Research In Motion Late to the Party, Again
Research In Motion (RIMM) shares are trading higher Friday, in excess of the Nasdaq. While today's overall market move higher is fueled by the surprisingly stronger-than-expected July employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the move in RIMM shares reflects two company-specific items. First, the launch of the new 4G LTE BlackBerry Playbook tablet and, second, the potential for the company to license its next operating system, dubbed BB10, to other smartphone manufacturers. At just over $7 in midday trading (closer to $3.50 if you strip out net cash per share), traders are likely viewing RIMM shares as an options play. Remember that many traders thought that about Nokia (NOK) when they were first $5, then $4, then $3, but they are currently at $2.38, down more than 50% year to date.
While some see both of those news items for RIMM shares as positive steps, my view is those two news items pose a potential trap to investors who may be caught up in the headlines. Digging deeper into the tablet market, Apple (AAPL) has significant market share and Samsung and Asus are slowly gaining. In other words, tablets are the new battleground, and while RIMM's latest Playbook is new, its feature set serves as more of a catch-up to tablets offered by Samsung, Google (GOOG)/Motorola and others. Much like Microsoft's (MSFT) recent announcement of its Surface tablet, RIMM left out two key pieces of information on its new tablet: its price and release date....215 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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