Rim announces another 2000 layoffs. Stocks down another 2.5% this morning. Queue the dirge.
Actually, their stock only went down 1%.
Anyways, RIM is still in a good position, its much too early to fully write them off.
Some interesting perspective and points from David Olive :
-Against a relatively sudden wave of new rivals, RIM still clings to a 17 per cent share of the global smartphone market. The company is debt-free and sitting on more than $2 billion in cash to finance new and improved products.
-RIM outperforms mighty Apple Inc. in the intensity of its R&D spending. Apple’s $1.8 billion in R&D outlays last year, spread across several sectors including the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and the retail store iTunes — equalled just 2.7 per cent of total revenues.
RIM’s $1.4 billion in R&D expenditures dedicated entirely to mobility products equalled 6.8 per cent of total sales.
-RIM outperforms Apple in return on equity (41.4 per cent to 35.3 per cent) and is surprisingly close in net profit margin (17.1 per cent to 21.8 per cent). Given the current must-have status of Apple products, the Cupertino, Calif. company can for now get away with overpricing its products.
-RIM also retains its high card of mobile security, in which it remains unmatched. For many mobility users, traumatized by recent privacy violations at the likes of Apple, Amazon and Sony, RIM’s sector-leading emphasis on privacy protection is the ultimate killer app.
-Investor sentiment in tech is notoriously faddish. The media-driven excitement over iPhones and iPads from Apple — the industry player most skilful at generating free publicity — has created a momentum around Apple that is impossible to sustain and attracts lowball rivals into the sector.
RIM still has largely to itself the sweet spot of high-price, high quality, high security products that command a premium price.
-The humbling of RIM by Apple and rivals using Google’s Android operating system, capped by this year’s dismal debut in tablets, brought about yesterday’s unhappy announcement. But RIM’s traditional focus on products rather than its stock performance augurs well, ironically enough, for its stock and more important its ability to conceive game-changing products."
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