RIM Sends Nasdaq Up: Weekly Tech Recap

Earnings beats from RIM and Oracle sent the Nasdaq to a 3-year high this week. Here's a roundup of <I>TheStreet's</I> top tech stories.
By Scott Moritz ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Tech showed some hustle this week, led by a pair of big earnings beats.

Research In Motion

(RIMM)

capped off the week by

thumbing its nose

at smartphone rivals

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

and

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

Android Thursday. The BlackBerry maker beat and raised financial targets at a time when Wall Street was expecting to see

signs of its demise

.

On the same night, Oracle served up its own

hearty earnings beat

, turning in an adjusted profit of 51 cents when analysts were looking for 46 cents a share.

The powerful performances helped send the

Nasdaq to a new three-year high

of 2,651.35 Friday.

RIM, which closed up almost a dollar at $60.20 Friday, continued to rally 20 cents in after-hours trading. Oracle shares rose $1.19 to close at $31.46.

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In mobile phone news, Google and

Best Buy

(BBY) - Get Report

started selling the

Samsung

Nexus S

Thursday. The phone features the latest version of Android called Gingerbread, along with a forward-facing camera and near-field communications technology to help Google push further into the mobile payment and local search game.

Nokia

(NOK) - Get Report

, on the other hand, delayed yet another flagship phone launch. As a fitting follow-up to the N8 -- the sweet superphone that

rhymes with late

-- Nokia

put off the introduction of its E7 phone

from later this year to early next.

And regarding

Apple, analysts scrambled

to plug the

Verizon iPhone

into their 2011 Apple estimates. The addition of

Verizon

(VZ) - Get Report

as a seller of the iconic iPhone could boost total iPhone sales by 10 million next year, according to a small consensus of analysts.

Not to be left out of the mobile fun,

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

was reported to be preparing a pair of tablet devices to unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas. Samsung and

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

have produced some demo models for the event, according to the reports. This makes it two years in a row in which tech watchers have had to wade through preshow hype around Microsoft tablets.

Microsoft killed its Courier slate-style touch screen device earlier this year.

Google reportedly turned its attention

away from collecting coupons

and

set its sights on video

. Its Web-video unit YouTube may be interested in adding video creation shop

Next New Networks

to the fold, according to a report by

The New York Times

.

The move, if it pans out, would bring in the production house that created YouTube's most popular videos of the year:

Auto-Tune the News'

The Bed Intruder

and

Glitter Puke

, a parody of slop-pop singer Ke$ha. It would also add production to what has strictly been YouTube's hosting service.

Google shares closed down 91 cents Friday to $590.80.

Video game publisher

Take-Two Interactive

(TTWO) - Get Report

rallied more than 8% Friday after reporting stellar fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Take-Two, known for franchises like

Red Dead Redemption

and

NBA 2K11

, reported earnings per share of 67 cents on sales of $373.7 million, way up from the expected 31 cents on sales of $325.23 million.

The company's shares closed up 8.29%, or a dollar, to close at $12.93 Friday.

Tech's Week Ahead

The tech front looks quiet in the weeks before the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs from Jan. 6 through Jan. 9 in Las Vegas. To fill the void,

TheStreet

will continue to run 2011 sector

outlook pieces

, with a look at next year's top tech trends hitting the site Tuesday.

--Written by Scott Moritz in New York.>To contact this writer, click here: Scott Moritz, or email: scott.moritz@thestreet.com.To follow Scott on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/MoritzDispatch.>To send a tip, email: tips@thestreet.com.

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