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发帖数: 3217 | 1 RIM’s new Blackberry off to a promising start: UBS
Friday, August 19, 2011
Darcy Keith
It’s not often these days that one comes upon an analyst report with
something positive to say about Research In Motion Ltd. . But UBS’s Phillip
Huang did just that today - albeit it’s pretty lukewarm praise.
UBS analysts visited 17 stores in Canada following the recent launch of RIM
’s Blackberry 7.0 phones and found them to be selling reasonably well. “
While certainly not comparable to the iPhone launch, and still lagging
Androids, sales appeared decent with several reps eager to point us to the
new Blackberries,” Mr. Huang wrote. The 99xx Bold phones, in particular,
appear to be selling fairly well, he said
Given that the 7.0 products came to market a couple weeks earlier than
expected, this could add up to RIM sales coming in modestly stronger than
anticipated for August, Mr. Huang suggests.
Of course, Canada is only a small market for RIM, accounting for about 8 per
cent of global sales. But these early signals could hint at a reasonably
successful launch in larger global markets.
Mr. Huang is still cautious about RIM’s long-term future, expecting a tough
transition ahead of its move to the new QNX core operating system in 2012.
“While RIM’s new products close the gap with competitors on feeds and
speeds, RIM’s ecosystem and apps continue to lag. Further, its main pillars
of growth – enterprise and international - are under attack and with 80
per cent plus of its net adds being non-enterprise, RIM is fighting an
uphill battle for consumer mind share” versus competitors.
As for speculation that RIM could be a takeover candidate in the wake of
Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola announced earlier this week, Mr.
Huang is doubtful. “All indications are that RIM intends to go it alone for
now and there’s little evidence management would even contemplate an
alternative unless at a significant premium,” he said, pointing out such an
acquisition would have to be worth “the hefty sum” of at least $15-
billion.
Upside: Mr. Huang maintained a “neutral” rating and 12-month price target
of $30 (U.S.) |
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