Over the past few years, Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) and Handspring (NASDAQ:HAND) have handed over superiority in handheld communications and computing gadgetry to Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM). Despite lacking any hint of a body part in its ticker symbol, the company's BlackBerry has been a brisk seller.
Bridging the gap between the fading palmtops and the cell phone market dominated by the likes of Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Research In Motion's BlackBerry has taken the killer email application and placed it into the palms of an impressive client list.
So while the company posted a quarterly loss last night -- just as Palm had done earlier this week -- the similarities end there. Palm posted a slight dip in sales while Research In Motion continues to drive handset sales higher along with the lucrative related services. As a matter of fact, handset sales now account for just half of its revenue pie.
With more than $6 a share in cash and investments and new deals being forged with wireless providers and an ambitious plan for global expansion, the market has always been a nearsighted beast. That's why it was refreshing to see that the stock didn't get pounded in after-hours trading despite the company's red ink for the quarter, the patent concerns, and the falling gross margins.
Wall Street sees the bigger picture, for a change. It recognizes that growing its subscriber base to 615,000 is the real driver and an amazing feat at a time when most companies are still scaling back on other information technology expenditures but find the funds to add BlackBerry servers.
The BlackBerry season is still ripe for the picking. Now, what will Research In Motion do about getting its ticker symbol to be anatomically correct?
