The USA makes up for recent ground lost. The US Department of Justice has stepped up its campaign against Huawei in a move that I think aims to dissuade other countries from doing business with an alleged criminal enterprise. I think that this all relates to the long-running trade dispute and technology rivalry between the USA and China where Huawei...
Me too products sink the ship. Andy Rubin’s Essential Products Inc has gone from a $1.2bn start-up to ignominious closure simply because it catastrophically failed to live up to its name. This has been coming for a long time as the company has hardly made any noise for months and has now announced its closure (see here) where most of...
Samsung gives 5G a major boost. Samsung has launched its annual flagships for 2020 and the fact that all of them will support 5G at close to the same price as last year’s version, means that 5G penetration of the user base will be much better than I have been expecting. Samsung also greatly toned down the commentary about its...
Robotaxis are autonomous driving v0.5. Since the revelation that autonomous driving was not going to live up to the hype, the focus has moved to robotaxis but these too, face plenty of issues. Fiat Chrysler and AutoX are the latest in a long line of companies that have announced that they will be launching a robotaxi offering but like everyone...
Falling investments give OEMs more space. Since the deflation of the autonomous hype balloon, investments in automotive technology have fallen which will slow the pace of innovation giving the badly struggling OEMs some breathing space. Data from Pitchbook (see here) indicates that in 2019 756 deals raised a total of $33.5bn down significantly from $58.7bn from 886 deals in 2018....
Rides doesn’t really make any money. Uber reported reasonable results compared to expectations but losses have remained heavy which I think will continue to weigh on sentiment despite the promise of a break-even this year. Q4 19 revenues / EPS was $4.07bn / LOSS$0.64 slightly ahead of forecasts of $4.06bn / LOSS$0.68 while bookings were slightly ahead at $18.13bn and...
Qualcomm FQ1 20 – 5G story. Qualcomm reported good results as the roll-out of 5G is gathering pace but the uncertainty in China is likely to impact Qualcomm more than most. FQ1 20 revenues / EPS were $5.08bn / $0.80 compared to forecasts of $4.83bn / $0.55 but like Apple, it has been forced to widen its guidance range at...
Disney is out of the blocks in first position. Disney has handsomely beaten expectations for its Disney+ service but at the same, the costs of fighting this war immediately become clear when one looks at the bottom line. At its Q4 19 results, Disney announced that it had 26.5m subscribers at the end of the quarter which has already grown...
Google is not going to become Apple. Google reported good Q4 19 results, but its greater disclosure unwittingly revealed that hardware has again let the side down and I fear that there is worse to come. Q4 19 revenue / EPS were $46.08bn / $15.35 below revenue estimates of $46.87bn but well above EPS a $12.52. However, revenue is...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Apple 5G – Antenna issues
mmWave antenna design is still a big issue. As I have long suspected, one of the most challenging issues for 5G is the design of the mmWave antenna which has very little margin for error and has to deal with the most challenging radio propagation conditions yet seen in mobile telephony. Currently, Qualcomm is the only game in town for...