New Phones Aim to Breathe Some Life into RIM (RIMM, AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, NOK)

Smartphone maker Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) has released five new phones this morning, including one, gasp, that does not have a keyboard. While shares are getting a bounce pre-market, this announcement is still too little, too late.

Any idea that RIM may have of competing with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for hardware dominance or with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) for operating system dominance is surely wishful thinking. The coalition between  Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) also stands a chance of putting RIM further on the back burner later this year.

RIM’s hardware aspirations depend on volume, not profit margin. Apple’s iPhones currently produce nearly $300/phone in profit. Blackberries produce about $75/phone, barely ahead of third-place phone maker HTC Corp. In software platform distribution, RIM trails Google’s Android operating system, the rapidly vanishing Symbian OS from Nokia, and Apple’s iOS.

The thinking at RIM appears to be for the company to continue to push out smartphones with the current Blackberry OS until the company is ready to introduce its new OS next year. The new OS will be based on RIM’s newly acquired QNX operating system. Does RIM think that nobody knows what’s going on? That customers are going to buy a smartphone with soon-to-be extinct software because — well, there really is no “because.”

That’s the kind of thinking that usually abounds at a company that has become complacent about its market share and it is the kind of thinking that has characterized RIM for the past several years. RIM clearly thought it had a firm grip on the business market and that the iPhone would never gain any traction there. Big mistake.

The company may finally have recognized that about six months ago, and this latest product release is really nothing more than a PR effort to keep RIM’s name out in front of the masses. Shipping press releases instead of innovative products is a time-tested tactic in the tech world and it is nearly always a sign of both desperation and cluelessness.

RIM must be feeling pretty good, this morning though. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $24.15, after touching a new 52-week low of $24.10. The shares opened at $24.94 this morning, up 3.25%. The 52-week high for RIM’s shares is $70.54. That number is receding further and further in the rear-view mirror.

Paul Ausick