Companies from Nokia (NYSE:NOK) to Samsung are trying to create a product to compete with the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone. Now RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) will join the group.
RIM will come out with a touchscreen version of its Blackberry, probably in the third quarter. The decision is based on a false premise, which is that people want to buy an "iPhone" from someone other than Apple.
According to The Wall Street Journal "Dubbed the Thunder, the new BlackBerry is among RIM's strongest moves so far to appeal to the increasing number of consumers opting for multimedia phones."
The market has heard this song before. Over a year ago, both Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) came to market with competition for the iPod. Neither made any progress.
As infantile as the reasoning may seem, Apple built a nearly perfect product, which has been confirmed by strong demand , and plans to improve on it with features like 3G capability. Competition cannot replace what the customer views as irreplaceable.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 newsletter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2008 @ 7:16AM
dmmm said...
Doug, Doug, Doug....
"people was to buy an 'iPhone' ..."
I'm not trying to be a typo troll here... but have you even been proofreading this before you pump them out?
PLEASE stop making this look like a "B" rate blog and check your own work!
5-16-2008 @ 9:23AM
Mark said...
Er, perhaps. But shouldn't we wait to see these products first, before we decide whether they have a chance against the iphone? And Douglas, doesn't your continuing negativity towards RIMM betray a bias?
5-16-2008 @ 11:34AM
Jay said...
RIMM's new consumer focus will have some success, but with limitations. Will RIMM be offering the world's #1 distribution method for music (iTunes) on their phones? No. Will they be offering movie purchases and rentals for viewing on their phones? Probably not. Will they get 200,000 developers to download an SDK to write native third-party apps on their phone? No. Will they be contending with 200+ patents held by Apple and used in the iPhone? Yes. And most importantly, will RIMM's Thunder (or any other phone) be running OS X? Big no. Again, RIMM's efforts will appeal to some -- especially current RIMM owners. But the iPhone's march to the dominant global position in the smartphone segment is utterly inevitable.
5-16-2008 @ 3:07PM
iJah420 said...
JAY!!!!
Could not have said it any better myself.
People just DO NOT get it.
DENY DENY DENY DENY!!!!! All you want people..
JAY is right.
iJah420 looking fwd to the next 5 years.