When privacy advocates realise they have to pay up, I suspect many will change their tune. Very few people, especially privacy advocates, seem to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The general view seems to be that users are the customers of companies like Google and Facebook. In fact, its...
This deal is all about making money. Dell has announced that it is going private in a $24.4bn leveraged buyout where Michael Dell and Silver Lake will acquire the company. There are two possible reasons to go private. First. Dell needs peace and quiet away from the glaring eye and wild swings of Wall Street...
There is a market in Africa for the taking, but a $199 smartphone is not the device that will do it. Huawei and Microsoft have announced a joint initiative to bring smartphones to Africa with the launch of a device and the nurturing of application development. This is also being launched at the same time...
Samsung is eating away at Apple’s image but its fans are still not those with the purchasing power. The problem with being the coolest and the best is that there is only one way to go. It is a paradoxical part of human nature that when everyone has the newest, coolest product, it immediately becomes...
Malware has long been known to plague Android but things appear to be getting worse. Single pieces of malware that cause problems on devices are one thing, but the existence of a botnet implies a systemic, controlled and criminal system to exploit users of Android devices. Evidence has been uncovered that points strongly towards at...
BlackBerry 10 hopes to sell itself on a feature that so far has not worked for Microsoft. Despite being snubbed by the marketing department, I think Blackberry 10 has merit and a fighting chance. At global events in New York, Toronto, London, Dubai (to which I was unable to attend), Paris, Johannesburg, Jakarta and Delhi,...
There is no rhyme or reason in the valuation of this company. Amazon reported disappointing results but still managed to rise 10% in after-hours trading as the bulls dug deep to find justification. Q4 Revenues / EPS were $21.3bn / $0.21 compared to estimates of $22.2bn / $0.27. Guidance was also weak with Q1 revenues...
Yahoo! currently lacks the assets but has the users to be a viable ecosystem. Yahoo has completed its first full quarter with Marissa A Mayer at the helm and there are signs of green shoots. Q4 results were good with revenues / EPS at $1.22bn / $0.32 compared to expectations of $1.21bn / $0.28 as...
Dell’s mooted move to become private looks to be about peace and quiet rather than desperation. Dell is certainly at a cross roads but it is very far from being in dire straits. Last time I checked, it had some $14bn in cash and $1.3bn in positive cash flow in the last quarter meaning that...
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.
Microsoft Surface Pro – Jack of all trades…
…master of none….yet! The Microsoft Surface Pro is out in the wild but it has yet to prove Steve Jobs wrong. Apple’s stance on hybrid products remains clear. A hybrid product can do multiple tasks but because of the compromises that are inherent to its design, it will never be able to do any of...