Another strategic masterstroke from Epic Games. Epic Games is showing no signs of being surprised by Fortnite’s success and has made yet another brilliant move to oust what it sees as the middlemen in the gaming industry. This latest move comes hot on the heels of its strategy to break Google’s stranglehold on app distribution (see here) and Sony’s intransigence...
There is no plan B for Huawei that will work. If Huawei receives the same treatment as ZTE (for the same infraction), then its handset business outside of China will most likely have received a terminal blow. However, I think that this outcome is extremely unlikely as I suspect that the US will use Huawei as a bargaining chip in...
The cautionary tale of bike sharing. The cautionary tale of the bike sharing companies should give the scooter companies pause for thought as I suspect that exactly the same issues will soon be affecting them. Hence, unless they do something different, the same ignominious fate awaits. Mobike which is now part of Meituan, is giving up on all of its...
Deep Learning’s limitations laid bare. Work on analysing how deep learning neural networks work clearly shows that these systems have no real understanding of what it is they are doing. This means that they are going to fall far short of the still rampant AI hype, triggering what I believe will be the 3rd AI winter. Deep learning is essentially...
Under the rhetoric, very little changes. While Zuckerberg’s manifesto (see here) implies that a huge overhaul is on the way, the reality is that very little is going to change. This is because a pivot towards becoming a fully private and encrypted communication system looks like suicide as with no data, Facebook would have no advertising to sell. The memo...
Taxonomy separates the men from the boys in AI. With 40% of “AI” companies not even attempting to use AI in their products and the likelihood of serious disappointment in the short-term, the stage is set for the AI bubble to burst leading to the 3rd AI winter. A study by MMC ventures looked at 2,830 European start-ups that have...
Lyft’s IPO is a rod for its own back Lyft’s IPO document reveals a company that I think will give its founders joy and validation when they ring the Nasdaq bell, but agony when they have to start making quarterly reports. This is particularly the case as Lyft is clearly not ready to IPO and there is plenty of money...
A Titan falls. It looks like the final shoe is being dropped on Apple’s automotive aspirations as 190 Project Titan members are being let go or transferred into other roles within Apple (see here). It also further indicates that even when a company hires the best names in AI, this does not suddenly transform one into an AI-powerhouse as Facebook...
No party means no hangover. MWC is almost over and while the stages have seen some confident predictions (eg Cisco: “hype is going to be reflected in the reality”), the message from the floor and in the trenches is much more realistic. To me, this is excellent news because, in reality, no one is getting over excited and consequently the...
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.
Samsung & Google – Engineering disease pt II.
The Chinese and Apple benefit from continued intransigence. I continue to believe that the best interest of Samsung and Google would be served by Samsung giving up software and Google giving up hardware and both working much more closely together. Not much has changed in the last year but there are a few tiny glimmers of hope that reality may...