The Real Cause of Apple's Maps Problems Today? Steve Jobs
People who say Steve Jobs wouldn't have released Apple Maps fail to realize that Jobs put Apple in a strategic hole on Maps to begin with back in 2007.
Read the full post in Forbes
Showing posts with label Nokia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nokia. Show all posts
Monday, October 15, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Likely Buyers for RIM? Amazon and Microsoft/Nokia
RIM (RIMM) now has the fear of the God in them it seems.
That’s good, although they’ve still got a tough road ahead of them — especially with a lot of their leadership walking out the door.
What’s juiced the stock this morning is that investors think there’s a glimmer of hope the board might consider a full buyout of the Canadian company.
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The Two Companies on Facebook's Menu After IPO: Nokia and Yahoo!
Facebook needs to bulk up to kill Google. Once they go public, watch for them to seriously consider buying Nokia or Yahoo! -- with a little help from their big brother Microsoft.
Read the full post on Forbes.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Why Yahoo! Should Seek At Least $3 Billion From Facebook For Patent Violations
Yahoo! has thrown down the gloves to attack Facebook's violation of 10 - 20 of its key patents. It could set off a flurry of activity around Yahoo!
Read the full post in Forbes
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
What China’s Booming Mobile Phone Demand Means For Apple’s Stock
We know China's market could be huge for Apple. Here's a glimpse of how big it could be for iPhones.
Read the full post here on Forbes.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Video: Who's Going to Win the Mobile-Phone War?
Contributor Eric Jackson says Apple and Google are in the lead for a reason. Stick with them or HTC but avoid Nokia and Research In Motion.Eric Jackson currently owns AAPL
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
RIM's Bleak Future
By Eric Jackson, Senior Contributor
06/30/10 - 06:00 AM EDT
What happened to Research in Motion(RIMM)?
It has been the king smartphones seemingly forever. Yet, it's stumbled badly. Last Thursday, it announced its new subscribers were less than analysts expected and the stock dropped 10% the following day.
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Thursday, June 03, 2010
Research In Motion Needs a New Story
By Eric Jackson
RealMoney Contributor
6/3/2010 5:29 PM EDT
Click here for more stories by Eric Jackson
No other space is quite as hot these days as the mobile Internet. Usage is exploding around the world, despite the economic slowdown. Handset suppliers are constantly coming up with new models and features to attract users.
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Yet one of the pioneers of this field, still regarded by many as a dominant player, has been a stumbling laggard for two years now: Research In Motion (RIMM - commentary - Trade Now). Despite the BlackBerry's efficiency and good looks (I am a loyal user myself), Research In Motion has fallen from grace in the eyes of investors. The company needs a new story to tell and needs it fast.
Apple (AAPL - commentary - Trade Now) CEO Steve Jobs recently spoke at the D Conference on a variety of issues. One comment I found very interesting concerned the future of the PC. He compared the PC to a truck in an early farming society. There was a time when everyone had a truck. Then cars arrived. And gradually, people stopped needing trucks. Mobile devices, like the iPhone and the iPad, in Jobs' view, will be the shiny new cars toward which we will soon gravitate. We will no longer be tethered to our desktop PCs to get access to the Web.
If you buy this -- and I do -- this should be a great thing for all mobile Internet providers. However, that's not what's happened. There have clearly been winners and losers. So far, Research In Motion has been one of the losers.
Apple unveiled the iPhone in January 2007. Since then, the company's stock is up 210%. Research In Motion's is up 32%. That's still much better than the older handset makers, such as Nokia (NOK -commentary - Trade Now), which is down 49%, Motorola (MOT - commentary - Trade Now), which is down 63%, and Palm (PALM - commentary - Trade Now), which is down 61%. Sure, Apple sells computers and iPods too, but, let's face it, the market has been most excited about Apple's mobile Internet opportunities since the iPhone launch.
....
