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Mr. Papageorgiou also liked the phone’s social feeds app, which consolidates access to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other buzzy social media hotspots.

However, he acknowledged that there is a “lack of a showcase feature or stellar hardware” which may create headwinds for the Torch.

“We fear pundits will not appreciate the productivity enhancements made in this OS and will instead focus on the device’s technological shortcomings,” he said.”Although the Torch’s lacklustre hardware specification will likely prove to be problematic in gaining the blogging community’s support, we believe AT&T’s strong promotion … and RIM’s dedication to improving app development will drive strong device sales.”

Of course, whether this phone is any good and whether it is good enough to combat the iPhone are two separate questions.

It looks like RIM has that covered as well, with AT&T exclusively offering the phone at the moment and about to roll out an extensive promotional campaign.

“The Torch will be positioned as its flagship messaging devices, whereas the iPhone is positioned as a media consumption device given its integration with iTunes,” he said. “When asked about iPhone adoption amongst enterprise, AT&T commented how large enterprises were not adopting the iPhone due to the lack of native device management and because of the significant installed base of BlackBerry Enterprise Server. We believe RIM has a strong defensible position in the enterprise space and will make inroads to the consumer segment with its new media-focused platform.”

Mr. Papageorgiou recommends investors buy into RIM before it takes off, arguing the stock is trading at an undervalued 8.2x price/earnings ratio. He rates RIM a Sector Outperform with a price target of $117.

Eric Lam