Google has deep pockets. Lenovo does not. The Moto E is a triumph for the consumer offering more smartphone than ever for the dollar. However, it is likely to be a financial disaster for Lenovo which, after taking on Motorola, will be just $100m above break-even at the group level. In contrast, Motorola’s thumping $200m...
Look to the ecosystem to find growth. Samsung has sold 10m Samsung Galaxy S5 in the first 25 days from launch (Korea Economic Daily) which is only slightly faster than it sold the first 10m of the Galaxy S4. When one compares this to the Galaxy S3, 2 and 1 it is clear that growth...
The Surface-mini needs to be on WP8.1 not RT. Microsoft is holding an event on May 20th where it is expected that the latest additions to the Surface line of products will be launched. A Surface-mini is expected to headline the event being a 7-8” tablet with a Qualcomm processor, presumably at a very low...
Beats signals the need to buy not build. Apple is thought to be in advanced talks to buy Beats Audio for $3.2bn. Beats Audio is a premium headphone maker with an estimated 51% share of the $1bn premium headphone market. It also has recently launched a streaming music service that has some innovative functionality such...
Nintendo’s intransigence could be fatal. Nintendo reported another dreadful set of results as it missed its own forecasts made just three months ago. Q4 14A revenues / Net income were JPY72.6bn / LOSS JPY33.4bn compared to consensus at JPY86.1bn / LOSS JPY27.9bn. 2.72m WiiU units were sold over the last 12 months missing the companies...
There is no longer a reason to sell. Twitter is no Facebook but I suspect that the next 2 years could follow a very similar story. Twitter’s stock has collapsed from its high of $73 for two main reasons. Its user growth has failed to follow the course that the market was expecting. The market...
Adjusting view for error regarding wilful infringement. Yesterday’s note (see here) was incorrect in its statement that no finding of wilful infringement had been found against Samsung. In fact, Samsung has been found to wilfully infringe the ‘721’ patent which claims rights over the slide to unlock feature on smartphones. This means that Samsung was...
Victory costs Apple most of the value of its IP. Apple has won a finding of infringement by some of Samsung’s products but has been awarded just 5.4% of the damages it had asked for. This deals a devastating blow to the perceived value of Apple’s IP as this case will be used as a...
The single offerings for Digital Life are running out of steam. Linked-In reported good Q1A results but guided weakly as growth is slowing more quickly than many were hoping. Revenues / EPS were $473.2m / LOSS $0.11 compared to estimates of $467m / LOSS $0.08. Historically Linked-In has established a habit of guiding nicely above...
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 Q4A – Patient reward
There is no sign of the hoped for recovery. Sony reported a bad set of results with forecasts for the coming year coming far below what consensus had been looking for. Revenues and net income for FY 14A were JPY1,870bn / LOSS JPY111bn which was in line with revised guidance given on May 1st. However,...