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Path Back for Moto
It's been a rough-go for Motorola in the last few weeks. After its last quarterly call in which it guided higher for the Fourth Quarter, the market has treated it harsher than the general market during the month of November. The stock has slipped. Some critics are suggesting it be dumped outright -- frustrated because of a lack of change in management. We don't think so - yet. This is a company which can still save itself -- although there's no quick fix here.
Our group has been pushing Motorola's board and management for changes since July. Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to speak for over an hour with Motorola's head of IR, Dean Lindroth. Mr. Lindroth and the Management team deserve credit for listening and engaging in dialogue with a group of investors (133 individuals owning 600,000 MOT shares) who are frustrated and want to share ideas for turning around this great company.
We certainly didn't agree on each point that we presented, but they deserve respect for listening. We intend to continue to speak out in a positive and constructive fashion on ideas for how this company can better unlock value.
Here is a summary of the views we shared with Motorola:
We believe, as I’m sure management and the board do, that Motorola belongs back in its industry leadership position.
Here are our suggestions on “opportunity areas” that – if you were to implement – we believe would be received warmly by the Street and by existing Motorola shareholders and employees.
1. Improving the Culture. Any time you do RIFs, there’s obviously going to be a blow to internal morale and fingers pointed at management. From the comments I’ve heard from Ed, Tom, and Greg on this, I think your opinion is that this will work itself out as the company’s financial results improve. While I agree this will help, there’s an opportunity here to further bolster the morale: Bob Galvin. I have been impressed with how highly Bob is still regarded by Motorola employees. There is still a deep appreciation for the values he instilled in the company. Although whenever a new leader comes in, there is a need for change, there is an enormous opportunity to remind people that the best aspects of Motorola’s old culture still exist. I am not saying Ed and the team need to recapture the Motorola of old. There were some parts of that (some would say) more paternalistic culture that don’t necessarily fit in today’s marketplace. However, there were some amazing and unique aspects of the old culture which employees should be reminded about. If Ed were to meet with Bob and perhaps invite Bob to an internal “town hall” type of meeting, I think there would be a great boost to the morale. This wouldn’t diminish Ed’s status as the leader, but strengthen it.
2. Further Clarify Strategy (Business, Corporate, Software, Acquisitions). “Seamless Mobility” is a catchy phrase. I think I understand what Motorola means by it and how it results in your core three businesses, etc. However, I’m not sure and I don’t think I’m alone here. It would be helpful for me – as a shareholder – and, I believe, to other analysts, institutional investors, and employees, if Ed could more clearly spell out what Motorola is building towards in the coming 3 – 5 years. How are you going to be unique compared to Nokia, Samsung, the iPhone, and Google? How do the three businesses all fit together? What are the criteria you use for new acquisitions? How will you win in software (see point below)? You don’t want to share your most intimate of strategic details with your competitors, but – in my opinion – you’ve been too private. By not speaking up more, there is a perception created that there is not a clear strategy being followed. That was ok when things were going well with RAZR, but you can’t skate by without more explanation these days. Another way of putting this is that you could win over so many more supporters with just more explanation as to where things are heading. Tom has done a great job of this within his area. He’s provided some clear metrics to measure his effectiveness on in 1 – 2 years from now. The Street loves this. We need the equivalent of this from the strategic perspective.
3. Winning in Software/Services. I think the most important hire you’ve made in the last 6 months is not Stu Reed to lead MDB but Alain Mutricy to head up software. Many of your competitors (most notably Nokia) have staked out software/services as a key area for battle in the next 5 years. Now Apple and Google are raising the stakes further. Motorola has always known the importance of software; hence the Good acquisition. However, there is still much work to do here. Streamlining onto fewer platforms and getting Linux/Java out the door is necessary but not sufficient for beating your rivals. The bar has really been raised by the companies mentioned above (even though I know Google is technically a MOT partner, just as Windows Mobile is a partner). We need a much stronger story to tell about what’s unique and exciting from a user-perspective about Motorola’s software. Otherwise, you’re a hardware vendor. Ed knows better than anyone that that’s not a market space you want to be relegated to. You need to say more than “stay tuned” on this issue. The Street wants to know how we’ll be different.
