Fears BlackBerry 10 could be too little too late for RIM

When BlackBerry announced its new phones this week, it spent a good part of the presentation touting the app selection it'll have at launch.  It needed to.

The largest investor in RIM is sticking with the company despite the founder's exit

The corporate reboot at Research in Motion Ltd. marks its first anniversary today. The tech giant’s beleaguered stock price has been on an absolute tear of late — up 14% since last week to burst the $18 range and a whopping 170% appreciation from its 52-week low of $6.10 last September. Meanwhile, the much-anticipated and often-delayed BlackBerry10 operating system is finally set to be unveiled on Jan. 30 — a hard deadline that had eluded the troubled company for two years.

TORONTO — No abnormally high return rates have been seen for the new Z10 touchscreen device that underpins BlackBerry’s attempt to reinvent itself, and demand appears to be positive in Asia, Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek said in a report on Tuesday. BlackBerry has already said it will ask regulators to investigate a report from Boston-based Detwiler Fenton of high return rates for the new device, which is the first BlackBerry to use the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, will sell Research In Motion Ltd.’s new BlackBerry 10 in Canada and possibly the U.S., giving the smartphone maker another ally in its comeback effort. Wal-Mart’s Canadian unit is taking pre-orders from customers for the phone, which Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM will debut on Jan. 30, said Alex Roberton, a Wal-Mart Canada spokesman, following a meeting at Bloomberg’s Toronto office. Wal-Mart is still confirming its plans for BlackBerry 10 in the U.S., spokeswoman Sarah Spencer said, declining to comment further.

Whether intentional or not, RIM isn't doing a great job at keeping its new BlackBerry phone a secret.  Over the last few weeks, there have been several leaks of the BlackBerry Z10, the first device that'll run RIM's new BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system.

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Blackberry smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM) announced Thursday it would buy back 1.2 billion US dollars worth of its stock to prop up the sagging share price amid heightened competition.The buyback of some 21 million common shares or about 3.6 percent of its currently outstanding shares would commence on November 9 and continue over the next 12 months.RIM shares have plummeted more than 30 percent since late September, after management reported disappointing quarterly results.