Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been focused on expanding its digital footprint. Finally, this quarter, the company’s efforts have borne results. During the previous quarter, digital products accounted for 9 of the top 10 products sold on Amazon.com. Digital sales were led by their recently launched Kindle Fire which has stormed through the Android-based tablet market. Increased digital sales helped Amazon’s revenues and earnings grow ahead of market estimates and sent their stock soaring.
Market reports estimate that over 180 million users of the Internet in the US watch online video content. Within the U.S., 44 billion videos are viewed each month. Netflix remains the leader within the online video-by-subscription segment. According to NPD research, Netflix accounted for a 55% share in the digital movie rental business as of early this year. The market share has declined since the middle of last year, when the company controlled 59% of the U.S. market.
Nothing seems to be stopping Apple’s growth path, as the company regained the title of the most valuable company in the world. Their strong product line-up helped them surge past market expectations on all fronts and quash analyst doubts of whether the company would be able to deliver after the loss of their visionary founder. Their products continue to gobble up market share. According to Nielsen’s research, while Android devices continue to lead the smartphone market share in the U.S., Apple’s devices are catching up. Android devices accounted for 48% of smartphone users in the market, while Apple’s iPhone was owned by 32.1% of users. Blackberry users were a distant third with an 11.6% contribution. However, a survey conducted on the users who purchased smartphones over the three-month period December 2011 through February 2012 saw that 48% of the buyers bought Android devices, while 43% chose the iPhone. The increasing popularity of the iPhone will help narrow the gap between them and Android devices.
Yahoo’s management overhaul seems to have done good for the company. Recently released quarter results look promising as Yahoo saw performance beat market expectations. This was the first quarter since the third quarter of fiscal 2008 that the company’s revenues reported growth over the previous year.
Market researcher Canalys estimates that the worldwide enterprise security market will grow 8.7% this year to $22.9 billion worldwide. The anti-virus segment will retain the highest market share of the enterprise software market, contributing 11.3% of the total market value and reporting 6.8% growth over the year. Cloud security, in particular, is seeing significant adoption, and Proofpoint’s IPO indicates the beginning of several public offerings. Also in the pipeline is Qualys. Of course, the IPO pipeline for SaaS and cloud companies is significant right now. Many companies in the $75 million-$150 million range are waiting in the wings.
According to Gartner’s recent estimates, worldwide PC shipments during the first quarter this year grew 1.9% over the year to 89 million units. The results are a pleasant surprise, considering the 1.2% decline that was projected by Gartner. Shipment increases were driven by growth of 6.7% growth in the EMEA and 2% in the Asia/Pacific markets, where shipments grew to 28.2 million and 30.3 million units, respectively. Japan is also seeing strong recovery following the earthquake last year, and shipments grew 11.5% to 4.4 million units. However, the Americas were weak markets, with PC shipments falling 3.5% over the year to 15.5 million units in the U.S. and Latin America showing a 3.2% decline to 9 million units.
