There’s been a flurry of reports by financial analysts in the past few days arguing now’s the time for the brave to buy a few shares of Research In Motion.
Their feeling is that before RIM launches its BlackBerry 10 devices in early February the stock will go up a bit for a number of reasons, including positive reaction to closed-door peeks at the device and convincing presentations by RIM management.
But before you phone your broker, ponder a news report on the latest smart phone sales predictions from market research firm IDC: In a word, enterprises and their staff are buying Apple Inc.’s iPhones “in droves,” and even more Android smart phones
By the end of this year combined global Android and iPhone sales directly by organizations will top BlackBerry purchases, the report says.
It underscores the uphill battle RIM faces next year as the company tries to get the attention of buyers with next-generation devices.
True, some financial analysts are more positive in their sales projections than they were three months ago. But remember this: Financial analysts are merely making a pre-release bet on short-term possibilities. Long-term predictions on BB10 sales are months away.
Few are willing to bet on whether RIM will survive as an independent company, let alone eating into iPhone’s market share.
RELATED CONTENT
On Dec. 20 RIM will issue another quarterly financial result, which – again – won’t show good North American sales. The next scheduled quarterly report, on March 28, 2013, will include only a few weeks of BB10 sales. It won’t be June until we know for sure if BB10 is the company’s savior.
The days of RIM’s sure sales to enterprises have been overtaken by BYOD. It still faces a tough slog.
Read the whole story here