The USA does Samsung a massive favour. The importance of the digital ecosystem is laid bare as the loss of the Google ecosystem is very likely to cost Huawei all of its smartphone shipments outside of China (50% of total in Q4 18 Counterpoint Research). In response to the executive order that was issued on Wednesday, Google has suspended its...
Sirius XM capitalises on OEM lethargy. Sirius XM is launching a series of services for its customers which are exactly the sorts of services the OEMs should have launched years ago in yet another sign that car makers are at risk of completely failing in digital services. Automatic (Sirius XM subsidiary) has launched an OBD-II dongle that adds connectivity to...
Samsung cannot fix the Fold’s biggest flaw. The one saving grace from the whole Galaxy Fold mess is that the biggest problem with this device category is going to hurt Huawei far more than it is going to hurt Samsung. Samsung has delayed indefinitely the launch of the Galaxy Fold while it tries to fix some of the issues encountered...
Pixel 3a may be a herald of woe. Google’s Pixel 3a is the first real test as to whether or not the smartphone has entered the realm of good enough computing. Good enough computing is the point at which hardware has reached a point where the experience is no longer meaningfully improved by further upgrades and the pace of innovation...
The public market takes no prisoners. Uber’s IPO turned from a celebration into a wake as the public market refused to support a valuation that does not reflect the harsh reality of Uber’s outlook. Lyft was also not spared which fell another 7.4% bringing total losses since its IPO to a thumping 27%. Uber sold shares at $45 which immediately...
In a timely fashion, Amazon touts Alexa’s superiority. At the same time as Google was launching a new and improved version of Google Assistant at Google i/o, Amazon was quick to remind everyone that its assistant is present on almost everything. Amazon Alexa is now supported on 60,000 different devices from 7,400 brands up from 10,000 just one year ago...
The assumptions do not hold water It looks like Tesla has been successful in raising money for its autonomous driving ambitions but I find its commentary to be somewhat misleading which combined with a total lack of hard data makes me wonder whether Tesla is going to make it in this space. This is not helped at all by Elon...
Incremental improvements hallmark a rather humdrum keynote. With less to say about AI and Android, Google added hardware launches and pushed a privacy agenda in its keynote in a sign that this is going to be an ordinary developer event. The most relevant announcements included: First, Google Assistant: A big development by Google in the last 12 months has been...
Plenty of nice. No must-have In a company that is now so dominated by the enterprise, its gaming business increasingly sticks out like a sore thumb begging the question as to whether Microsoft will eventually divest it. Microsoft’s annual developer conference was a business-as-usual event, with incremental improvements here and there that was somewhat spoilt by a Hololens 2 demo...
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.
Microsoft & Sony – Deal with the devil
Sony takes a rare dive. Microsoft and Sony are working more closely together in a rare admission of failure from Sony that its cloud gaming and AI are simply not up to scratch. The MOU between Sony and Microsoft has been agreed at the corporate level and includes: First: Game streaming: It looks as if Sony will move to run...