Whenever Research In Motion Ltd. is having a bad day – its stock was down 2.8 per cent on Tuesday afternoon, raining on the S&P/TSX composite index's 15,000 parade – you can be pretty sure that Apple Inc. is the cause.
Sure enough, Gizmodo.com reported today that Apple had confirmed the launch of a second-generation 3G iPhone model: June 9. The new phones will be available right after the big day, as opposed to the end of the year, and will be sold at flexible prices in some countries, as opposed to the current practice of selling them at fixed prices.
“The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during the last 12 months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively,” Gizmodo.com said.
This news – though not at all unexpected – is clearly being greeted as a troubling development for RIM, whose shares have been rising sharply this year in anticipation of the launch of a few consumer-friendly models of its own. The upcoming “Kickstart” flip phone and the “Bold” have been touted by some observers as potential iPhone killers, but new the iPhone could come to the rescue.
Or, at least, that's the way it looks in a market where the latest update gives one company the edge and makes rivals look like has-beens, until the has-beens come out with the latest updates.
“If Apple gets a four or five month lead, interest in the new Blackberry-brother is likely to be very, very modest,” said Douglas McIntyre, writing on the 24/7 Wall St. blog. “Being first into the market with a high-end 3G product is a strategic move that will give Apple an edge, particularly if it can sell a couple of million phones worldwide in the first month.”
Curiously, Apple investors aren't nearly as confident. The shares are up just 0.7 per cent in afternoon trading.
