research-in-motion

RIM's stock climbed today in reaction to some rare positive news.

Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski increased her rating on RIM stock to "Buy" from "Neutral" today after saying that there's a "30 percent chance" the company's BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be successful, the Associated Press reported.

A one-in-three chance isn't all that much to cheer about, but Jankowski's opinion and "Buy" rating were enough to send the stock up more than 6 percent since the start of today's trading.

Goldman Sachs upped its 12-month price … Read more

Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook is playing hard to get at several retailers.

The tablet either doesn't appear or is listed as out of stock among several major vendors, including Best Buy, Staples, RadioShack, OfficeMax, and Wal-Mart.

Amazon and OfficeDepot still have stock.

RIM's own online store lists the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB editions as available. But the "Where to buy" drop-down list on its retail page steers you to some of the vendors who are out of stock. The current lineup also is in short supply at retailers in RIM's home base of … Read more

BlackBerry PlayBook users eager for the long-awaited 2.0 upgrade could get their wishes answered next week.

The new OS is expected to launch February 21, according to blogging site N4BB, relying on intel from its own sources. The confirmation followed previous "rumblings" pointing to that date for the launch.

Canadian blog site Mobile Syrup also added its take by revealing an upcoming Best Buy flyer listing the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 upgrade as arriving in February. The flyer is due to hit the public on Friday and stretch out for one week, hinting that the new … Read more

Apple has been crowned the victor in last quarter's smartphone wars by yet another research firm.

Among the top five global manufacturers, Apple grabbed the top spot with a market share of 23.5 percent, according to IDC figures released yesterday. That was a healthy gain over the 15.9 percent share from a year ago.

The iPhone maker also shipped the greatest number of phones last quarter at 37 million, compared with 16.2 million in 2010's fourth quarter.

Brisk sales for the iPhone 4S helped Apple narrowly surpass smartphone rival Samsung. The Korean handset maker's … Read more

Research In Motion has pushed out an update for its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with the latest version of Flash but still no native e-mail or instant messaging, at least not yet.

Described yesterday in the official BlackBerry blog, the new BlackBerry Tablet OS version 1.07.3312 offers a security fix to the Flash Player that Adobe rolled out on September 21. Available now for all PlayBook users, the new BlackBerry update can be downloaded over the air.

As usual, PlayBook owners will receive a message notifying them of the new update, or they can manually check for it under Software Updates in the settings menu. Customers who buy a PlayBook as of yesterday will automatically receive the latest Adobe Flash Player already installed.… Read more

Android continued to scoop up a healthy share of users on Millennial Media's mobile ad network in August, while growth for Apple's iOS was relatively flat.

For the month, Android ad impressions jumped 48 percent over July, giving Google's mobile OS a 54 percent slice of the ad network, according to Millennial Media's August Mobile Mix report. In contrast, Apple's iOS failed to gain much ground from July, leaving it with a 28 percent share.

However, numbers from month to month aren't a direct comparison because the August data included both smartphones and connected … Read more

For every 19 tablets that Apple shipped during its last quarter, RIM may have shipped only one.

Tapping into the estimates of several analysts, Bloomberg says that RIM likely shipped about 490,000 PlayBooks during its fiscal second quarter, which ended August 31. That contrasts with a total of 9.25 million iPads that Apple shipped during its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 25.

As a result of sluggish demand for the PlayBook, analysts on average have trimmed their full-year forecast for RIM's tablet shipments, according to Bloomberg.

Hit by weakening sales, Research In Motion plans to add Android support to next year's lineup of new BlackBerry smartphones, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

Citing information from "three people familiar with the plan," Bloomberg said that the new Android-compatible phones will run the company's QNX software and debut in early 2012. A story earlier this month from the blog Boy Genius Report said that RIM will launch its first QNX-powered BlackBerry, code-named Colt, during the first quarter of 2012.

The move toward Android support is designed to enhance the appeal of BlackBerrys and shake up sales, which have taken a dive due to tight competition from the iPhone and Android devices.

A ComScore report from September of last year showed RIM with a leading 39 percent share of the U.S. smartphone market. A more recent ComScore report, released last month, found RIM now in third place behind Google and Apple with just 24 percent of the market.… Read more

Android continues to up its lead over Apple's iOS, according to the latest Mobile Mix report from ad network Millennial Media.

Google's OS captured 61 percent of all ad impressions on the mobile ad network in July, a healthy gain from 54 percent the prior month. On the flip side, Apple's iOS lost some share last month, dropping to 21 percent of all impressions from 26 percent in June. Android has held onto its leading spot for the past eight months since overtaking iOS this past January.

That left Research in Motion's BlackBerry with 14 percent … Read more