Is Flipboard’s Monetization Strategy Working?

News aggregating service Flipboard recently announced that it had a user base of more than 56 million readers worldwide. Last August, that number stood at 20 million. Flipboard claims to add at least 200,000 users daily to its application to access more than 3.5 million magazines. Here is a quick discussion of how the site has been expanding its presence.

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Marketo Doing Well Following IPO

According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management (MCCM), digital marketing accounts for nearly 25% of an organization’s marketing spending. The researcher anticipates spending on customer relationship management software to grow 7.5% this year to over $14 billion.

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Twitter IPO: Some Thoughts

The wait is finally over. After months of maintaining silence over its plans and performance, social media icon, Twitter, has finally decided to go public. The company filed for an IPO under the JOBS Act, which lets companies with less than $1 billion in revenues file confidentially. Companies have to make public their documents at least three weeks before the road shows begin. That deadline ended for Twitter late last week when it decided to make its documents public.

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Who Would Buy BlackBerry? Why?

BlackBerry’s (Nasdaq:BBRY) troubles continue. Earlier this quarter, the company warned investors of impending disappointing quarterly results. Even with the warning, the quarterly performance was shocking. In last-ditch efforts, BlackBerry announced plans to restructure and lay off 4,500 people, or nearly 40% of its employees, while it looks for private buyers.

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Accenture’s Acquisitive Growth Continues

According to IBISWorld’s IT Consulting Market Research Report, the worldwide IT consulting market is estimated to have grown 2% annually from 2008 to 2013 to reach $337 billion. These projections are aggressive when compared with GIA’s report, which pegs the IT consulting market to be worth $255 billion by 2015. But while industry estimates vary, most consultants agree that after a few years of economic slowdown, the IT consulting market is gaining back lost ground.

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Oracle Pushing Further Into the Cloud

According to TheInfoPro Wave 5 Cloud Computing Study, the worldwide cloud computing market is projected to grow 36% annually to $19.5 billion by the year 2016. The study estimates that of the cloud-related projects being conducted by organizations, the biggest demand is in internal private cloud, followed by cloud provider strategy planning. Cloud projects related to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) come a close third and fourth in terms of priority projects. It’s little wonder, then, that Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is investing heavily in the cloud space.

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IPO Anticipated at Wearable Innovator Jawbone

Wearable technology is among the hot technology trends today. Google has been experimenting with Google Glass, Apple is rumored to be in the process of manufacturing the iWatch, and Samsung released the first wearable (albeit clunky) smartwatch, Galaxy Gear. But wearable technology isn’t entirely new. According to IMS Research, 14 million wearable devices were shipped worldwide in 2011. IMS also expects the market to be worth $6 billion by 2016. Another market research report, Wearable Technology Market – Global Scenario, Trends, Industry Analysis, Size, Share And Forecast, 2012-2018, estimates the wearable technology market to grow 41% annually from an estimated $0.75 billion in 2012 to $5.8 billion in 2018.

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Housing Rebound Pushes Online Real Estate Stocks Up

The housing market continues to rebound. Recent market reports show that housing prices have gone up significantly, with some markets reporting price increases of 15% over the previous year’s levels. The housing industry has benefited from lower mortgage rates and government policies such as the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of single-family houses sold in July this year rose to 454,000 from 276,000 in 2010. The median price for properties has also gone up from $204,000 in 2010 to $271,600. The report showed that in 2010, the housing inventory stood at 9.1 months, but today that number has fallen to 4.1 months. Improvement in the sector has also driven stock prices of online real estate firms to 52-week highs, with more headroom due to macro trends.

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Millennial Media Competing in High-Growth but Tough Segment

A Gartner report released earlier this year estimates worldwide mobile advertising market to grow 18.8% this year from $9.6 billion in 2012 to $11.4 billion. The report also projects the market to grow to $24.5 billion by 2016. Growth in mobile advertising is attributed to the increased and fast paced adoption of smartphones and tablets. Another report by Gartner forecasts downloads from mobile app stores worldwide to grow 57% annually over the period 2011 through 2015 to 108.8 billion.

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EA’s Mobile and Asian Market Push

The worldwide gaming industry is waiting eagerly for several big releases for the start of the holiday season this year. Microsoft’s XBox One and Sony’s Playstation 4 are both currently being pre-ordered for delivery in November. Within games, Take-Two Interactive recently released “Grand Theft Auto V.” Analysts estimate that the game will generate $1.5 billion in revenues. But even keeping the new releases aside, the video game industry has seen a recent surprising surge. According to NPD, video game sales in the country grew 1.0% to $521.0 million in August this year. Growth was driven by software sales, which reported a 21% increase to $293.4 million. Hardware sales were down 40% over the year to $90.8 million, and accessories sales grew 7% to $136.7 million in August 2013.

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