An encouraging move by Yahoo! to fix its ecosystem. Yahoo! looks at last to be beginning to do something about grouping its collection of assets into a cohesive ecosystem. One of the most important of these assets is gaming as users spend 32% of their time on smartphones playing games. This makes it one of...
Growing preference for Windows Phone spells the end for Blackberry. After a difficult few months there is at last some good news for Windows Phone. The appeal of Windows Phone to the enterprise is proving to be strong to the point where good customer preference is emerging. IBM, one of the pre-eminent enterprise IT suppliers,...
With the Moto 360, Motorola has finally got something right. Smart watches are still a problem looking for a solution but with the Moto 360, Motorola has put the first tick in the box. The Moto 360 is a smart watch that actually looks like a regular watch. Hence it is a regular wrist watch...
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...
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...
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 – All the stops
Sony is making the right moves to become a proper ecosystem. It’s a long shot for Sony to become one of the major ecosystems but it is doing everything it can to make it happen. Sony actually has a better chance than a number of competitors due to the assets that the company has had...