Now that Palm has finally realized there’s no longevity in forever shipping incremental improvements to the PalmPilot, the company has quite a future ahead of it. Never mind that it faces some particularly long, historic odds. Because according to RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, Palm has the “special sauce”–the means of orchestrating a second act, perhaps even one of Jobsian proportions.
Wise is the investor holding shares in Apple, Research in Motion and/or Palm, because these companies are the triumvirate of tech’s new world order. This according to RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, who in a research note today says all three are positioned for leadership in the “huge, nascent and underpenetrated” smartphone market.
With lousy financials, a weak platform strategy and just 4.7 percent of the global handset market, Sony Ericsson is on a long, slow march into irrelevance. Unless Bert Nordberg can turn it around. This morning the struggling handset maker tapped Nordberg, executive vice president of Ericsson, as its new president and CEO.
The Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to determine whether exclusive handset deals are promoting or hindering innovation in the wireless market are moving ahead with a focus on rural areas. That’s the word from agency Chairman Julius Genachowski, who says he’s concerned not just with the competitive ramifications of carrier-exclusivity deals but with their tendency to limit customer access to top smartphones.
Nortel Networks has rejected Research In Motion’s bid for the wireless infrastructure assets Nortel is unloading as part of bankruptcy proceedings. RIM said Monday night that it intended to offer $1.1 billion for Nortel’s CDMA and LTE businesses, but was told it could do so only if it agreed not to bid on other Nortel assets, something it had intended to do.
Sued by Visto in 2006 for allegedly infringing its patents, Research in Motion denied having done so. It countersued, claiming the disputed patents, which relate to accessing and synchronization of information over a network, should not have been granted because they contain new inventions. RIM petitioned to have them invalidated. But in the end, the BlackBerry maker ended up licensing them anyway.
Research in Motion best get to work refreshing its shopworn BlackBerry line, and fast, because growing competition from new rivals like the iPhone 3GS and Pre are cutting into its market share. According to retail checks conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst T. Michael Walkley, the BlackBerry slowed as the summer kicked off and AT&T and Sprint began peddling new smartphone offerings from Apple and Palm.
A noteworthy metric in the latest mobile browser share report from StatCounter: RIM’s BlackBerry has been making some meaningful gains in the world-wide mobile browser market. According to the research house, which tracks page views by browser on mobile devices and the desktop, RIM has boosted its share of the market quite a bit since the beginning of this year.
With the Palm Pre and iPhone 3GS in stores and the myTouch 3G, T-Mobile’s second Google Android phone, headed to market, is Research in Motion’s product lineup beginning to look a bit dated? Which leads to another question: Has RIM’s success made it too complacent? GC Research analyst Tero Kuittinen believes it has.
In a summer of handset debuts that already includes the Palm Pre, Apple’s iPhone 3GS, and soon, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Tour 9630, add one more: The myTouch 3G, T-Mobile’s second Google Android phone. The carrier officially introduced the device today and said customers can begin reserving it on July 8.
Good apparently isn’t good enough for RIM investors. The BlackBerry maker reported earnings for its first fiscal quarter that rose 33 percent to $3.42 billion on strong sales. And while that was in line with the Street’s $3.41 billion consensus estimate, the company’s shares slipped nearly five percent in after-hours trading.
So those reports about Research In Motion acquiring Dash Navigation? True. RIM said today that it had purchased the maker of maps for GPS devices for an undisclosed sum.
Global mobile handset sales fell at a record pace in the first quarter of 2009. And they’re likely to do so once again in the second. With the exception of smart phones, which are apparently doing quite well despite the recession.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
