RIM's iPhone Killer Delay Won't Wreck Quarter--AmTech

There may be something to the rumors (and Fortune report) that Research in Motion's iPhone-killer "Meteor" will be delayed from June to August, AmTech's Rob Sanderson says (RIMM) Sanderson also says that this won't wreck the current quarter:

There has been speculation that RIMM has software issues on its 3G product and the launch at AT&T is delayed from June to August. This has been going around the Street for the last day and a half and was posted by a Forbes reporter yesterday afternoon. It sounds like there could be some truth to it – we can't confirm.

Our checks at AT&T have been wrong on timing of this product, originally saying May, then June and now saying not sure. This contact has been unreliable on timing in other product launches in the past so we have been discounting.

As far as model goes, we are not expecting a significant lift from new products until the Nov. quarter. We were intentionally conservative on the Aug. quarter as we were not certain on timing of new products. Consensus is $0.02 below our forecast for Aug., which means others were also appropriately conservative.

Assuming delays are true, the question is whether the launch at VOD would also be impacted. 3G is much more important for VOD than for T. I have no color here, but it was expected in Europe first. But again am not baking in an uptick from new products (besides CDMA Curve) until the Nov. quarter.

The notion that RIMM's product line-up is stale is complete garbage. The company just blew away May guidance and there is continued chatter of stock-outs. This doesn't sound like stale product to us.

Fortune said the delay has been attributed to call quality, but speculates that this is just a cover story: AT&T doesn't want to hurt the launch of the 3G iPhone.

Photo credit: Engadget (see below)

See Also: RIM's iPhone Killer Revealed: Like iPhone, But Crappier