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RIM losing developers for its Blackberry phones

Seesmic Inc., which develops social media applications and has produced apps for Miami Dolphins and Taylor Swift fans has stopped making products for RIM, and thus the Blackberry smartphone. Also defecting RIM is Purple Forge Corp., the company that produces apps for political campaigns and polling - a surprising move considering the U.S. is approaching a U.S. Presidential election that's quickly getting into full swing which promises to focus on social media and mobile personal communication technology. operating systems."

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM (NASDAQgs: RIMM) saw its global share of smartphones fall to just 12.9 in the first quarter of this year versus sales that gave the company a 19.7 share in the same quarter one year previous. Consumers have opted for Apple's iPhone, as the company experienced robust sales in the past year with its iPhone 4 which was added for the first time at Verizon. Since the iPhone had been exclusive with AT&T previously, many Verizon customers stayed with Blackberry phones until Verizon got a version of the iPhone to sell. Then, defections from RIM came fast.

RIM Losing Marketshare to Apple, Google

Similarly, in the first three months of 2011 Google's Android OS smartphone system gained 7 points of marketshare in the U.S. In the same period RIM's marketshare dropped by 5 points. Despite still holding onto more than 25 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, the growth trend for Apple and Google versus RIM's shrinkage factor is leading developers to stop making products for the company.

Developers also say the Blackberry is difficult to make products for because RIM devices come in different shapes and sizes and navigation is more difficult, using different devices, making product a development a difficult task.

"As soon as RIM brought in a touchscreen and mixed it with a thumbwheel, a keyboard and shortcut keys, it made it really difficult and expensive to develop across devices," said Purple Force CEO Brian Hurley, in an interview with Bloomberg. "What Apple scored big on is having a touch screen and a button and that's it."

Just last week RIM slashed forecasts for the current fiscal quarter after a dismal second quarter. The announcement punished the company's Canadian and U.S. stock shares, sending them down as much as 15 percent. RIM is trying to quickly and develop new Blackberry products to compete with Apple's iPhone and Google's powerful Android system, which controls more than 30 percent of the U.S. market and growing, fast, but the company said the products may not reach the marketplace until late August of this year.

Bank of America in $8.5B mortgage settlement (AP) | VidzNet | News ...

NEW YORK – Bank of America and its Countrywide unit will pay $8.5 billion to settle claims that the lenders sold poor-quality mortgage-backed securities that went sour when the housing market collapsed.

The deal, announced Wednesday, comes after a group of 22 investors demanded that the Charlotte, N.C. bank repurchase $47 billion in mortgages that its Countrywide unit sold to them in the form of bonds.

The group, which includes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Pimco Investment Management, and Blackrock Financial Management, argued that Countrywide enriched itself at the expense of investors by continuing to service bad loans while running up servicing fees.

Bank of America, which bought Countrywide in 2008 for $4 billion, has denied those claims.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said Wednesday that the settlement would minimize “future economic uncertainty” in the banking business and “clean up the mortgage issues largely stemming from our purchase of Countrywide.”

For several months, Bank of America battled claims based on estimates “that were much different from ours,” Moynihan said. But at this point, it made more sense to settle than to keep fighting, he said.

“We have said consistently if people are reasonable and can get to a reasonable assessment of their claims and it’s in the best interest of shareholders, we will settle,” Moynihan told Wall Street analysts in a conference call.

The settlement is subject to court approval and covers 530 trusts with original principal balance of $424 billion.

Citi analyst Keith Horowitz said the settlement, which amounts to only 2 percent of the original principal balance, removes one of the largest investor risks for Bank of America.

“We think this could prove to be a step forward” for Bank of America, Horowitz said. It would show investors that the bank can manage through crisis without raising additional capital.

As a result of the settlement, Bank of America put its second-quarter loss at $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion. Excluding the settlement and other charges, the bank expects to post a quarterly loss of $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion.

Shares of Bank of America Corp. jumped more than 4 percent, or 48 cents to $11.30 before the market opened, with investors happy that the bank can put very big uncertainty behind it.

Investors may now be more confident that they can get similar concessions from other major U.S. banks that created markets for mortgage-backed securities with questionable pedigrees.

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