It was supposed to be the mobile OS that would change
everything, but the only thing that has changed is Research In
Motion's (NASDAQ:
RIMM
) share price. The stock is down another six percent Thursday,
signaling a potential end to RIM's golden child status on Wall
Street. The company will officially change its name and its ticker
to BlackBerry (NASDAQ:
BBRY
) on Monday, February 4, but that is unlikely to reinvigorate the
struggling brand.
"A lot of [investors] hoped that the launch would be really
great and that it would really foster positive sentiment among
investors and then it would really boost the share price," Jan
Dawson, Ovum's Chief Telecoms Analyst, told Benzinga.
"That didn't happen in practice. The launch was good [but] it's
not obvious that it's going to do super well. I think that's why
you've seen the sell-off -- a lot of people were buying on the
potential, and the potential wasn't really realized in
practice."
This week Yahoo Finance (NASDAQ:
YHOO
) conducted a poll on the matter, asking traders, "How interested
are you in buying a BlackBerry 10?"
Very interested, I think they're on to something big (8,584 votes)
-- 11 percent Somewhat interested, I'm waiting on the reviews
(9,908 votes) -- 13 percent Not interested, I'm sticking with what
I have (57,305 votes) -- 76 percent
Between the poll results, the stock decline and the analyst
reaction to BlackBerry 10, the company may not have much hope.
According to
Mashable
, the company's primary chance to "reclaim relevance" may occur
overseas
in nations where smartphone adoption is low.
In other words, BlackBerry might not have any hope of persuading
Americans to drop their existing devices.
"Right now, the default is to go with Android or iPhone if you
need a new device," said Dawson. "There's no big reason here why
you'd go with something different."
Dawson commends BlackBerry for building a "great new operating
system [with] two new great devices" that are "the best they've
ever produced."
"They've solved some big problems they've had with previous
devices like the browser, the quality of the apps -- even the
hardware design is better, sleeker, nicer to look at than what
they've had before," he added. "In many respects I think what
they've produced is really good, I'm just not convinced that
there's anything there that puts it ahead of any other platform in
any meaningful way."
Dawson believes that the "most likely scenario" is that
BlackBerry will become a niche player within the industry.
"Rather than getting back to the kind of scale they were at
before, I think they're more likely to end up being a supplier to a
fairly small segment of the market for the people who love
BlackBerrys and the things that BlackBerrys are good at," such as
multi-tasking, productivity and e-mail, Dawson explained.
"I think there is business to be made serving that segment, but
it's nowhere near as big as the installed base they had in the
past."
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@LouisBedigianBZ
(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
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