Since the summer launches of their respective flagship smartphones, the iPhone 4 and the Droid X, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) have spent the last month discussing other projects. Apple’s been busy with the refresh of its line of iPod media players, their music shopping service iTunes and the launch of its new social network Ping, and developing the latest version of its mobile operating system, making sure that iOS 4.2 brings the iPad’s functionality in line with the company’s palm devices. Motorola, meanwhile, has spent their September dodging questions about their own in-development, long-rumored tablet computer. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha spoke with The Financial Times last week about his company’s plans for the device and while it’s likely the machine will run on Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android and be supported by Verizon (NYSE: VZ) just like the Droid X, it’s still just in the planning stages.
Neither company is talking up new smartphones. They don’t need to; Apple controls half the market, and Android-powered phones are gaining fast thanks largely to Motorola’s products.
What are the rest of the world’s smartphone manufacturers up to while Motorola and Apple’s backs are turned? Not a whole lot. Beleaguered Finnish company Nokia (NYSE: NOK) just released their new Nokia Twist, a compact device meant to appeal to younger mobile phone buyers. The machine hit the market with a dull thud and shares in the company, while up 12% from August lows since the Twist’s launch, are still down 37% from their 52-week high in April. Today, Nokia hurt themselves a bit more, delaying the release of their flagship smartphone, the Nokia N8. A Nokia spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal today that while the company was planning on delivering the N8 to customers by September 23, they have had to push the phone back to an unspecified date in October. A delay is not good for an injured company that desperately needs to recapture consumer mindshare. Winning mobile phone users’ attention is already an uphill battle for the N8 which ist the first device to run the Symbian^3 operating system created by the Symbian Foundation. In a market obsessed with Android and iOS, Nokia’s choice of an unknown OS isn’t doing their new machine any favors.
Smartphone stalwart Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM), meanwhile, has quietly been bringing a host of new devices to retail. The BlackBerry 9800, or BlackBerry Torch, was widely available at the end of August. Last week, RIM started offering the BlackBerry Curve 3G as part of new contract packages with both Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Sprint (NYSE: S). Today, tech blog Engadget confirmed that the BlackBerry 9780, a new version of the 9700 running the new BlackBerry 6 operating system, is on store shelves. The new phones on the market pushing the company’s new operating system don’t seem to be making much of a difference for the company. Research in Motion is trading at $46.84 a share today. That’s growth of 9% from when they hit their 52-week low of $42.53 on August 31st, but its hardly the kind of recovery investors were hoping for with the introduction of a whole line of new products.
Going into the holiday season, Research in Motion and Nokia both need to prepare to see very little change in their smartphone market fortunes. Motorola and Apple will continue to dominate while others lag behind. The only unknown quantity this Fall is Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and its Windows Phone 7. Expected to release next month, it is possible Microsoft’s new phone could take the market by storm. The company has reportedly committed $500 million to the marketing of the device.
Still, unless Microsoft finds a way to distinguish its machine from the Droid X and the iPhone 4, it’s more likely that TerreStar (NASDAQ: TSTR) and its new $800 Genus satellite phone will be the only phone running a Windows operating system that anyone is talking about this holiday.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
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