Google’s automotive deals may be coming unstuck. Volvo and Ericsson have signed a 5-year digital automotive deal that leaves me wondering whether all the fanfare about Volvo using Android in its vehicles was nothing more than noise. Volvo has signed a worldwide agreement with Ericsson that will see Google use Ericsson infrastructure and software to deliver both automotive and infotainment...
Samsung needs hardware differentiation more than ever. I think Samsung is undergoing a flurry of display innovation with its Infinity-O screen and it’s new folding screen form factor because it is really beginning to feel the heat from Huawei breathing down its neck. The result will be that any successful differentiation created in this manner will have to be kept...
The rest must be in a real pickle. Waymo is taking a step backwards in terms of the commercial readiness of its autonomous driving offering by reinstalling safety drivers and monitoring systems. If Waymo is having these basic difficulties, it implies that everyone else is in even greater difficulty and that autonomous driving may take longer than its proponents would...
99.9% of India will be free not $9.99. Hopes of edgy investors are being raised by the notion that Spotify is now in a position to launch in India, but anyone hoping for an immediate deluge of premium subscriptions is likely to be very disappointed. Spotify appears to have secured rights to stream music in India (see here) which is...
A Small light at the end of the 5G tunnel. The latest data confirms what RFM’s Digital Life Pie has been indicating for some time: namely that increasingly, mobile is the Internet access medium of choice in developed markets. This represents a major change from just 2 years ago when Fixed internet was the first port of call for most...
There is only one king of e-commerce. Amazon may have a higher market capitalisation than Alibaba but when it comes to the amount of business transacted, it is dwarfed into insignificance by its Chinese rival. This is important because it means that Alibaba is gathering more data which could eventually make it capable of offering a better shopping experience than...
For once, I agree with Facebook. Facebook has been hit with a fine from a UK regulator over the Cambridge Analytical issue which I think is both unjustified and demonstrates how poorly regulators and governments understand how the Internet works. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Facebook $640,000, not because UK users’ data was used by Cambridge Analytica,...
Google is still not a hardware company. Unnecessary problems with the latest Pixel device are a repeat of the issues that hampered the appeal of the Pixel 2 in 2017 which further reinforces my opinion that Google has no business selling hardware. The latest issues involve the supposedly best in class camera which is now having problems when being activated...
Internet Services can’t carry the can. Xiaomi reported good results but remains so dependent upon hardware from which it intends to limit its profitability, that it has very little hope of ever justifying its valuation. Internet Services looks like it will always be too small to carry the can of the $39.5 enterprise value (EV). Q3 18 revenues / EBIT...
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.
Google DeepMind – Genetic origami
A big step forward but still needs more work. DeepMind has convincingly won an academic competition that tests researchers’ ability to predict the structure of proteins from their genetic sequence which opens a door to improved understanding and treatment of genetic disorders. Proteins are the exclusive product of DNA and as such are responsible for 100% of all functions and...