While its sights remain firmly fixed on Netflix, the bigger opportunity will continue to slip through its fingers. Amazon’s decision to raise the cost of Amazon Prime clearly shows that it has not thought carefully about an ecosystem strategy. Amazon Prime will now cost $99 per year, up 25%, but will still include: Free shipping,...
A Windows Phone $0 license fee does not fix the bigger problem. It looks very much like Microsoft has done the unthinkable and agreed to give its Windows Phone software away for free. Two the of the deals that Microsoft announced at Mobile Word Congress were with Indian phone makers Lava and Karbonn and it...
Apple’s outrageous demand is damaging to its case. Apple’s latest demands for remedy against Samsung are outrageous but it is well within its rights to ask for whatever it wants. On January 23rd a hearing was held with regards for remedies that each will be asking for at the new patent trial that is due...
M&A in Chinese Internet is being defined by the Digital Life pie. The Chinese market for fixed and mobile internet services is so large that it is likely to be self-sustaining. This means Chinese services provided by Chinese ecosystems on Chinese handsets and tablets for users in China. RFM thinks that the number of Chinese...
The console war goes much further than the living room. The initial momentum has gone to Sony but Microsoft is looking to close the gap with exclusive titles. Xbox One and PS4 have been available for some months now and Sony is comfortably ahead having shipped 6m consoles compared to Microsoft’s 4m. (RFM estimates). I...
Fragmentation remains the single biggest issue facing Android. Google looks set to release support for Android on another subset of devices; wearables. At South by Southwest, Google announced a software development kit (SDK) that will allow developers to write apps for wearable devices that are running Android. Wearables are still a solution looking for a...
Sina Weibo is heading for an IPO at a fair price. Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter look alike, has broken even just in time for it to IPO. Weibo saw 61.4 active users in Q4 2013 up from 58.9m in Q3 2013 upon which it was able to earn $197m in Q4 13 revenues. The...
Eliminating other sign ons is essential for recovery. Yahoo! has moved to remove booth Google and Facebook from its properties as it will son require users to use a Yahoo! login to get access to its services. This means that everyone who wants to use Yahoo! internet services will have to have their own account...
Microsoft and Sony have a huge opportunity in mobile gaming. It looks as if Microsoft is intending to make a much bigger deal of its underutilised asset XBox Live. Sony has the same opportunity but I have yet to see the company do anything to capitalise on this opportunity, A recent job posting at...
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.
Facebook – Goodwill hunting.
No change at WhatsApp means a thumping goodwill write-down. Speculation is rife with regards to why Facebook was willing to pay $19bn for WhatsApp and how it will earn a positive return on that investment. The market’s view is that data from chats will be collected and used to sell advertising while RFM believes that...