RIM, Apple: Tech Winners & Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Research In Motion (RIMM) were surging Thursday ahead of the BlackBerry maker's quarterly report.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for a loss of 46 cents per share in the company's fiscal first quarter ended in August on $2.5 billion in revenue.

In research published ahead of the report, BGC analyst Colin Gillis wrote that it was "encouraging to see the company recently highlight that the active customer base continues to grow with 80M subscribers, compared to 78M in the prior quarter."

He also noted that while this is better than a smaller base, the company has a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to average selling price. Gillis has a sell rating on the stock with a $7 price target.

---

Apple (AAPL) shares were erasing some recent losses in Thursday's session.

On Wednesday, Apple cleared one of the hurdles to sell its iPhone 5 in China. "The huge opportunity that China presents can be gauged by the fact that the country has already overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest smartphone market by volume. This is an incredible statistic considering that China is only in the early stages of smartphone adoption. 3G penetration in China stands at only about 18% currently and is growing strongly," wrote research firm Trefis in an analyst note.

The stock were adding nearly 2% at $677.74 in midday action after posting declines in the past three sessions since hitting an all-time intraday high of $705.07 on Monday.

Interested in more on Apple? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

>Contact by Email.

Follow @Commodity_Bull