The Magic Of The 7100i

Canadian high-tech star Research in Motion Inc. continues to defy the downward trend on North American stock markets as sales of its 7100i blackberry software wireless pager and palm-sized computers continue to soar.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based company saw its share price jump $8.75, or 5.25 per cent, yesterday after it announced a $20 million (U.S.) deal to sell 50,000 units to the United States' largest wireless data network operator, Motient Corp.

It was one of the few bright spots in a day that saw the TSE lose 360.47 points, or 3.44 per cent of its value, to close at 10,132.56. The tech heavy Nasdaq fell 76.32 points, or 2.32 per cent, to close at 3,213.96, near its 52 week low.

The new 7100i blackberry software, which is a cross between a pager and a personal digital assistant, allows mobile employees to send and receive e-mail wirelessly as well as interact with their desktop computers.

"RIM seems to have weathered the recent storm (in the financial markets) quite nicely," said Mark Quigley, an analyst with the The Yankee Group in Canada. "That's aided by the fact they've had several blockbuster quarters and deals like this hammer home the fact they're exceeding market expectations for a reason." The latest deal includes the first-ever sale of RIM's new 857-series palm- sized wireless devices, opening up a potentially vast new market for the four- year-old firm, analysts noted.

A salesperson on the road could use the device from a car to access everything from product information to internal company memos as well as their contacts list and appointments calendar, for example.

The RIM 857 is roughly the size of a Palm Pilot, which is considered its closest competitor, although the Palm Pilot has less sophisticated wireless communications features. The deal with Motient is for 25,000 RIM 857s and 25,000 RIM 850s, a smaller pager-sized device with similar capabilities.

An earlier version of the palm-sized device was already on the market.

However, the RIM 957 ran only on wireless data networks that operate in the 900 megahertz range, including Rogers AT&T Inc. in Canada and Bell South in the United States.

The latest announcement comes a day after Motient said it had signed an agreement with Yahoo Inc., a leading Internet portal operator, to add Yahoo mail, instant messaging and other content to its network.

Blackberry Software