Square Gearing Up Toward IPO

Gartner’s report Forecast: Mobile Payment, Worldwide, 2009-2016, released earlier this year  predicts that worldwide mobile payment transactions will grow from 62% over the year from $105.9 billion to $171.5 billion this year. From 2011 through 2016, the global mobile transaction market is estimated to grow to $617 billion, and Gartner projects an annual growth rate of 42%. Gartner further estimates that mobile transaction services will have more than 448 million users by 2016.

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Pandora’s Business Model Woes

According to market reports, broadcast advertising on the radio accounts for 83% of the overall radio advertising market. Broadcast advertising is projected to grow 2.7% annually from 2011 through 2016. Growth will be driven by the online radio advertising market, where analysts project an annual growth rate of 11.5% over the period.

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Need for Better Mobile Strategy Grows More Urgent at Dell

The recent Gartner report on the PC market saw worldwide PC shipments fall 8.3% over the year to 87.5 million units. As we saw in yesterday’s Tech Stocks post, HP fell from its leading position to the second spot, with market share declining from 17% to 15.5% as Lenovo’s share grew from 13.1% a year ago to 15.7% during the last quarter. Dell also suffered from Lenovo’s performance improvement. Dell saw its market share drop from 11.2% a year ago to 10.5%. Within the U.S., PC shipments fell 13.8% a year ago 15.3 million units. HP maintained leadership in the U.S. market although its market share declined from 28.9% a year ago to 27% during the last quarter. Dell’s market share slipped marginally from 21.9% to 21.4% last quarter, but it retained its second spot in the U.S. market. Apple is gaining share in the country and now has a 13.6% market share, compared with 12.5% a year ago.

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Identity Crisis at HP

According to Gartner’s latest Worldwide PC shipment report, during the third quarter of this year, worldwide PC shipments fell 8.3% over the year to 87.5 million units. Gartner estimates that the decline was partly on account of delay in consumer buying decisions as many waited for Windows 8 to be released this quarter. HP finally slipped from its position as leading vendor with a 15.5% global market share. It was replaced by Lenovo, which became the leader in PC sales with a 15.7% market share. Dell came in a distant third with a 10.5% market share.

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Competition Continues for Solid CRM Acquisitions

Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings continue to remain a high-growth segment according to several research reports. Recently published Gartner’s Market Trends: Platform as a Service, Worldwide, 2012-2016 estimates that SaaS and cloud-based business application services will grow at an annual rate of 19% from 2011 through 2016. The industry will be worth $32.2 billion in 2016, compared with $13.4 billion in 2011. IDC estimates enterprise cloud application revenues to grow from $22.9 billion in 2011 to $67.3 billion by 2016, reporting an annual growth rate of 24%.

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Gilt Groupe Needs to Focus on Profitability

According to comScore, during the first quarter of this year, online retail sales grew 17% over the year to $44 billion. The quarter was the tenth consecutive quarter of positive growth, and the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Online retail sales were driven by growth in digital content and subscriptions, computer software, consumer electronics, jewelry and watches, and event tickets, each of which reported 17% growth over the year. Retail sales are also being spurred by the growth of flash sales sites. Researchers estimate that the discount flash sales market will be worth $6 billion by 2015. Within the U.S., flash market leader, Gilt Groupe, is rumored to be preparing for its IPO to ride this big wave.

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AppNexus Waits for the Right IPO Moment

The U.S. display advertising market is estimated to be worth $14.98 billion this year, compared with $12.33 billion a year ago. eMarketer estimates that this market will be worth $20.69 billion in 2014 and $17.67 billion in 2013.

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Glam Media’s Delayed IPO

IPOs of Web-based companies have not necessarily gotten the results that companies or their investors were hoping for. The biggest fall-outs have been from Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga, which had many hopes pinned on them but have seen their market values plummet since their public offerings. As a result, several other IPO favorites have decided to slow down their run-up to an IPO.

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Microsoft Counting on Nokia and Vice Versa

Nokia has managed to surprise the market this quarter by announcing better than expected financial results. However, its continuing decline in the smartphone market has done little to improve its market valuation. Analysts remain skeptical of whether Nokia will ever regain its market leadership again. A recent report saw Nokia fall to the 7th position in the global smartphone market, with Apple and Samsung maintaining their leadership in the segment. Gartner estimates that total smartphone sales grew 47% over the year to 169.2 million units, and they accounted for 40% of the mobile phone market. One player counting on Nokia’s regeneration is, of course, Microsoft. Last week, I was at the Churchill Club event with Steve Balmer jumping up and down about Windows 8 and the company’s phone strategy. Will Nokia deliver?

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UCWeb Eyes IPO on the Wings of the Mobile Web

Market data suggests that while there more than 1.2 billion computers worldwide, there are more than 6 billion cellphones, including smartphones, in the market. Analysts believe that because cellphones are less expensive than computers and access to the Internet is more easily available than fixed-line Internet, especially in emerging markets, there is an increasing adoption of mobile web browsers. In China, the number of smartphone users exceeds the number of smartphone users in the U.S., making that side of the world a high-growth market for mobile browsing technology. In the below graphic, courtesy of allthingsd.com, one can see how mobile Internet browsing has caught up with desktop browsing in the Indian market.

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