Research In Motion

You know things are going from bad to worse for BlackBerry farmer Research In Motion when some of the stodgiest companies on the planet start trading in their BlackBerry smartphones for shiny new iPhones. The most recent defector from RIM: Halliburton, the fuddy-duddy oil-field services giant that critics associate with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, Dick Cheney, and no-bid contracts in Iraq.

BlackBerry maker RIM's maligned co-CEOS Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are stepping down, and co-COO Thorsten Heins is taking the reins solo. And while the markets aren't sure about Heins yet, he has one thing going for him his predecessors didn't.

A host of new products launched this year. So were big successes -- like the iPhone 4S and the Boeing Dreamliner 787. Other new offerings crashed and burned spectacularly. Here's 24/7 Wall St.'s look at the biggest duds of 2011.

It is unusual for a stock's price to double in a year, but several well-known companies' shares have done it recently. The more important question for investors is: Which stock could be next? 24/7 Wall St. offer their list of S&P 500 companies whose stocks could double in 2012.

It has been a horrible year for Research In Motion, and things may not be getting any better for the BlackBerry maker come 2012. Despite all of the buyout speculation, RIM's stock has been a disaster. In fact, it's a foregone conclusion that RIM is toast.

Major tech companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia have been eyeing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, according to recent reports. True, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions based on the words of "unnamed sources." But all of the attention RIM's getting does make sense.

Apple will never tell you what I'm about to tell you: The iconic iPad tablet will be cheaper next year. We're now just a couple of months away from the likely release of the iPad 3. The original iPad hit the market at price points between $499 and $829. The iPad 2 hit the market at the exact same price. Why should the third time be the charm? Because right now it's raining tablets.