RIM

A brokerage advised on Tuesday that Research In Motion should split itself into two separate businesses to open way for innovation and robust growth.

RBC Capital Markets made its note some hours before RIM's annual shareholder meeting at its hometown of Waterloo, Ontario.

Its share price -- down more than 50 percent this year -- has led to calls for management change and suggestions RIM could become a takeover target.

As Nokia has freed the niche in the market with the abandoning to develop its own software Research In Motion is missing crucial targets to introduce its new BlackBerry models, thus disregarding the still free space.

Citigroup downgraded RIM to “hold” from “buy” and explained in a note that new BlackBerry touchscreen models may miss the crucial back-to-school buying period due to production delays, while giants Apple and Google zoom ahead.

At RIM's BlackBerry World conference this week Steve Ballmer, a CEO of Microsoft, announced the partnership with Research in Motion. Now Microsoft’s Bing becomes default search engine and maps provider for RIM’s smartphones as well as Playbook tablet.

"We're going to invest uniquely into the BlackBerry platform," Ballmer said according to bloggers covering the event. "Bing will become the default search provider in the browser and maps" on BlackBerry devices.

The start sales of RIM’s tablet computer PlayBook have turned rather poor as the device launched in thousands of stores this week. By mid-afternoon Tuesday two carriers and two electronic stores in one of downtown Toronto's main shopping malls started the day with no more than 5 PlayBooks each. Previously these stores had long lines of buyers for iPad 2.

Nortel Networks, a former leader in wired and wireless network technology, may be retaken from Google by Research In Motion. RIM is reported to attempt to top Google Inc's $900 million bid for Nortel Networks Corp.'s wireless technology patents, says Bloomberg citing source familiar with the case.

In January 2009 Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection. It owns about 6,000 patents and patent applications for wireless, data and optical networking, voice, Internet, semiconductors and other technologies.

New stats from comScore revealed that for the three month average period ending January 234 million Americans used mobile devices. Of these Samsung was the top handset maker with 24.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 0.7% compared with the three month period ending in October. LG came second with 20.8%, followed by Motorola (16.5%), RIM (8.6%) and Apple (7%).

Research In Motion will allow its PlayBook tablets to run applications meant for Google Android operating system, according to the report made by Bloomberg. Thereby PlayBook users will be able to access a market of 130,000 Android applications.

Citing the sources familiar with the case Bloomberg reports that one analysts believes this development could make the PlayBook stand out against the many tablets expected to be released this year, as it will offer both security and a wide array of apps to choose from.

The software used in the forthcoming RIM Playbooks will eventually be built into the company’s flagship BlackBerry smartphones, according to the statement made by Research in Motion Ltd Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

Lazaridis said on Tuesday the platform used in its Playbook tablet is also targeted for future smartphones that run more complex, multi-core processors.

"By focusing on the tablet market, we see an opportunity to free where the smartphone can go," he said at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference.

A new poll of global consumer by GfK revealed that smartphone users have little brand loyalty with only Apple coming well as 59% of iPhone users are inclined to repeat their purchase.

Separate Nielsen study shows that smartphone users occupy 29% of the US market with the forecasts saying it will reach 50% by the end of next year. But it's the only market segment that makes any money, with RIM and Apple reckoned to corner over 80 per cent of the profits to be made.

Research In Motion (RIM) has ambitious plans for the next year when it plans to rival Apple’s iPad with its own tablet computer PlayBook. The slate device will cost "under" $500. However, many observers are skeptical about any serious competition.

While Apple iPad starts at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only model, and goes up to $829 for the 64GB Wi-Fi+3G version, a RIM executive said that the PlayBook will be cheaper than the iPad, when the tablets starts shipping in North America sometime in the first quarter of 2011.

According to the data from research firm Canalys this year brought a tremendous growth for Android smartphones with the sales up 1,309% on a year over year basis.

"With Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson all delivering large numbers of Android devices, and with focused efforts from many other vendors, such as LG, Huawei and Acer, yielding promising volumes, the platform continues to gather momentum in markets around the world," Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham said in a report.

Research in Motion has rolled out another version of Bold series smartphones dubbed as the BlackBerry Bold 9780. It is the first Bold built on the new BlackBerry 6 OS. The handset has a 624MHz processor and 512MB on-board memory that can be extended by a MicroSD card up to 32GB.

Other features include a 5Mp camera and a 2.4in display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. Besides, the new handset rocks at 801.11b/g and has support for GM/EDGE/HSDPA, but it only claims 3G speeds of 3.6Mbps.

During its conference for developers DevCon 2010 the smartphone maker Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 7inch rival to Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tab. As you can see the device was not named as expected BlackPad. It will ship "early 2011" according to RIM.

By the moment the details about the computer tablet are as follows. The hardware measures 5.1by7.6by0.4 inches, and weighs less than a pound. The touch screen measures 7inches. It has a 1 GHz dualcore processor with symmetrical multiprocessing capabilities, and 1 GB of RAM

Google and Skype Internet-based messaging services may soon be shut down in India over security concerns as the country threatened the similar blocking of BlackBerry services, reports the Financial Times.

The FT quoted from the minutes of a July 12 meeting between telecommunication ministry security officials and operator associations to look at possible solutions to "intercept and monitor" encrypted communications.

Research In Motion is rumored to launch its computer tablet dubbed BlackPad in November this year. The 9.7 inch slate device is reportedly built by Quanta Computer.

The speculations further say that the BlackPad will sell for $500, the same price as Apple's entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi iPad. The BlackPad will support Wi-Fi too, as well Bluetooth and 3G (through connection to a BlackBerry smartphone).

RIM is expected to ship about 2 million devices in 2010 and 8 million in 2011.