RIM, Motorola won’t benefit from coming smartphone boom, analyst claims

Smartphone sales will continue to surge in 2011 and through 2012, but RIM and Motorola won’t reap the benefits according to Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha. Apple, Samsung and HTC will be the big winners as global smartphone sales grow by a whopping 62% in 2011 to 482 million units. In 2012, Garcha sees the market growing 36% further to 656 million units. Despite the impending boom, the analyst cut his rating on RIM from Neutral from Outperform, and he sliced his target on shares of RIM stock from $70 to $30. Motorola faired even worse in Garcha’s note as he cut his rating from Outperform to Underperform and lowered his target from $31 to $19. Why do Apple, Samsung and HTC stand to be the big winners over the next 18 months? According to Garcha, they come out on top when measured by the analyst’s nine key metrics: software, services, cloud, product, brand, distribution, tablet convergence, IPR, and chipset efficiency.

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Tags: Android, Apple, BlackBerry, droid, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, iOS, iPhone, market share, Motorla, RIM, Sales, Samsung, Shipments, smartphone market, Smartphone Market Share, Smartphones

Zach Epstein