Reply to this post MCX serves as a lesson to all in the ecosystem. Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) has paid a heavy price for ignoring the fundamentals that govern whether or not Digital Live services and ecosystems will be successful. MCX is an attempt by the retail industry to break Visa and Mastercard’s stranglehold on...
Reply to this post Not ready to do what it needs most. Google will hold its annual developer this week where it will show off its latest version of Android among its other ideas aimed to keep its ecosystem thriving. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Google is ready to do the one thing that it...
Reply to this post Apple’s investment looks more financial than strategic. Apple has agreed to invest $1bn in Didi Chuxing (formerly Didi Kuaidi) in a move that I think has nothing whatsoever to do with its own efforts to design and build a vehicle (see here). Didi Chuxing is the result of a merger of...
Reply to this post Palantir’s silence will only make matters worse. Palantir is a very secretive company but the recent negative press raises valid points that need to be addressed if the gadflies are to be swatted into silence. A recent article on Buzzfeed took a look at Palantir coming to the conclusion that all...
Reply to this post I think Google will end up paying less than $1bn. Google and Oracle are at it again with Oracle asking for up to $9bn of damages as a result of Google’s alleged copyright infringement of the Java programming language. Normally this would be quite straight forward but where it gets complicated...
Reply to this post HTC is selling the family silver to stay alive. HTC reported dreadful Q1 16A results as EBIT losses ballooned to 32% of sales while revenues fell 36% YoY and NT$5.1bn (37% of sales) of cash from operations was burned. HTC has continued to lose market share triggering the classic handset death...
Reply to this post I think GoPro will end up being acquired. The difference between Fitbit and GoPro is that Fitbit has understood that the hardware is becoming irrelevant whereas GoPro has yet to understand this crucial fact. GoPro produced a reasonable set of results relative to substantially reduced expectations, but went on to delay...
Reply to this post E-commerce powerhouse fuels ecosystem investments. Alibaba reported good FQ4 15A results but sent the clear message that would be ramping up investments in its fledgling ecosystem. FQ4 15A revenues / EBIT were RMB24.2bn / RMB5.1bn nicely ahead of consensus at RMB23.6bn / RMB4.6bn. Its Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall (B2C) and Taobao...
Reply to this post Fitbit is being forced to spend to stay ahead. Fitbit reported good Q1 16A results but cut guidance in order to ramp up spending placing unrealistic expectations of profitability in H2 2016. This is particularly worrying as there are clear signs that commoditisation is forcing the company to increase spending, hitting...
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.
Artificial Intelligence – Men and boys.
Reply to this post The difference between men and boys will be the brains of their toys. Developer conference season is well underway and the central theme that is emerging is a focus on making Digital Life services smarter and more intuitive. This has implications for both services to consumers created by the ecosystem itself...