Couple of cautious calls out there on Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM):

- Citigroup saying they expect RIMM shares to face trickier waters over the next few weeks. The much-anticipated Palm Pre launches with Sprint are on Saturday June 6 while Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (Monday June 8) is widely expected to include a new iteration of the iPhone. Both of these events may be akin to shooting the rapids for RIMM shareholders. But rapids are inevitably followed by clear water & they expect RIMM to successfully clear the Pre & Apple WWDC events & follow up with what they believe will be better than expected May quarter results & solid August quarter guidance.

Maintains Buy and $100 tgt on the stock.

- Kaufman notes that recently, Verizon Wireless commented at an industry conference that it will likely carry new smart phones from Palm and the Android platform in upcoming quarters. In addition, Sprint commented having exclusivity of the Palm Pre until the end of 2009.

View As Modest Negative for Research in Motion But Definitely Something To Monitor.
Overall, the firm views this as a modest negative for RIM and potentially could become a bigger issue as alternative platforms gain more traction in the marketplace. They had anticipated Verizon to bring in new smart phone vendors over time but the timing is ahead of what they and they believe consensus had thought.

BlackBerries Are Top Sellers at Verizon with Limited Competition.
From their industry and supply chain checks, the top-selling smart phones at Verizon are by far from RIM, namely the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Curve meaning RIM has had Verizon pretty much to itself with limited competition. In addition, the firm believes other vendors who are at Verizon or are aspiring including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC, etc. could see some pressure as well. Ultimately, they believe RIM's biggest risk is the day Apple's iPhones join Verizon's line-up of smart phones.

Maintains Hold.

Notablecalls: So we have two firms out hinting for some s-t downside in the stock. Will it work? It could but we need the market to play ball. Will it?

Not making a call here but I thought you ought to know.