The Internet will not become the cable industry. In a landmark ruling the US court of appeals has thrown out the FCC’s net neutrality rules meaning that speed could become the provenance of the highest bidder. The case was brought by Verizon, which has long been railing against the current regulatory environment, brought against the...
The founders and VCs are the real winners from this acquisition. Google’s acquisition of Nest is all about the ecosystem and highlights some trends that are likely to continue for some time to come. Google has agreed to acquire Nest for a whopping $3.2bn despite a valuation of around $600m just one year ago. The...
CES has highlighted how difficult 2014 will be for some. CES 2014 is almost over but three important trends have clearly emerged: First: Android commoditisation is getting worse. CES 2014 saw the launch of many devices but most people (including me) are struggling to remember them. Outside of form factor innovation (like curved screens) Android...
Dual Boot is a hack that is doomed to failure. CES 2014 is full of devices that are trying to be both laptops and tablets. A large number of these are attempting to do this by offering the ability to run both Windows 8.1 and Android. The idea is that the user uses Windows 8.1...
Bad results but the whispers have already done the damage. Samsung reported preliminary Q4 results that disappointed but forecasts but whisper numbers had already taken this into account. Between Christmas and Jan 3 the stock has already fallen nearly 10%. Q4 Revenues / Operating Income were KRW58tn-KRW60tn with operating income at KRW8.1-KRW8.5tn. This is 4%...
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2014. HTC’s results offer little hope of a recovery. HTC reported Q4 results that missed expectations as it looks like gross margins were once again under pressure. Q4 Revenues / Operating loss were NT$42.9bn / NT$1.6bn compared to guidance of NT$40-45bn and less than NT$1.5bn. This compares unfavourably...
Radio Free Mobile is hanging up the microphone until 7th Jan 2014. RFM wishes all its readers a Happy Christmas and New Year.
Extending HomeSync is yet another strand of the web. Samsung’s moves are subtle but taken together it is clear that Samsung is intending to build its own ecosystem to the detriment of Google. The latest move is to allow its HomeSync media center to begin working with non-Samsung devices. This could be a ploy to...
Twitter and Apple fare badly on smartphone usage. The smartphone app. charts for 2013 are out (for the US anyway) and it makes interesting reading (Nielsen). Smartphones in use are 52% Android and 41% iOS which is not a big surprise. Given Apple’s recent surge with the iPhone 5s, I would expect the balance 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.
PC Market – Contrarian position
Tablet PCs are the key to a turnaround in the PC market this year. IDC and Gartner have confirmed what everyone already knew: 2013 was one of the worst years on record for the PC market. By my calculation PCs declined by 8% in 2013 compared to 4% in 2012 marking one of the worst...