Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, climbed the most in a month on the Nasdaq after forecasting sales that beat analysts’ projections, boosted by new devices such as the Bold and the Storm.

Research In Motion said yesterday that revenue in the period ending Feb. 28 will be at least $3.3 billion, topping the $3 billion average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, smaller Palm Inc. posted its sixth straight loss, hurt by competition from rival models and the economic slump.

Research In Motion and Palm are competing for customers amid the longest recession in a quarter-century, which has pushed many shoppers to put away their pocketbooks. New smart phones, which are equipped to surf the Internet and play video, will help Research In Motion surmount the slump, co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said.

“It’s very refreshing that a company, even in this environment, is showing very strong demand for its products,” said Matthew Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities LLC in Boston. “When you look at Palm, it’s a very different story.”

Research In Motion, based in Waterloo, Ontario, climbed $4.39, or 11 percent, to $42.83 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Palm rose 29 cents, or 13 percent, to $2.49. The company may introduce new software next month, which probably helped push the stock up today, Thornton said. He is neutral on Palm and positive on Research In Motion.

Facing Turmoil

Some people are holding off on replacing phones as they save money to cope with the slowdown, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. The researcher projects mobile-phone shipments will drop next year for the first time in about eight years. Americans reduced spending by 1 percent in October, the largest drop since 2001, according to the U.S. government.

“Despite the current turmoil in the economy, we believe RIM is well positioned to take advantage of the industry shift to smart phones,” Balsillie said yesterday on a conference call.

The Storm, released last month through Verizon Wireless, performed better than expected last quarter and probably will help push Research In Motion to record shipments in this one, Balsillie said.

Palm, which has struggled to attract new customers with its older Treo and Centro models, may seek to reverse the declines with the debut of some new operating software next month. The company has lost customers to Research In Motion and to Apple Inc.’s iPhone 3G, released in July.

Excluding some items, Palm’s second-quarter loss amounted to 73 cents a share, trailing analysts’ estimates. Revenue dropped by almost half, the company said yesterday.

Palm Losses

Palm’s net loss widened to $506.2 million, or $4.64 a share, from $8.85 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier, the Sunnyvale, California-based company said yesterday. About $396.7 million of the loss resulted from a change in the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, Palm said.

The company sent out invitations last week to the Jan. 8 Consumer Electronics Show, touting “all the Palm New-ness you’ve been waiting for.” Investors such as David Eiswert at Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc. expect the company to show a new operating system that runs portable devices.

“There is a reasonable likelihood that they rebound,” Thornton said of Palm. “It’s just a matter of execution, in terms of launching new products.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Thomson in New York at athomson6@bloomberg.net; Vivek Shankar in San Francisco at vshankar3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 19, 2008 16:09 EST