Research in Motion Unfazed by Apple

There may be plenty of buzz about next generation iPhones, or Apple’s (AAPL) efforts to capture the smartphone market, but Research in Motion (RIMM) doesn’t seem fazed. Wednesday, when the phone maker released Q4 earnings, the numbers were strong. Even amidst a slowing economy, RIM easily beat guidance and doubled year over year results.

For the three months ending March 1st, RIM earned $412.5 million (72c a share) on revenue of $1.88 billion. Both numbers are more than double year ago results when RIM reported earnings of $187.4 million (33c a share) on revenues of $930.4 million. The Wall Street consensus was for fourth quarter earnings of 70c a share on revenue of $1.86 billion (Thompson).

On the entire fiscal year 2008, net income was $1.29 billion, or $2.26 per share diluted, up 105% over fiscal 2007.

In subscriber metrics, on the quarter the company added 2.18 million subscribers, raising total headcount to more than 14 million. Co-CEO Jim Balsillie characterized that as “exceptional subscriber growth.”

In other metrics reported, RIM said they shipped 4.4 million phones in the fourth quarter and 14 million for the year. The company is also sitting on cash or cash equivalents well in excess of $2 billion.

In forward guidance, RIM said they expect to draw revenue in the range of $2.23 billion to $2.3 billion and earn between 82 and 86cents a share during the first quarter. That’s well ahead of the 77cents Reuters is currently listing as their consensus analyst expectation.

Many analysts have been concerned that an economic slowdown might hurt RIM. The strong quarter and positive guidance suggests the company doesn’t have the same worries. In the press release, Balsillie characterized the coming year saying: “the prospects for RIM and the industry are more exciting than ever."

Comments

[JIM]

Disintermediation in the enterprise yet to occur. Apple will make inroads once the enterprise software is available for push email. Imagine NOT HAVING your company's mail have to be pushed out through a Canadian server with the attendant fee? Bye, bye RIMM. Enjoy while you can.

[User 172437]

In respone to Jim's comment RIM will continue to dominate Apple or any other competitor for a very long time. An attendant fee will do little if any to sway consumers or businesses from purchasing the Blackberry. The popularity lies in the device's services and it's image. The image holds especially true for the consumer market where the majority of RIM's sales will occur in the forthcoming years. Consumers will not be concerned with an attendant fee or the fact the mail is being pushed through a Canadian server. Once the subscriber base becomes big enough in the United States there may be a location in the United States where e-mail will run through.

[User 172465]

The only reason why the iPhone is even mentioned in this article is to get extra hits on the website. RIM didn't actually say anything about Apple or the iPhone just that they have a positive outlook on the future.

That being said RIM should not overlook the challenge that Apple will bring in the near future both in the consumer space and in the enterprise. Crackberries are largely seen as a device that enterprises/corporations force on employees. With the updated iPhone the end user can connect directly to the enterprise exchange server even through VPN if needs be. Even if corporations only officially support RIM a large percentage of employees will simply choose their own smartphone.

[User 172487]

RIMM users are extremely loyal to RIMM products - even if they were to retain 75% of current subsribers, they will be sitting pretty. Not to mention the constant influx of new subscribers. The price of data plans will only get lower, attracting newer subscriptions. Yesterday's conference call provided guidance, and explicitly mentioned that Q108 revenues do NOT take into account new devices. RIMM must have new products in the pipeline. A new phone will only attract new subscribers.

Apple is very strong, but RIMM is a buy buy buy!

[Dan Poarch]

RIMM and Apple feed off of each other. They are perfect alternatives to each other. However, phones aren't a fraction of RIMM's business, they are RIMM's only business. So how can you sensibly compare the two? They could both be wildly successful and not still affect each other.

Still, I've never figured out what the attraction is. I find Blackberries needlessly complicated and therefore useless.

They are the little brother, not the other way around.

[Thomas Barta]

"Still, I've never figured out what the attraction is. I find Blackberries needlessly complicated and therefore useless."

So's following the NBA playoffs. So are PC's. Some people thrive on arcana and complexity; it makes them feel accomplished, to have mastered it. Complexity make ME fell annoyed; I've got better things to spend mental "CPU cycles" on than getting my phone to work.

[Ken Singh]

Apr 03 06:20 PM
((RIMM=ENRON REPLAY BOOK SCAM COMPLETE))KEEP ON WRITING NICE SPIN PUMPS TO UNLOAD SCAM DUMPS..........

TD BANK/RBC CAPITAL & INSIDERS @RIMM =MANIPUALTION PUMP & DUMP SCAM GANG.................FINAL CHAPTER BEING WRITTEN NOW

GAME IS OVER FOR THIS ONE PONZI WONDER PUSH EMAIL SCAM.....

WALL STREET HOME GROWN FINANCIAL ALQUAIDA BLACKED OUT MAJOR -VE DEVELOPMENTS.....................

WHAT OF INDIA HIGH DRAMA IN PLAY AND NO ONE FROM YOU CREATIVE SPIN MASTERS EVEN MENTION IT??



iPHONE killed Blackberry in consumer Mobile landscape.

