Facebook Riding High on Mobile

According to eMarketer, social giant Facebook’s worldwide mobile ad share during the current year is projected to rise to 21.7% compared with 17.5% a year ago.  The company is eating into Google’s share as it is projected to slip slowly from 49.3% a year ago to 46.8% this year. Overall, Facebook accounted for 7% share of the digital ad share in the US last year. eMarketer expects their share to climb to 8% this year. Google, meanwhile, is expected to remain relatively flat at 40% market share.

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Microsoft Completes Nokia Acquisition

IDC’s recently released quarterly worldwide PC shipment tracker reports a 4.4% decline over the year in PC shipments to 73.4 million units. Analysts were pleased by the results as they were anticipating a 5.3% decline in the market. During the recent quarter, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced the end of Windows XP support. Analysts believe that this move has spurred sales on account of PC refresh.

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Zynga Still Struggling to Find its Footing

According to Digi-Capital, the total digital and video game industry is projected to be worth $100 billion by the year 2017. Of this, nearly $60 billion will consist of online and mobile game sales and the remaining $40 billion will be for gaming hardware, console software, and PC.

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Emerging Markets Contribute to Apple’s Growth

According to IDC, worldwide smartphone shipments are projected to grow 18% annually over the period 2013 through 2017 to 1.7 billion units. Growth will be driven by the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and Latin America both of which are projected to grow more than 23% annually during this period. By 2017, Asia Pacific markets will account for 58.5% of the market share at 986 million units compared with 52.3% share in 2013. Europe will be the second largest market with 15.5% of the market and growing 11% annually. North America will account for 11% of the market and grow a comparatively modest 7.8% annually.

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Accenture Facing Margin Pressure

According to IBIS World Research, the Information Technology Consulting industry has grown 2.2% over the past four year period from 2009 through 2013. The research firm estimates that The IT Consulting industry was worth $337 billion in 2013, growing by a modest 1.2% over the year.

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Netflix Tests Price Increases Again

According to data from analytics firm Qwilt, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX)  accounts for 57.5% of all online video traffic compared with 52.5% last year. Analysts believe that Netflix can attribute  part of this success to the recent well-received launches of their home-produced shows such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

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Lithium Technologies Delivers High Returns on Social CRM

The growth in social networking solutions is also infiltrating the CRM industry. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, organizations are spending more money on improving their engagement initiatives with consumers. The research firm projects that social CRM market will grow 36.5% annually from $1.91 billion in 2013 to be worth $9.08 billion in 2018.

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Intel Diversifying into Wearable Devices

Recently published PC shipment reports by both Gartner and IDC suggests that the decline in the market may have finally stabilized. Worldwide PC shipments during the quarter fell 1.7% to 76.6 million compared with the 6.9% decline registered a quarter ago. Despite the stabilization, PC chip manufacturer Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) realizes the need to diversify operations. >>>

King’s IPO Failed to Deliver the Candy Crush Success

Tech stocks on stock exchanges have taken a beating recently. After reaching a high in March this year, the Nasdaq had fallen 7% as of last week. Not only are the older tech stocks like Facebook seeing their stock tumble, but the recent IPOs aren’t faring well either. It appears that investors are finally showing some caution when investing into companies that boast of high valuation but offer little or no profits.

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Google Expanding Offerings Through Acquisitions

eMarketer’s latest report on mobile advertising projects worldwide mobile internet ad spending to grow from $17.96 billion in 2013 to $94.91 billion by the year 2018. The mobile ad market is expected to grow 75% to $31.45 billion in 2014, but online giant Google  (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is seeing its market share slip. Last year, Google accounted for 49.3% of the mobile advertising market. That number is projected to drop to 46.8% in 2014 as Facebook ramps up its share from 17.5% to 21.7%.

Google is diversifying its efforts into revenues from alternate technology. Last week, they sold the wearable Google Glass to the public for a day and last quarter, they acquired connected device maker NestLabs as part of this move. During the recent quarter, Google continued to add to their portfolio through several acquisitions. >>>