Can Lumia Help Nokia Remain Relevant?

Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) woes continued during the last quarter. According to an IDC report, in the December quarter sales of smartphones reached 219 million worldwide, compared with 161 million a year ago and 180 million a quarter ago. But Nokia is not enjoying this increase: researchers estimate that for the year 2012, Samsung’s smartphone market share grew from 20% to 30%, with shipments of more than 213 million units. Apple’s share remained constant at 19% of the market, but Nokia’s share dropped sharply from 15% to 5% during the year.

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Netflix’s Stellar Quarter

Till a year ago, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) seemed to be going downhill. A hasty decision by the management to increase prices and split streaming and DVD rental services was not well received by either subscribers or the stock market. Netflix subsequently recalled its decision to raise prices. The decreasing pace of new subscriber additions, rising content costs, and continuing losses incurred on account of expansion in new markets did not bode well for the stock. But within a year, the story seems to have taken a positive turn. In fact, after the announcement of the company’s quarterly results earlier last week, the stock jumped 42% within a day.

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Microsoft’s Products Disappoint

According to the recent Gartner report, worldwide PC shipments fell 5% over the year to 90.3 million units during the final quarter of 2012. The decline in PC sales was attributed to the growing adoption and availability of low-cost tablets that replaced the PCs. Analysts were expecting Windows 8 to impact PC shipments during the final quarter of 2012, but the new software has failed to live up to expectations.

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Online Ad Spend Crosses $100 Billion

Online advertising crossed a milestone last year when worldwide digital ad spend crossed the $100 billion mark. According to eMarketer, online advertising grew 18% over the year to $102.83 billion. Online ad spending is projected to grow 15% this year to $118.40 million. eMarketer expects online advertising to be a $163 billion industry by 2016.

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SevOne’s IPO Plans

According to a Gartner report released last year, total software revenues from worldwide IT operations management (ITOM) grew 8.7% in 2011 to $18.3 billion. The market is dominated by five vendors – IBM, CA Technologies, BMC Software, Microsoft, and HP – which together account for 53.5% of the market share. Other smaller players are coming onto the field.

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Envivio Struggles Following IPO

Video infrastructure services provider Envivio (Nasdaq:ENVI) has had a troubled run since its IPO in April 2012. The company had filed papers proposing the sale of shares at $9 each. Soon after listing, Envivio downgraded its financial outlook to revenues of $10 million-$11 million compared with earlier issued guidance of $17 million-$18 million.

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Digital Future at Electronic Arts

According to the latest report by NPD Group, video game retail sales of new hardware, software, and accessories in the U.S. fell 22% last year to $13.26 billion. Sales were also down 22% for December at $3.21 billion. Hardware sales reported a decline of 20% for December and were down 27% for the year. Software sales slipped 26% for the month and 23% for the year. Accessories performed marginally better, with sales falling 14% over the month and 8% over the year. The decline in sales was attributed to the absence of significant new releases during the year.

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Hulu’s Challenges in Online Video

Online video streaming service Hulu seems to have hit a rough patch. User loyalty seems to be eroding as viewers shift to other sites that offer better content with less interruption. According to a report by comScore, last month 182 million U.S. Internet users watched 38.7 billion online content videos. Google Sites, led by YouTube, remained the leaders in online video content viewership with 153 million unique viewers. Facebook followed at a distant second with 58.8 million users. Hulu did not feature in the top 10 online video content properties, but that has not stopped the company from being ranked fifth among viewership of online video ads. >>>

eBay’s Strong Growth Continues

Online marketplace eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) continues its recovery over the course of the previous year. The stock grew 77% last year, compared with an overall S&P 500 index growth of 15%. The recent quarter’s results again reassure the market’s faith in the stock as it continues to climb.

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Can You Make Money in Music?

The digital music business has been really tough to make money in. I often scratch my head and wonder whether anyone can make money in this business. We cover the usual suspects, including the Swedish music streaming service, Spotify. As we have discussed earlier, Spotify remains unprofitable despite international reach, revenues of $889 million projected for the current year, and valuation of close to $4 billion. Let’s look at Pandora and how it is faring in the face of strong mobile advertising forecasts, rapid subscriber growth, and other positive trends.

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