Electronics, Rim | featured news

Research In Motion said it will ask regulators to review "materially false and misleading comments" made Thursday about retail return rates for its new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.

The long-awaited smartphone has been designed to retain, and bring back, the corporate users that once propelled RIM to success.

In June 2011, I spent some time with an early version of BlackBerry 10 and commented that things “can only get better.” I said that because. at the time, things weren’t good. At all. BlackBerry 10 was a mess and the developer unit I tried it on was so glitchy I felt guilty writing a hands-on piece at all. Yesterday, off-site at CES, I got a full run down of a near-final version of BlackBerry 10 by the folks at Research in Motion. I can’t believe the difference six months can make. BlackBerry 10 is not only fully functional now, but it’s exciting.

Here’s a tech stock pop quiz: Who has had a better quarter on the stock market? Apple? Or Research in Motion? The answer may surprise you. Apple’s stock, which peaked at more than $700 per share in September, has lost nearly 25 percent of its value. But Research in Motion, due to report earnings Thursday afternoon, has seen its stock more than double its abysmal September price of $6.30 per share. On Thursday morning, the stock was trading at $13.63 a share.

Analysts are talking up the RIM share price after a depressing run for the Canadian phone maker. But something else is going on. While the press and analyst were burying RIM, its popularity was already on the increase, months before the share price went up.

Blackberry is still a very respected brand across the developing world - but it is undeniable that it has lost its cachet in the US and Europe. Turning that around and pulling the company out of its death spiral all depends on a new operating system, Blackberry 10.

The thought of Samsung design and BlackBerry productivity is clearly appealing to Research in Motion investors, who gave the company a surprise boost on the market Wednesday after reports that the BlackBerry maker was talking about licensing its upcoming software to Samsung.

Research In Motion chose its home country to launch a PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular networks, a crucial feature that its initial models lacked.

Research in Motion unexpectedly announced on Thursday that a new line of phones that it still hopes will revive its BlackBerry brand will be delayed until next year... Research in Motion, the company behind BlackBerry phones, also reported at $518 million loss for the first quarter.

Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said Wednesday it has started laying off employees as part of its restructuring plan aimed at saving about $1 billion this year.