4. Further Strengthening the Board. I know Motorola and its directors take corporate governance issues very seriously. You have some very strong individuals on the board. However, we believe that – after a certain period of time on the board – one’s independence diminishes through no fault of a director’s own. Right now, the board at Countrywide is under-fire on this issue of director tenure length.[1] A decade is a fair length of time for any non-executive director serving on any company. We appreciate the years of service provided by Judy, Lewent, Nicolas Negroponte, Samuel Scott III, and Dr. John White, but we believe there is an opportunity to bring in some fresh eyes – as you have done recently with Anthony Vinciquerra of Fox and David Dorman. We think doing so would strengthen your standing on Wall Street (assuming you pick the right people). As with the point on Culture above, there’s an opportunity here for the Company to turn a perceived weakness into a strength. Instituting a required stock purchase amount by directors would also be appreciated by the Street and – according to research I’ve done – also result in even more meaningful participation by all Motorola directors.
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119404440821681023.html
Friday, August 24, 2007
Why Has Motorola Never Tried to Hire Away Nokia Talent?
This morning, I spoke with someone whose firm is one of the largest holders of Motorola shares in the world.
Of course, we were discussing the points of our group's "Plan B" and the fact that the Motorola's non-executive directors had refused to meet with our group to discuss the plan -- "a bad sign," according to this person.
The person also raised a very good question, which is worth considering:
"With Nokia doing so well compared to Motorola, I've always wondered why they haven't tried more aggressively to hire talent away from Nokia? In the areas of platform strategy, marketing, and supply chain, it seems like Motorola really could really benefit from some expertise and why not take it away from your top competitor?"
Good question. Maybe Motorola will choose to address this at their Financial Analyst Meeting on September 7th. We'll be watching.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
WSJ: Nokia's Net More than Doubles On Strong Sales, Bigger Market Share
Motorola's losses are Nokia's gains.... From this morning's WSJ:
By DANIEL THOMASAugust 2, 2007 7:43 a.m.
LONDON -- Nokia Corp. Thursday said second-quarter net income more than doubled, surprising investors, as the world's largest mobile-phone maker took a 38% share of the global phone market.
The Finland-based telecommunications equipment saw mobile-phone shipments jump 29% to 100.8 million, resulting from a push into high-volume markets, such as India and China. Rival Motorola Inc.'s recent woes are also believed to have helped Nokia gain market share. Earlier this month, Motorola posted a second-quarter net loss and a huge slide in sales.
Nokia lifted the average selling price of its devices sequentially to €90 from €89, as it introduced a number of high-end phones, including the Nokia N95 multimedia device. Average selling prices fell 11% from €102.
The mobile-phone maker said net profit for the three months ended June 30 increased to €2.83 billion, or 72 European cents a share, from €1.14 billion, 28 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items earnings per share came in at €0.32, still ahead of analyst expectations. The quarter included a €1.88 billion nontaxable gain from the creation of its joint-venture with Siemens AG.
Revenue increased 28.3% to €12.59 billion from €9.81 billion. Analysts, who predicted that Nokia would report lower profits as a result of its push into lower-priced emerging markets and costs related to the setting up of its Nokia Siemens Networks joint-venture, had expected net profit of €1.06 billion, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of about €12.91 billion.
"Nokia continued to grow in the second quarter thanks to an excellent performance from our device businesses. Nokia's share of the global device market improved to an estimated 38%, while operating margins in our device businesses were at their highest level in three years," Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said, adding that he expects the mobile device market to grow by 10% or more in 2007 to around 1.075 billion.
But Mr. Kallasvuo said its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture had faced a challenging quarter, with net sales and margins both weak. The company said it would be "accelerating and increasing" the company's cost-savings targets as a result. Nokia Siemens Networks now plans to target annual cost savings of €1.5 billion by the end of 2008, rather than 2010.
Shares of Nokia were 7% higher in European trading at €22.08.
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