BLACKBERRY

It might seem like corporate heresy but an increasing number of technology investors and experts are asking whether Research in Motion needs to ditch its BlackBerry handset business to survive.

To understand what ails BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. in the U.S. market, just ask eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe. Recently, his company had a hundred engineers working on apps for Apple's iPhone, another hundred on apps for Google's Android, and only one or two on apps for RIM's BlackBerry.

A rally in stocks fizzled, leaving major indexes with modest gains on Friday, as Wall Street was torn between hope that U.S. economic data signals better times ahead and fear Europe's debt crisis will engulf world economies.

Several brokerage firms trimmed their price targets on Research in Motion shares and questioned the BlackBerry maker's ability to recover, after the company delayed the launch of its new line of smartphones.

Several brokerage firms trimmed their price targets on Research in Motion shares and questioned the BlackBerry maker's ability to recover, after the company further delayed the release of its new line of smartphones.

Already, several firms have downgraded RIM on the news. BMO Capital downgraded the company Friday morning to Market Perform from Outperform over concerns related to BlackBerry 7.0 sales and the delay for BlackBerry 10.0 devices. The price target was lowered to $15 from $26. And Citigroup lowered its price target to $12 from $15 Friday morning.

Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy are likely to stand out in this holiday season's smartphone sales which will otherwise be clouded by global economic uncertainty.

Research In Motion posted a 27 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday and said it would likely ship between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerry smartphones in the weeks around Christmas, the first decline in years for that historically strong period.

RIM showed a profit in the quarter, ending November 26. RIM earned an adjusted profit of $667 million, or $1.27 a share. But that figure does not include, according to Reuters, a large write down on unsold PlayBook tablets or charges associated with the company's global services outage.

Shortly after his breakup with Ashley Greene, rumors circulated from Spanish news outlets that Joe Jonas was caught kissing Mexican singer Dulce Maria. Now, sources are reporting that 22-year-old Jonas is dating Jessica Pott, a Brazilian model.

Apple will launch the iPhone 4S in Brazil on midnight Friday, even though the phone will be costly and won't yet feature a working version of Siri.

Mekeeda Austin, 13, wrote a letter to Santa asking for two items for Christmas this year: A BlackBerry smartphone and the real-life Justin Bieber. As ridiculous as these requests were, Austin went one step further; She told Santa, Remember...two of these, or you die.

With the millions of iPhones, BlackBerrys and Androids sold in the U.S., the massive demand for data use is far exceeding the supply of spectrum - the range of all possible frequencies through which signals can be transmitted.

In an IDC report on 'Top 10 system software prediction for 2012', the potential success of Windows 8 was given a poor evaluation by the global market research company.

The HP TouchPad sale is being revived - for one day only - on HP's eBay store, which will offer heavily discounted $99 tablet computers during another round of the firesale.

Research In Motion has unceremoniously dumped the BBX brand name it had chosen two months ago for its new BlackBerry operating system after a U.S. court embarrassed the beleaguered smartphone maker by slapping a temporary ban on its use.

Since launching in 2010, Apple's iPad has been the global leader in tablets. But since Amazon's first table, the all-new low-priced Kindle Fire came out in November Apple's dominance may be sagging. In a new analyst note, Shaw Wu of the brokerage firm Stern Agee sees iPad sales as a little light in the current quarter.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ:RIMM) is said to have delayed the launch of its first BlackBerry 10 OS-run London smartphone by at least 3 months.

Last week, Apple's Siri for iPhone 4S ignited a firestorm when the personal assistant failed to locate local abortion clinics. But it's not the first time a big tech company like Apple or HP has launched a much-hyped product only to see a PR disaster take it down. Here are five more tech gaffes, from HP's racist webcam to Blackberry ignoring women's voices.

Holiday shoppers may have taken a breather after busy Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. However, the traffic in big box retailers, smaller format stores and carrier stores was strong.

BlackBerry makers, Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ:RIMM), could surprise people with its QNX-based devices that may guide the Canadian company to better fortunes, according to a Wall Street analyst.