Struggling smartphone manufacturer Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) plans to add a new application to its much-awaited BB10 devices. This appears to be an effort by the company to make its new offering much more competitive.
The new contact management features will enable Blackberry customers to check the blog posts, emails, tweets and recent updates of their phone contacts. The entire details will come up in a single Blackberry page.
Research in Motion is is facing severe problems due to an increasingly competitive landscape, primarily from Apple Inc’s. (AAPL) iPhone, and an array of other smartphone manufacturers running on Google Inc’s. (GOOG) Android Platform. Lack of applications in its legacy handsets mainly contributed to Research In Motion's huge market share loss in the high-end smartphone segment.
The Canadian company is betting on its new Blackberry 10 OS-based devices, which are slated to release in the first half of 2013 as a potential game-changer for RIMM. The new operating system is based on QNX software, which is compatible with various open-source coding language, and also runs certain applications from its existing smartphone.
The application is being developed by Seattle-based Gist, which was acquired by RIMM in early 2011. Given the current boom in the online social networking, we believe this new feature will be a value-add for the BB10 device and will help it compete with Android.
The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for Research In Motion is pegged at a loss of 46 cents for the fiscal second quarter with a growth rate estimate of (157.11%). For fiscal 2013, the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at a loss of $1.48 with a growth rate of (135.31%) and for fiscal 2014 the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at a loss of 73 cents with a growth rate of 51.02%.
Recommendation:
We, maintain our long-term Neutral recommendation on Research in Motion. Currently, RIMM has a Zacks #4 Rank, implying a Sell rating over the short term.
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