The shares went up by $34.40, or 21 percent, to $199.99 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Research In Motion also announced about its stock split yesterday, which will be 3 to 1.

``The BlackBerry is hitting the sweet spot of the market right now, which is the consumer,'' Blaine Carroll, an analyst at FTN Midwest Research, said. He estimates Research In Motion ``buy''.

RIM Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said that the iPhone has raised awareness for many types of smart phones that offer Internet access, e-mail and other services.

“I think they did a great favor because they drove attention to the converged appliance space,' RIM Co-

Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said. 'IPhone is launching in one carrier in one country. We're in about 100 countries and have 300 carriers. To the extent that there's interest there, there is another 109 countries that are interested in these kinds of things.”

Shares of Palm, producer of the Treo device, who is the competitor of Research In Motion Ltd., decreased by 54 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $16.02. The company's earnings went down as it tried to reduce advertising and product development costs.

Palm said its earnings decreased by 43 percent to $15.4 million, or 15 cents. Sales do not change a lot and were at $401.3 million.

``Palm is just starting to establish momentum, while Research In Motion is further along, with a more broadly developed product portfolio,'' James Faucette, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said. He added that Sunnyvale, California-based Palm also has an older business selling handheld computers without phone features.

``Palm has a declining business with its handheld devices, and that's offsetting the very good business they are having in smart phones,'' said Faucette, who estimates Palm shares as ``sector perform'' and Research In Motion shares ``outperform.'' However, he does not have stocks of either company.

Apple's iPhone, which is a mix of the iPod media player and a mobile phone, will be available in the U.S. from today. This product will make competitors to introduce new designs and usage improvement, said Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst T. Michael Walkley.

``There are so many companies who have tried to come into the handset industry and failed,'' said Walkley, ``Certainly Apple, with their consumer electronics brand, is one that you could see succeeding longer term.''

Palm Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan said yesterday in an interview that the new product may reduce sales of other advanced phones.

``The significant hype around the iPhone has an opportunity to impact at least the category for a little bit,'' he said. ``It will subside pretty quickly.''

Research In Motion's sales and profit forecasts for this quarter hit analysts' estimates. That suggests it doesn't expect the iPhone to reduce its sales in the short term, said Lawrence Harris, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York. He added that in the long run, when the iPhone starts selling worldwide, Research In Motion's sales may be hit.

``The jury is still out on whether RIM is totally going to withstand the iPhone impact,'' Harris said. – Alla Harutyunyan for HULIQ.COM