Patent royalties will pressure margins further. Xiaomi has hit a road block in India as some of its products have been hit with a preliminary injunction following a complaint from Ericsson for infringement of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). India is Xiaomi’s first major foray outside of its home market in China and this is likely...
A third way to monetise may be about to emerge. Microsoft’s pricing scheme for Windows 10 has yet to be released but it looks like it will have to rely on a new way to monetise if it is to make money from the smaller sized screen segment. There are three ways to make money...
Only volume can improve profitability. LG’s latest moves show all the signs of a company that has come to terms with its commoditisation. In many ways, LGE is currently better off than Samsung as it does not have the huge burden of expectations of high market share and profitability. LG has been chugging along for...
Alibaba is on the right path with Yun OS. Alibaba is a giant in the e-commerce space but it has very little in the areas that are likely to see the most growth in China over the next 10 years. This is the digital mobile ecosystem and Alibaba knows that it must address this space...
Google must take control to improve the experience. Despite being available for just over one month, adoption by the Android installed base of Android L (“Lollipop” or Android 5.0) is pathetically low at less than 0.1% of the installed base. By contrast, Apple managed to upgrade 46% of its user base to iOS 8 within...
Potential reshuffle fails to fix the problem. It looks as if it’s the head of sales and marketing who is taking the fall for the recent troubles instead of JK Shin. Unfortunately that is likely to achieve nothing. Samsung has had a disastrous six months with both market share and margins decreasing despite large price...
Replacing Google as default for search is a big trade off. If Apple’s deal with Google for search is due for renewal next year, there is every chance that Apple will switch to another search provider. In reality, there is only one choice as both Bing and Yahoo! are powered by the same search engine...
The first Indian ecosystem launches. It won’t be the last. India’s second biggest handset vendor has launched a new line of devices resplendent with a new user experience, paving the way for the first Indian ecosystem. The first device in the series will be available in December but as of yet there is no word...
Freemium Instant Video looks likely to deepen losses. The latest scheme to come from Amazon appears to be an idea to move its Instant Video service to a Freemium model. The content would be made available in two ways: First: a continuation of the existing service where Amazon Prime users get unlimited streaming as part...
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.
Sony vs. Microsoft – Danger zone.
Sony’s advantage already looks to be at risk. Microsoft’s efforts to make up for the disastrous launch of the Xbox One are finally bearing fruit as the Xbox One outsold the PS4 in November. The Xbox One and PS4 are very similar with the PS4 having a slight edge over the Xbox One when it...