Another unthinkable event to add to 2020’s long list. For nearly 20 years I have strongly believed that Arm could not be acquired by another semiconductor company as Arm’s acceptance as an industry-standard has hinged on its independence which will now be at greater risk than it was as a public company or part of SoftBank. The open-source alternative (RISC-V)...
ByteDance is playing a dangerous game TikTok’s deal with Oracle may not satisfy the concerns of the US administration meaning that the service ends up being blocked presenting an open goal to both Snap and Facebook. Oracle and ByteDance have announced a “technical partnership” that does not involve a full sale but where Oracle will manage and run all of...
TikTok lobbies for an extension TikTok’s transparency briefing actually explains very little about how the algorithm works and looks to me to be an attempt to get the press to lobby the US administration for an extension to the September 15th deadline after which TikTok will be blocked. TikTok held a virtual media event on Wednesday that attempted to explain...
Slack is not as essential as its valuation implies Comparing Q2 2020 for both Zoom and Slack is a strong indicator that the recovery is not that strong at the smaller end of the market which is where the real recovery needs to happen. Slack and Zoom both derive a large proportion of their revenues from small and mid-size businesses...
Epic and Apple both shoot themselves in the foot. Both Apple and Epic have done more damage to themselves than to each other as the confrontation rolls around into the countersuit stage. Apple has countersued Epic games seeking both monetary and punitive damages for Epic’s conduct and on the bare facts of the issue, there is a case to answer....
Sync 4 is encouraging but there is much more to do. Ford Sync 4 is one of the most promising infotainment experiences I have seen from a manufacturer but despite solving some of the core user experience issues, the functionality needs to be richer and deeper to keep Google at bay. The only commonality that Sync 4 has with its...
SMIC becomes another political football. The possibility that SMIC is added to the entity list has hammered its share price and it may become another casualty in the ongoing trade dispute between the USA and China. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is partially owned by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as some of the shares are publicly listed in...
The end result should be greater transparency for users. While Apple’s position on app tracking serves to perpetuate the myth that the internet is free, the inevitable response from developers should increase visibility on how apps and services are paid for. Apple’s position on privacy is fundamentally correct but it tends to distort the economic reality of the app economy....
The opposite of that which is intended. A proposal to cut app store fees to 20% in Russia but also force developers to contribute a further 30% to a fund that trains IT specialists will have exactly the opposite effect of that intended. Fortunately, the proposal is very unlikely to ever pass into law. Draft legislation submitted to the lower...
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.
TikTok – Eat my shorts.
YouTube joins the kettle of vultures. YouTube, Riposo, Facebook et al show just how easy it is to replicate the TikTok experience in India which should send a shiver down the spine of ByteDance which is running the risk of the same thing happening in the USA. YouTube has announced a new service called YouTube Shorts that will imminently launch...