Motorola, Nokia, Palm, RIM Suffering iPhone Headache

That nice round number Apple (AAPL) announced this morning - 1 million iPhone 3G units sold in the first three days - has obviously given pause to shareholders in other handset stocks. Shares of Motorola (MOT), Palm (PALM), Nokia (NOK) and Research In Motion (RIMM) are all lower today, while Apple shares are now modestly higher after taking a bigger jump in early trading. Clearly, some or all of those companies are going to lose market share as Apple (AAPL)  takes an increasingly large slice of the market.

Palm countered Apple’s big debut Friday by cutting the price of the Centro through AT&T (T) to $69.99 from $99. That seems like weird timing all the way around; it seems doubtful, somehow, that all the people who tried but failed to buy an iPhone through an AT&T stores over the last few days decided instead to buy the now-cheaper Centro instead.

Meanwhile, the Street seems increasing concerned that the overall market for handsets is showing signs of slowing; note the cautious commentary this morning on Anadigics and RF Micro Devices.

While Apple bulls may have been expecting a larger rally in the shares, it still seems pretty clear that the balance of power in the handset business has shifted - which is good news for Apple, and not so good for its rivals.

In today’s trading:

• Palm is down 18 cents, or 3.25%, to $5.35.
• RIMM is down $1.12, or 1.02%, to $108.67.
• Nokia is down 85 cents, or 3.27%, to $25.16.
• MOT is down 16 cents, or 2.29%, to $6.83.
• Apple is up $2.02, or 1.17%, to $174.68.

Comments

[anastos]

I think saying the iPhone is taking business away from these other phone makers is a bit much. The iPhone is never going to unseat Blackberry as the goto business road warrior phone. The iPhone is also never going to be free and reach the kind of mass market Nokia and Motorola phones will. It's a nice toy that some people want and can afford but implying these companies are tembling because of this is absurd.

[anastos]

PS: Palm phones suck.

[Jerlad]

I own both Apple and Nokia. I plan on moving more to Nokia because:
1. I've waited long enough for Apple's big iPhone 2.0 rally that never happened.
2. Nokia does not hinge on a sickly looking charismatic leader who may not be around much longer.

[Hayweed]

Rimm's big growth was with their consumer phones. They pushed hard into this space as Apple entered the phone business. With the iPhone at $600 then $400 Rimm was cheaper consumer choice at $200. Now with the iPhone at $199 the consumer will move toward Apple and Rimm's growth will slow. If Rimm's growth slows the stock will tank a lot. Can't have a 40 pe with growth slowing.