Great eye candy hides the missing spark of genius needed. Apple launched its first product in the wearables space along with new iPhones that were exactly in line with expectations. Apple also launched a payments solution incorporating both BLE and NFC but while this remains an Apple-only solution, it is likely to remain limited in...
RFM has taken a few days off but will be back just in time for Apple’s launch.
Amazon has done Sony and Microsoft a big favour by acquiring Twitch. Amazon has reached an agreement to purchase Twitch for $972m in cash. Twitch is a YouTube-like website that allows users to upload their video game experiences and share them with other like-minded users. The site has 55m users with 7m logging on every...
Unconformity to the design ensures losses. Mozilla has announced that Intex, the Indian handset maker, has launched a Firefox powered device called Cloud FX Phone that will go on sale for $33. Later this week, a second device manufactured by Spice Mobility will be launched for the price of $38. Both of these devices look...
A great quest likely to be sunk by the 2 E’s. A modular mobile phone has been a dream of the mobile phone industry for many years and now Google is giving it a go. Project Ara (see here) is a phone design which is a touch screen with a superstructure on the back where...
Google and China likely to completely take over their versions. The latest report from OpenSignal strongly implies that Android fragmentation is getting worse but I suspect that the reverse is true. The latest study shows that within a sample of 682,000 devices upon which the OpenSignal App. has been installed, there are 18,796 different Android...
HPQ is drifting from one quarter to the next with no direction. HPQ reported good Q3A revenues as market share was gained but weaknesses in the high margin businesses kept any gains from hitting the bottom line. Revenues / EPS were $27.6bn / $0.89 compared to consensus at $27.0bn / $0.89. The stabilisation in the...
Microsoft needs to appeal to the user’s heart not just his wallet. HTC has launched an virtual clone of its flagship HTC One M8 with two main differences from the original: First, it is running Windows Phone 8.1 instead of Android / Google Mobile Services (GMS). Second, after the subsidy, it is half the price...
Stability buys time, but for what? BlackBerry has staved off the immediate threat of collapse but where it goes from here is a mystery. The job cuts and consolidation have created a company with $4bn in revenues, 0.6% market share in smartphones and critically one that is cash flow neutral. This gives it time to...
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.
Amazon – Fire damage.
The damage to the Fire phone has already been done. Amazon has cut a massive $200 off the price of its Fire phone with the 32GB version at AT&T (2 year contract) going from $199 to 99c and the 64GB version going from $299 to $99. The device still comes with 1 year Amazon Prime...