Wednesday October 18 3:48 PM ET
Investors Cherish All That Fits in Palm of Hand
By Ian Karleff
TORONTO (Reuters) - The appetite for shares of handheld device makers is voracious despite persistent jitters roiling the technology sector, as investors judge Palm Inc. (NasdaqNM:PALM - news), Handspring Inc., (NasdaqNM:HAND - news), and Research In Motion Ltd. (NasdaqNM:RIMM - news) immune to current woes.
Analysts said that the nascent group led the technology turnaround at midday on Wednesday because the stocks are largely unaffected by problems plaguing other tech sectors.
``Handheld computing wireless Internet stuff -- Handspring and Palm -- have done really well in this recent market downturn, because they don't have the exposure to some of things that are really scary going on in tech,'' said Rob Sanderson, analyst at Banc of America Securities.
Technology stocks continued their free fall on Wednesday, dropping more than 3 percent on North American indexes after International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM - news) reported disappointing revenue growth in its third quarter.
But shares of Research In Motion were up $4 5/8 at $119 5/8, PALM Inc. gained $3 to $57 3/16, Handspring was up $11 at $88 7/8 while Nasdaq was off 0.2 percent in mid-afternoon trading.
In contrast to Nasdaq's 24 percent decline since September 1, Handspring has gained 160 percent, RIM is up 54 percent and Palm is up 31 percent, albeit one-third its year high.
Sanderson said flagging personal computer and telecom equipment demand, fears of a cyclical slowdown for semiconductor stocks and ``dot.com's falling off the map'' bear little consequence on the wireless device sector's fortunes.
Investors' are excited about RIM's potential in the consumer market with partners including America Online (NYSE:AOL - news), and Motient (NasdaqNM:MTNT - news) combined with their upcoming launch on BT Cellnet's next generation European network, said Sanderson.
European auctions for third-generation mobile networks offering bandwidth intensive data capabilities are nearing an end, and soon these auction winners will be deploying data rich networks that require complementary devices.
Instant messaging is proving to be very popular and analysts said that the logical extension of this technology is for it to extend beyond the desktop onto wireless devices.
Also, RIM is expected to add voice capabilities to its popular two-way Internet enabled pagers ahead of its competitors, so it sits on the forefront of data and voice convergence, Sanderson added.
``Right now we are seeing a shift from the old computing paradigm that stopped at the personal computer toward handheld devices. That's the new growth area and clearly Handspring, RIM, and PALM are sitting in the sweat spot of that,'' said Bill Crawford at Merrill Lynch.
Handspring reported a ``stellar'' first quarter on Tuesday that showed a 37 percent revenue gain over the previous quarter, and this positive sentiment has spilled into the sector, said Crawford.
Late in September RIM reported third-quarter revenue that topped analyst forecasts by no less than 17 percent, leading to estimate upgrades and setting a positive tone for the group.
``If you see a screen of red. Equipment stocks, IBM and others having big problems you say, 'where do I put my money','' Crawford added about the divergent paths of technology and handheld device makers.
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