Radio Free Mobile has closed down for the holiday period. Normal service will resume at CES on Monday 6th January 2020. Radio Free Mobile would like to wish its readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Project Connected Home over IP needs to avoid the fudge of compromise. Making all connected devices compatible is an excellent idea but this is going to be very difficult to achieve as these alliances very often result in a poorly performing standard or abject failure. Effectively almost everyone in the connected home space has signed up to form Project Connected...
China has a lot of ground to make up. Semiconductors and AI are at the heart of China’s desire to become self sufficient in technology, but this is going to be a long hard task as evidenced by Baidu’s choice to manufacture its AI chips in Korea. Baidu and Samsung have jointly announced that Baidu’s new KUNLUN neural processor that...
Meituan proves the efficacy of RFM’s rule of thumb. There is a mad rush going on to use Meituan Dianping’s profitability as an example that food delivery can make money, but the reality is that it has really only come good because it has achieved dominance in its market and didn’t spend like crazy. Meituan is a super-app where all...
ByteDance expands its presence overseas. TikTok is moving to ensure that it dominates Digital Life segments both inside and outside of China which will make it unique as its peers have all struggled to make any headway overseas. The world of Digital Life services is divided just the world of mobile standards was divided in the 2G and 3G generations....
Lyft is preparing for robotaxis, not car rentals. Lyft is launching a car rental service that I think has nothing to do with renting cars and everything to do with working out to successfully run a fleet of robotaxis. Lyft has launched a car rental service from within its app which has sent Hertz and Avis shares into a tail-spin,...
BMW takes another baby step. Not only is Car Play now free but BMW will now also add Android Auto to its vehicles from 2020 in a move that clearly shows that digital is becoming an important part of the purchase decision. Vehicles are predominantly purchased on their looks, performance, safety and economy but increasingly, offering access to the user’s...
Reality hits the dream seller. As I expected, it turns out that augmented reality (AR) for the consumer is light years away from where it needs to be meaning that the only real market, for now, is still the enterprise. Magic Leap has finally accepted this reality but seeing as others pivoted to the enterprise 2 to 3 years ago,...
No more chasing Alibaba Wag Labs Inc. is another write-down in waiting for Softbank which combined with the WeWork meltdown will see it normalise its investment process and stop spraying money around in order to find the next Alibaba. Softbank has sold its stake in Wag Inc. back to the company which is likely to mean another write down that...
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.
CES Day 0 – Where the buzz isn’t.
CES 2020 gets in tune with reality. CES 2020 is unlikely to go down as a vintage year of excitement meaning that half the story is going to about where the buzz isn’t rather than where it is. There is very little that is new at CES 2020. The trains are still plastered with Google Assistant advertising and the same...