Among the upgrades: A slimmer design, a 3.2-megapixel camera, sharper 360-by-480 display, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi support and an optical trackpad similar to that of the BlackBerry Curve 8520. The new handset is also outfitted with a 624MHz processor and 256 MB of flash memory.

Paired with BlackBerry OS 5.0, this should mean some decent performance gains. So an incremental update, but little more. Said RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis: “This is the Bold for those that wanted it just a little smaller, but still wanted the Bold look, feel, performance and materials.”

GC Research analyst Tero Kuittinen believes it has. In a research note Friday, Kuittinen described the company’s Blackberry product range as “shopworn,” noting that even the new Blackberry Tour is quite close to the aging Curve in look and feel.

“We are concerned about the autumn and winter Blackberry product range–RIM seems to have made a deliberate decision to rely on incremental improvements in mid-range and low-end models instead of bringing advanced features aggressively to cheaper devices,” Kuittinen writes. “Considering how competitive the smartphone market is getting, we believe this cautious approach may begin backfiring in the autumn and particularly during the Christmas season.”

Kuittinen goes on to question the logic of the company’s new flip phone initiative, wondering why the company is rolling out its 8230 clamshell at a time when consumers are so enamored with large display devices like Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and the new Palm (PALM) Pre. And that’s a great question because, well, the contract phone bestseller lists at most carriers aren’t exactly overrun with clamshells these days, are they?

“Overall, RIMM’s expansion to flip phones is ill-timed, and the Tour line lacks kick and the low-end improvements are minor at best,” Kuittinen concludes. “It is the combination of these three simultaneous factors that leads us to believe RIMM may have become lulled into complacency by the stellar success of the Blackberry devices over the past couple of years. The year 2009 is a tough period to let your product development program spin its wheels.”

Hard to disagree with that assessment given the handset launches we’ve seen so far this year. But perhaps the Storm 2 will prove Kuittinen wrong on that account. Perhaps it will even raise the bar a little. But even if it does, will that be enough to invigorate the entire product line? Kuittinen doubts it. “One major big-display phone launch, in our opinion, may not fully offset the slight malaise afflicting the rest of the Blackberry range in the autumn,” he concludes.

Below, our D7 Interview with RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis.

]]> http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090626/rimm-product-line-more-frankenberry-than-crackberry/feed/ 2 http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090217/backdating-settlement-in-motion-redux/ http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090217/backdating-settlement-in-motion-redux/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:52:23 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=13100 Two weeks after Canadian regulators dropped the hammer on Blackberry maker Research In Motion for its stock option backdating scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped it again. Today, the agency charged RIM CFO Dennis Kavelman, former VP of Finance Angelo Loberto and co-CEOs James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis with illegally granting stock options to company executives and employees over an eight-year period from 1998 through 2006. “RIM and its highest level executives engaged in widespread backdating of options which provided them and other employees with millions of dollars in undisclosed compensation,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement. Worse, the four executives subsequently made “false and misleading disclosures” about how RIM (RIMM) priced and accounted for options. Without admitting (or denying) guilt, the four execs agreed to settle the matter. Each will disgorge the in-the-money value of backdated options they exercised and pay a fine ranging between $150,000 and $500,000–far less steep than the $75 million in penalties ordered by the Ontario Securities Commission.

]]> http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090217/backdating-settlement-in-motion-redux/feed/ 0 http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090206/a-short-sharp-shock/ http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090206/a-short-sharp-shock/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:15:05 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=12656
[ See post to watch video ]

RIM (RIMM) has also made an offer of settlement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is conducting its own investigation of the company’s stock option granting practices. No word yet on the SEC’s reply.

Now, leaving aside for a moment the fact that the Storm is clearly not a laptop replacement, Lazaridis’s comment is interesting because it mirrors Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs’s remarks about the iPhone this past October. Responding to a question about Apple’s plans for the Netbook market, Jobs suggested that the iPhone and iPod touch are essentially diminutive Netbooks. “One of our entrants into [the Netbook] category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a netbook lets you do,” Jobs said. “Being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket.”

Great minds think alike, I guess…