Reply to this post I suspect Spotify will have to cave in. Spotify is realising to its cost that competing with the owner of a platform is extremely difficult when one is perceived as a threat. The latest disagreement relates to the fact that Apple has rejected an update to Spotify’s app preventing Spotify from...
Reply to this post An experiment that might finally work. Following Amazon’s painfully expensive experiment in distributing its ecosystem with a mobile device of its own, it has sensibly decided stick to services with an innovative approach to device subsidisation. Amazon is offering its Prime subscribers a very good deal to get their hands on...
Reply to this post I can’t get close to the IPO valuation. LINE has filed to go public in July but the valuation that is being asked seems to leave very little on the table for those coming in at the IPO. LINE intends to offer 40.25m new shares (including green-shoe of 5.25m) raising $1.19bn...
Reply to this post Huawei’s software has a better chance in China. Huawei is making the right initial moves in order to maximise its chances of becoming No. 1 in smartphones but I suspect its software has better chance at home rather than overseas. Huawei has stated that intends to become No. 1...
Reply to this post Oculus is back on the HTC Vive, but it won’t save HTC. Oculus Rift apps are once again running on the HTC Vive but I do not think that this will save the Vive or HTC as the road for its VR hardware is pointing to commoditisation. A firmware update for...
Reply to this post The 3.5mm jack survives the attempt on its life. With the launch of the iPhone 7 approaching, the chatter is once again focusing on the headphone jack, with consensus now having decided that the 100 year old design will stay. This makes complete sense to me as I have long been...
Reply to this post Integration with China not critical but it is elsewhere. Tencent has announced that it is leading a buyout of Supercell but the structure of the transaction raises questions as to whether Tencent will be able to earn a good return on its investment. Tencent is establishing a 100% owned consortium which...
Reply to this post 100m users begins to tip the scale in Spotify’s favour. Spotify has announced that it has past 100m users of which 30m are paying subscribers. Admittedly, it has taken Spotify a little longer than I anticipated to get there, but it has now reached a level of scale that should enable...
Reply to this post Apple can afford privacy where Google & Co. cannot. At its recent developer conference Apple gave more details about its intentions when it comes to privacy, highlighting a technology called differential privacy. Differential privacy is nothing new as it has been around since the 1960s and it works by injecting meaningless...
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.
Autonomous Autos – Fatal flaw
Reply to this post First fatality underlines how long this is really going to take. A fatal accident in Florida involving a Tesla Model S that had Tesla’s Autopilot feature activated, serves to highlight that it is going to be many years before the market is ready to adopt fully autonomous driving. The accident happened...