NY Times reports the first sign of trouble with the new phone was the concept: a touch-screen BlackBerry. That's right — in its zeal to cash in on some of that iPhone touch-screen mania, RIMM has created a BlackBerry without a physical keyboard. Hello? Isn't the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside. R.I.M. hoped to soften the blow by endowing its touch screen with something extra: clickiness. The entire screen acts like a mouse button. Press hard enough, and it actually responds with a little plastic click. As a result, the Storm offers two degrees of touchiness. You can tap the screen lightly, or you can press firmly to register the palpable click. It's not a bad idea. In fact, it ought to make the on-screen keyboard feel more like actual keys. In principle, you could design a brilliant operating system where the two kinds of taps do two different things. Tap lightly to type a letter — click fully to get a pop-up menu of accented character. Tap lightly to open something, click fully to open a shortcut menu of options. And so on. Unfortunately, RIMM's execution is inconsistent and confusing.

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DigiTimes reports in light of prices of polycrystalline silicon solar cells having dropped from $2.8-3.0/watt in early November 2008 to $2.6-2.7/watt currently, and with further drops expected, some Taiwan-based makers of solar cells plan to ask their contract suppliers of solar-grade poly-Si wafers to lower contract prices to about $7.5 per 6-inch wafer, according to industry sources in Taiwan. Spot market prices of a solar-grade 6-inch poly-Si wafer have fallen to $7-8 and are expected to drop further because demand for solar cell modules has appeared to weaken, the sources indicated. Consequently, some Taiwan-based makers of solar cells plan to collectively urge respective contract suppliers of such wafers to downwardly adjust contract prices, the sources pointed out. However, it is difficult on a practical level for solar cell makers to collectively bargain with contract suppliers of wafers for price cuts because supply contracts vary more or less based on conditions such as minimum volumes, supply terms and contract prices, the sources pointed out. In addition, contract prices of solar-grade poly-Si material have not changed and thus producers of wafers are expected to be unwilling to cut their product prices, the sources explained.

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Co issues upside guidance for Q4 (Oct), sees EPS of $1.03, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.00 First Call consensus; sees Q4 (Oct) revs of $33.6 bln vs. $33.09 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q1 (Jan), sees EPS of $0.93-0.95, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.93 consensus; sees Q1 (Jan) revs of $32-32.5 bln vs. $33.72 bln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for FY09 (Oct), sees EPS of $3.88-4.03, ex items, vs. $3.85 consensus; sees FY09 (Oct) revs of $127.5-130 bln vs. $135.06 bln consensus. In providing its outlook for the first fiscal quarter and the full fiscal year 2009, the company has taken into consideration the current economic environment and the relative strength of the U.S. dollar. Based on current currency exchange rates, the company now expects an unfavorable year-over-year currency impact on revenue of approximately 5 percentage points in the first quarter and roughly 6 - 7 percentage points for the full year and this impact is reflected in its outlook.

WSJ reports the co's decision to embark on an $8.4 billion home-loan-modification program to settle charges brought by state attorneys general against Countrywide Financial Corp. was hailed as a milestone when the deal was announced this fall. But apparently nobody talked to one group that will shoulder much of the settlement's costs: investors who hold securities backed by Countrywide mortgages. Now, some of those investors are crying foul... Bank of America said it owns about 12% of the roughly 400,000 loans at issue in the settlement and can modify another 75% based on the "delegated authority" provided in its contracts with investors. Bank of America didn't seek investor approval before agreeing to the settlement "because the design of the program was based in large part on the delegated authority" in the contracts. But some investors believe they should have been contacted first. "Our view is that Countrywide Financial made this determination without consulting with a representative group of investors," said Ralph Daloisio, managing director at Natixis, which owns securities backed by Countrywide loans. He agreed, though, that if done right, loan modifications can benefit investors. Other investors said Bank of America is moving much of the cost of the settlement to investors when it should be paying those costs itself. These investors said that they don't oppose modifying loans when it will increase investor returns while keeping borrowers in their homes. But they said that many of these loans violated representations and warranties made when the mortgages were packaged into securities. As a result, they said, Bank of America should repurchase the loans before modifying them.

Freidman Billings Ramsey notes AXP's released Oct trust credit statistics yesterday. The increase in delinquencies accelerated, up 35 bps MoM and 167 bps YoY, to 4.4%, which is the highest rate since inception of the data. FBR believes that a challenging macro environment will lead to higher-than-expected credit costs over the next 9-15 month period adversely impacting earnings, while AXP remains highly dependent on the capital markets for funding relative to peers. Firm does not believe AXP will be able to grow deposits to a significant enough level that meaningfully reduces its dependence on the capital markets-related fundings, even after becoming a BHC.