurant fare.

Just back from a week’s holiday in Nova Scotia. Ate lobster daily, unlike the Globe and Mail’s Ian Brown who spent the summer writing about food across Canada, came to Nova Scotia, and declared he would eat no lobster.

We managed to miss not only Hurricane Earl but also the blessing of the BlackBerrys by Rev. Lisa Vaughan of St. Timothy’s Anglican Church in Hatchet Lake. “I think they traditionally used to call it Plough Monday, where people used to bring their farming equipment and tools to the church to be blessed,” she told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. “Most of us live with our cellphones and laptops and BlackBerrys. I mean, those are just daily tools for us.”

Vaughan says she read about a church in England extending the blessings to modern day devices, so thought she’d try it in her parish. The aforementioned Globe and Mail must have read the story in the Herald; the Upper Canadian paper ran a matcher the following day. Too bad they didn’t have the professional courtesy to say where their idea came from.

Cantech Letter has done a fun item called “7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the BlackBerry.” My favorite is: “In the third quarter of 2009 RIM added 4.4 million subscribers, a number equal to the population of Ireland.” Here’s the link.