Citigroup’s Jim Suva was similarly unimpressed. “Our checks in several locations across the U.S. revealed no customers lines upon store door openings and no product stock outs,” he told clients today. “While many may say the Torch launch should not be compared to an iPhone launch, we remind investors that the BlackBerry Storm launch (November 2008) indeed had lines outside of many stores and many stores sold out on day 1.”

‘Course the Storm also arrived at market a week before Black Friday and the ramp-up to the annual holiday consumer binge, so folks were in more of a buying mood. And their appetite for RIM (RIMM) smartphones hadn’t yet been ruined by the Storm, which would be branded a clunky, bug-ridden disaster a few months later.

So I’m not sure it’s all that surprising that there aren’t lines around the block for the Torch, nor am I sure that it even matters. As I noted earlier, RIM’s bailiwick is enterprise, and enterprise isn’t one for camping out on sidewalks.

Seems news of the RIM’s (RIMM) lower phone shipments has compounded fears that it is losing ground to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and the conga line of new Android handsets that have debuted recently.

Simona Jankowski of Goldman Sachs (GS) took a particularly dim view of Research in Motion’s performance, suggesting that there may be grave reasons for the decline in phone shipments RIM suffered during the quarter (the company shipped 10.5 million devices; analysts were looking for 11 million).

“Evidence [suggests] that the structural competitive issues are starting to weigh on its growth prospects,” Jankowski wrote. “We estimate that RIM’s U.S. business declined 15% [quarter-over-quarter]–the second q-o-q decline in a row, and the first [year-over-year] decline.”

Jankowski questions the official Research in Motion explanation. “While RIM attributed that to an inventory reduction at a North America customer, we think the magnitude of the decline points more to lower demand at Verizon as a result of its endorsement of Android; our checks showed a dramatic reduction in the number of RIM [phones] at Verizon last quarter and better sales for Motorola’s DROID than for RIM at many Verizon stores.”

The implication here is that RIM’s BlackBerry devices are losing their appeal as the market becomes more enamored of super-smartphones. While RIM may hold the lead in email-based smartphones, it’s not worth much as the market’s focus shifts to smartphones with vast application ecosystems.

As Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder observed in a note to clients this morning, “Weak offerings in [touchscreen phones] and 3G leave [RIM] heavily exposed to a slew of new smartphones now hitting the market. While it will certainly maintain its lead in email-based smartphones, we see little chance it can sustain its market share, pricing or margins long-term.”

In other words, RIM needs a new phone–a competitive phone. Desperately. Thankfully, company co-CEO Jim Balsillie says one is on the way. “I can’t talk about what’s not announced,” he said on an earnings call with analysts Wednesday. “If you saw the road map, you’d be blown away.”

I certainly hope so. Because without a worthy rival to the iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, et al, things will only grow worse, particularly if that CDMA iPhone rumored to be on its way to Verizon materializes. Said Citigroup (C) analyst Jim Suva: “We simply don’t want to be owners of RIM shares when Verizon gets the iPhone.”

Indeed, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie estimates Verizon (VZ) sold about 100,000 Droids in its first weekend. McKechnie believes the carrier had about 200,000 units on-hand at launch, and most stores he surveyed had sold at least half of their stock over the weekend.

That’s not nearly the one million iPhones Apple (AAPL) sold during the first weekend of its latest model debut, but it’s impressive nonetheless. Certainly, Motorola (MOT) hasn’t moved that many handsets in so short a period in a very long time–if ever.

“I see the first few days as encouraging,” McKechnie told Bloomberg. “There seems to be pretty good demand–they’ve taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google on the Android side.”

Citigroup (C) analyst Jim Suva agreed, noting that Droid doesn’t require iPhone-like sales to be successful. Said Suva: “Although the press is stating the Droid launch was not as successful as the iPhone launch, we don’t believe investors expected an iPhone-like launch, but rather a first step in a cadence of products that will help bring Motorola’s handsets out of the death spiral experienced during the past three years.”

Then there was this from RBC’s Mark Sue, who declared that anyone expecting a launch reminiscent of the iPhone’s was expecting too much: “Motorola’s Droid landed at Verizon and while the new device is not the be all and end all for Motorola it’s an important beginning for a company that sorely missed out of a growing market,” he wrote. “There were no around-the-block lines of consumers waiting to get their hands on a Motorola Droid, yet investors shouldn’t expect them either. We’re looking for a steady ramp instead towards our estimate of approximately 1M units in 4Q09.”

Shares in the handset maker fell some 23 percent last week amid concerns about increased competition from Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, which is being rolled out on a number of devices at a variety of carriers, including Palm partner Sprint (S).

This morning, analysts at Citigroup (C) cut their recommendations to sell from hold on Palm (PALM) while simultaneously raising their rating on Motorola (MOT) because of its “compelling” new Android handset, Droid.

“Motorola is launching of one of the most compelling offerings at [a] time when many investors have given up on the company’s handsets,” Citigroup analyst Jim Suva wrote in a research note.

“The revolution of product and application service offerings,” Suva added, “is going to start to crack open the enterprise door and could pose a risk for BlackBerry. Major shifts in promotion support creating a promotion commotion in the months ahead favor Motorola and post a challenge for RIMM and PALM.”

Over at CL King, analyst Lawrence Harris is similarly dubious of Palm’s prospects in the months ahead. Noting that Sprint executive David Owens said last week that the carrier plans to peddle a number of new Android devices from HTC next year, Harris sees unfavorable implications for Palm.

“Historically, Sprint has been Palm’s largest customer. Indeed, in the August quarter Sprint accounted for 85 percent of Palm’s revenues,” Harris wrote in a note to investors. “In FY09 (May) Sprint represented 43 percent of total Palm sales. Sprint has a U.S. exclusive on both the Pre and the Pixi through calendar year end. The Pixi will be launched at Sprint on November 15 for $99.99. The Pixi is fairly similar to the $149.99 Pre. Verizon has stated that it will begin offering the Pre in early CY10.”

Expounding on his analysis, Harris notes that “According to a report on Mobile Today, a U.K.-based publication, initial sales of the Pre through Telefonica’s O2 unit in the U.K. have been slow. If this report is correct, than the bulk of Palm’s sales over the next few months will probably continue to be generated through Sprint.”

That Sprint will soon add some slick new Android handsets to its lineup is worrisome, then, indeed. For Palm, it seems, driving conditions on the road to recovery are looking increasingly hazardous.

Writes Suva, “Investors are unsure if Bold will hit AT&T (T) and if Storm will be at Verizon [Communications' Verizon Wireless] (VZ) in time/scale for the holidays.”

Suva provides a handy graphic, a flowchart or decision tree, with possible outcomes. There’s a 25 percent chance RIM’s new products do not reach stores for the holidays, in which case, the stock goes to $45. More likely is that the products do make it in time, consumer uptake is strong, and profit margins improve as a result.

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Interesting to hear that the Bold shares the iPhone’s erratic 3G connection because the device doesn’t share the same Infineon Technologies (IFX) chip believed to be the source of the iPhone’s troubles. Which means the only real point of commonality between the two phones is AT&T’s 3G network, which may still be a bit too immature for either of them.

Suva has recently made known his belief that the Bold will be an important factor for RIM in the second half of 2008.

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