$100 Tablet – lose lose

          The notion of a tablet that costs $100 may sound exciting but those that rush out to purchase the device are likely to quickly discover that you get what you pay for. (i.e. not much) Details of a Nexus tablet from Google at $99 have continually surfaced from Asia which combined with Google’s event scheduled...

Q3 Results – Rotten start

          Q3 reporting got underway last night with both bellwethers IBM and Intel reporting Q3 results. Both sets of results were disappointing and both fell after hours. This was compounded by a failure to beat guidance by cloud computing vendor Fortinet which cost the stock a mere 18%. This sets the scene for a very poor...

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Android – Critical weakness

          Without a shadow of doubt, Android dominates the unit volume statistics but in order to have real long-term value to Google and those who make the devices, the users have to be loyal to the ecosystem. This is where I question the value of Android, as I believe that users have yet to develop the...

Apple and TSMC – Forgotten reality

          It is no secret that Apple is thinking of moving its chip manufacturing from Samsung to TSMC, but while everyone is getting excited about the technology, everyone is ignoring the economics. Apple’s first applications processor was heavily dependent on Samsung technology and ever since Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi it has been working to design...

HPQ / Dell – Developmental defect.

          Share prices, sentiment and outlook for both HPQ and Dell have crashed recently as confidence that Windows 8 will drive a PC replacement cycle has hit rock bottom. Combine this with the impact of a sluggish economy and share losses to tablets, and one can arrive at a view that the PC market and its...

Ecosystems II – The wrong tree

          Eric Schmidt (Chairman Google) made an appearance at the AllThingsD conference and completely dissed Microsoft as a potential competitor in the coming ecosystem war. His focus appeared to be very much on Apple as his main rival but quite frankly I think he is barking up the wrong tree. Three things are worth noting: Firstly,...

Apple – All right on the night.

          Expectations were high for the iPhone 5 launch and if Apple had had the devices on hand, it probably would have met them. Hence I believe that the most important thing to consider going forward is that demand for the device is running way ahead of supply and that is likely to result in a...

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ARM vs. Intel – No silver bullet.

          It is no secret that ARM is looking to replace Intel x86 chips wherever it can. In mobile this has been easy as ARM’s superior power consumption has meant that devices had have had much longer battery life which is a major factor in the user experience. Furthermore, all the software has been written for...

Tablets – Terror at the bottom

          Between them, Apple and Amazon have defined the tablet market with two completely different business models. Apple sells the content at 0% margin in order to make money on the hardware while Amazon sells the device at 0% gross margin (I believe) in order to make money on the content. This has created a market...

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IPR – The weakness of essential (part II).

          Apple and Samsung have been at it hammer and tongs and the war shows no sign of abating but Apple’s derisory offer to Samsung to licence its essential IPR for wireless radio standards demonstrates exactly the point I made on Tuesday October 2nd (see below). It has emerged that Apple made an offer (April 2012)...

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