BB Plastic good for push email...will be niche player.India to get solution to intercept BB push email on April8,2009. Other nations will demand.........Still have to analyze what solution they can provided without surrendering Encryption keys??

But What ever the solution , it will kill 14% Single point of Push email epicenter and forced to put Solution for every Nation that India Gets......=economics of business model disaster are in the works.............

KISS Good bye to BB plastic 84% of business model into margin hell too....................

That is the future for this one ponzi wonder scam....Finally all forces to bust BB One ponzi wonder in Play now........

ULTRA WARNING SIGNAL TO AVOID THIS SCAM NOW: TORA TORA TORA

HERE IS INDIA LINK:

Blackberry solution expected by April 9
Bs Reporters / New Delhi April 4, 2008
Research-in-Motion (RIM), the Canada-based provider of Blackberry services, has assured Indian operators that it has come up with a solution to the contentious issue of allowing government security agencies to monitor the service without compromising data security.
business-standard.com/search/storypage_n... ;;leftindx=8&subLeft=&autono=319012

Blackberry solution expected by April 9
Bs Reporters / New Delhi April 4, 2008
Research-in-Motion (RIM), the Canada-based provider of Blackberry services, has assured Indian operators that it has come up with a solution to the contentious issue of allowing government security agencies to monitor the service without compromising data security.

Communications Minister A Raja confirmed that the solution will be finalised at a meeting with the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on April 9.

This is expected to end uncertainty for 400,000 users in India and telecom companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Reliance Communications, BPL and others that provide this small but high-revenue service.

Top RIM executives had a long meeting on the details of the solution with operators in Delhi under the aegis of the Cellular Operators Association of India today.

Blackberry has been under fire since December after the government rejected an application from Tata Teleservices to operate the service. All companies offering the service were also directed to discontinue it from December 31, 2007.

In later meetings, the government demanded the encryption level of the services be reduced, a move operators argued was untenable in the interests of security.

“Most of our users are corporations, so high encryption levels cannot be compromised for corporate mails flowing through the system,” said a senior executive.

HERE IS LINK TO iPHONE KILLED BLACKBERRY & GOOGLE REPORT RIGHT ON TOO:
iPhone used less for talk, more for Web and music, says iSuppli
digitimes.com/telecom/a20080403PR202.html
iPhone used less for talk, more for Web and music, says iSuppli


Press release, April 3; Eric Mah, DIGITIMES [Thursday 3 April 2008]

US iPhone owners are spending their time enjoying all its capabilities – voice, data communications and multimedia entertainment – rather than exclusively using it for traditional voice calls, according to a latest consumer survey by research firm iSuppli.

Owners of all types of mobile handsets use their phones for voice communications 71.7% of the time, according to research from iSuppli's ConsumerTrak survey of US residents. In contrast, iPhone owners spend just 46.5% of their time with the product engaged in voice calls.

US consumers said they spent 12.1% of their iPhone usage time accessing the Internet, a stark contrast with 2.4% for all mobile phones on average. Furthermore, iPhone owners spent 11.9% of their usage time listening to music or other audio, compared to just 2.5% for all mobile handset users.

"This usage pattern shows Apple has succeeded in producing a true convergence product that consumers like to use for multiple purposes," said Greg Sheppard, chief development officer for iSuppli. "Apple has come as close as anyone to achieving a balanced convergence in mobile-handset features and usage."

It's a phone, too

Even before Apple released the iPhone, everyone anticipated it would integrate the mobile phone's voice communications capability with the iPod's audio and video playback functionality. However, Apple has also worked to tailor and promote the iPhone as a device that makes Internet access pleasant and productive, and more like using a computer, according to iSuppli. The large multi-touch screen, ergonomic user interface and Wi-Fi connection, make accessing the Internet something people want to do more with a device like the iPhone, the research firm claimed.

Although iSuppli's research indicates smartphones from HTC are used more than the iPhone on a percentage basis for surfing the Web, the iPhone has the most volume and market impact. Google and Bank of America recently commented on how the rapid rise of traffic from iPhone owners is forcing them to modify their support of mobile Internet activities.

Feeling used

iSuppli's ConsumerTrak survey revealed iPhone users also spent more time emailing than all users on average, with owners spending 10.4% of their time on this task, as opposed to 2.8% for all mobile-phone subscribers. In spite of having only limited corporate IT support so far, the speed (via Wi-Fi) and ergonomics of the iPhone are
compelling users to access their personal email more frequently.

iPhone users are no different from anyone else when it comes to text messaging, as 15% of their time is spent on this activity, according to iSuppli.

iPhone time usage breakdown for US consumers

[AAPLpie]

RIMMjob gets one more quarter...maybe two at the outside...where they can talk big growth. Then they are toast...just like other famous mailmen...like Cliff Clavin and Newman!! The stock price has factored in a growth rate that they won't see in 2009, mostly because of the iPhone. Sell while you can, certainly before June.

[user 5247]

RIM would continue to provide good enterprise solutions and maybe with some additional features in their handsets; but comparing them to iphones is something that is too early a discussion, and maybe widely varying. It depends, on the perspective of the end user- though.

Btw, who is this asshole "Ken Singh" who scams and pastes same crap all the time in all blogs? Moderator of this website should check these.