Bargain-shoppers will tell you that last week's sell-off of shares in Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) was overdone.
"OVER-reaction," wrote CAPS All-Star jamespeer. "Not uncommon in today's market, seems like all we see nowadays are over-reactions. I expect this stock to recover fully by Q4..."
I'm unconvinced. Even if RIM is gaining market share from everyone except Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and perhaps Palm (NASDAQ:PALM), the BlackBerry maker has never been so poorly positioned.
Why? Mobile services are no longer network-dependent. Where AT&T (NYSE:T), Verizon (NYSE:VZ), and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) once called the shots, software developers are now in charge. And they're increasingly devoting their coding time and talent to the iPhone. Palm's webOS also shows promise in this area.
The numbers really are frightening. Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World hosts 844 games, which seems like a lot until you stack it against the 16,580 found in the iTunes App Store. Games are going mobile as RIM stays home.
Numbers like that leave our 140,000-strong Motley Fool CAPS community unimpressed:
|
Metric | |
|---|---|
|
Recent price |
$68.91 |
|
CAPS stars (out of 5) |
** |
|
Total ratings |
5,150 |
|
Percent bulls |
83.1% |
|
Percent bears |
16.9% |
|
% Above 52-week low |
96.6% |
Sources: CAPS, Yahoo! Finance.
Data current as of Sept. 27.
"I think they get cooked by the iPhone. They don't have an ecosystem to support themselves, and what they provide is now pretty easily replaced," wrote Foolish colleague and Motley Fool Hidden Gems co-advisor Seth Jayson last week.
I agree, and I've shorted RIM in CAPS as a result. But that's also just my take. Would you short Research In Motion at today's prices? Let us know by signing up for CAPS today. It's 100% free to participate.
Get your clicks with related Foolishness:
- Here's another reason to worry about Research In Motion.
- RIM has crashed Apple's party before.
- The iPhone will soon join the BlackBerry in South Korea.
