Shares of Research In Motion rose sharply on Wednesday, taking their biggest one-day jump in seven months.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based company's stock closed up 24 cents, or 3.3 per cent, at $7.56 on heavy volume of 4.5 million shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Earlier, the stock traded as high as $8.22. Two months ago, it was at nine-year lows.

There was no news, but the rise came a day after an analyst at Jefferies & Co., Peter Misek, suggested that the firm was close to wrapping up its review of its strategic options.

RIM has hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help it evaluate strategies, including possibilities of partnering with other companies and licensing software.

Misek speculated that RIM would likely license its new operating system for the BlackBerry 10 to another company, and speculated that discussions were underway with Samsung Electronics.

“It now appears that RIM is realizing what Wall Street has been saying for some time: they are a subscale manufacturer and desperately need a partner,” Misek said.

He predicted RIM would make some comment on that when it reports second-quarter results on Sept. 27.

Android extends dominance

Samsung said in January it wasn't interested in buying RIM. RIM's software has fallen behind flashier phones like the iPhone and phones running Android.

However, RIM says its much-delayed new BlackBerry 10 software will be thoroughly redesigned for the new multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers are now demanding.

The rise in RIM shares came as research firm IDC released a report saying Google's Android operating system has extended its dominance in the smartphone market largely because of the success of Samsung's line of phones that run the software.

IDC says Samsung Electronics Co. and other phone makers shipped nearly 105 million Android smartphones in the second quarter.

Android had 68 per cent of the worldwide market, up from 47 per cent a year earlier.

The gains come largely at the expense of Research in Motion Ltd. and Symbian phones used mostly by Nokia Corp.

Each saw its market share drop below five per cent.

The market share for Apple Inc.'s iPhone fell slightly to 17 per cent, but the company shipped more units than a year ago. Apple is the second biggest smartphone maker, behind Samsung.

With files from The Associated Press