Epic vs. Apple – A right Battle Royale pt. V.

A workaround that goes nowhere. The idea that Fortnite will be able to return to the iPhone through GeForce Now is technically possible but the experience is unlikely to be good enough such that anyone will want to use it. GeForce Now is NVIDIA’s game streaming service which allows games to be installed on a remote virtual computer and then...

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Peloton – The inexorable erosion.

Peloton postpones the inevitable. Peloton reported excellent FQ1 2020 results as new lockdowns have triggered another surge in buying but this company is still mostly driven by hardware, and as a result, the valuation remains very stretched. FQ1 2020 revenues / Net income were $757.9m / $69.3m which was above expectations of $734.2m / $36.0m. Critically, Peloton is now in...

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Arm and NVIDIA – The unthinkable pt. II.

RISC-V has a second lease of life. While there is no sign that NVIDIA will be unable to maintain Arm’s crucial independence, just the mere fact of the possibility has breathed new life into competitors that prior to this deal looked pretty moribund. Arm’s biggest competitor is not Intel but RISC-V which is an open-source version of what Arm offers....

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Qualcomm FQ4 2020 – Happy wave.

Finally, a wave to be pleased about. Qualcomm reported excellent results as the combination of Apple and China is driving a rapid roll-out of 5G enabled devices which is a technology where Qualcomm (as usual with a new radio technology) has the commanding position. FQ4 2020 revenues / EPS were $6.5bn / $2.58 nicely ahead of consensus at $5.9bn /...

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Ant Group – Whoops apocalypse.

Jack Ma has made someone very cross. The Chinese regulator has forced both the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to suspend the Ant Financial IPO at the last minute in what can only be interpreted as a move to remind Jack Ma who really is in charge in China. Three days before Ant Financial was due...

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Tesla – Sleight of hand.

Tesla is still bad at autonomous driving. Tesla’s latest pronouncement on the performance of Autopilot suggests that Autopilot is safer than humans, but the reality remains that Tesla is very far away from real autonomy and I think well behind its rivals. Tesla needs to give the impression that it is good at autonomous driving because a good portion of...

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Huawei – Nowhere to run pt. XXIV.

Re-inventing the silicon wheel makes no sense. Huawei appears to be planning on building its own semiconductor fab that is independent of US technology in a move that looks certain to fail. I think it would be better off using SMIC which despite its problems, is better at making semiconductors than Huawei is. Huawei seems to be intending to build...

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Big Tech Q3 2020 – Pandemic powered.

Big tech is being driven by deficit spending. Big Tech continued to benefit from the huge increases in government spending during Q3 2020 but the fact that bail-outs can’t go on forever while the pandemic grinds on, caused them to sound a note of caution on the Q4 2020 and FY 2021 outlook. Apple FQ4 2020 Apple reported good results...

Huawei – Nowhere to run pt XXIII.

Another reprieve in name only. Allowing Huawei to buy non-5G components offers very little reprieve for either the infrastructure business or the handset business and from a security perspective makes no sense. It appears that vendors who are not selling components that are related to 5G will soon be able to resume shipments to Huawei as they now expect to...

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Facebook Gaming – Apple picking.

Facebook gaming lays bare another dispute with Apple. Facebook has launched its gaming service and by going last it is avoiding the blunders of its rival Google, but Facebook fell short when it came to Apple’s restrictive policies. Facebook has launched its streaming service which will be free to play (at least initially) and it is very different from all...

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