Google & Android – Closed source pt. II

Reply to this post           Google is inching closer and closer to taking Android proprietary.  It looks very much as if Google’s Nexus devices this year will show the first signs of a badly needed move to take Android from open source and make it proprietary like iOS and Windows. Google typically updates its Nexus line...

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Search engines vs. EU – Spectacular backfire.

Reply to this post           Content regulation that can only spectacularly backfire.  The EU’s latest proposal to allow media outlets to charge search engines to index their content is a frightening sign of how the EU has the potential to damage the Internet experience for all EU users. The idea is to change EU copyright law...

Facebook & WhatsApp – The inevitable

Reply to this post           The inevitable integration of WhatsApp has begun.  WhatsApp has updated its terms and conditions and will begin sharing some of the data that it generates with Facebook in what looks the beginning of WhatsApp starting to pay its way. In a carefully worded blog post, WhatsApp uses the fact that it...

Leap Motion – Second lap

Reply to this post           This reinvention makes more sense  Following on from the mess of its first launch in 2013 (see here), Leap Motion has now shifted its focus from PCs to Virtual Reality (VR) which is a use case that makes far more sense. The original idea was to use the Leap Motion controller...

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Uber – Time to print

Reply to this post           The time to make money has arrived.  In the last few weeks Uber’s position in the transportation industry has crystallised meaningfully, meaning that the time for it to make money is here. One large scale loss (China (see here)) is complimented by its dominance in almost the entirety of the developed...

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Mobile Gaming – Pokemon went.

Reply to this post           Tencent and Activision can breathe a sigh of relief.  Pokemon Go is already showing all the hallmarks of being a craze rather than a revolution as the appeal of the game is already beginning to pall despite only being 6 weeks old. Data from Apptopia shows that daily active users peaked...

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Cyanogen – Call for vultures.

Reply to this post           Software asset worth buying from a dying Cyanogen.  Although, Cyanogen appears to be on its last legs, I think that the software asset that it has developed remains the best alternative to Google Android that is available. The latest twist in the sorry tale of Cyanogen is the claim that management...

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Lenovo Q1 17A – Heavy weather.

Reply to this post           I see opportunity but not without risk.  Lenovo is hanging on in the difficult markets that it serves, but I think there is an opportunity for it to be as creative in PCs as it has been in handsets. Q1 17A revenues / EBIT were US$10.1bn / $245m nicely ahead of...

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Tencent Q2 16A – Stairway to heaven?

Reply to this post           Tencent remains a few steps away from greatness.  Tencent followed Alibaba in reporting a mighty set of numbers driven not by user numbers, but by its ability to generate more revenues from the users it already has. Q2 16A revenues / EPS were RMB35.7bn / RMB1.13 compared to forecasts of RMB33.3bn...

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Amazon – Curse of integration

Reply to this post           Amazon still misses the wood for the trees.  Twitch has announced that it will be acquiring Curse which further underlines how disparate and independent Amazon’s properties are and how far Amazon is from becoming a real ecosystem. Twitch is a website that streams gaming videos and has created a community around...