Athenahealth Catching Up On Competitors’ Market Share

A recent report by MarketResearch.com estimates the U.S. electronic medical records (EMR) market to grow 18% annually to $6.05 billion in 2015. The market was estimated to be worth $2.18 billion in 2009. The report claims that growth in the market is being fueled by the nationwide healthcare reforms and the need to control healthcare costs while improving the quality of services offered.

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Microsoft’s Business Mix Is Changing

According to Gartner, during the previous quarter, global PC shipments grew only 2.3% over the year to 85 million units. Gartner had earlier estimated sales growth of 6.7%. Netbooks and tablets continued to eat into traditional PC sales. iPad sales doubled last quarter to 9.25 million units, and an estimated 20% of buyers who would have otherwise bought a Windows PC bought the iPad instead. Declining PC sales hurt Windows revenue, which fell for a third consecutive quarter. Yet, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) continued to surpass market expectations as it pushed forward in other segments.

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Amazon Heading To India, Finally

According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales reached $441.3 million last year from $61.3 million reported two years ago. In a survey conducted by the Book Industry Study, it was found that within the U.S., a quarter of those surveyed had switched to electronic books. Players like Amazon are counting on capturing further the yet untapped market.

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Square Scales By Sharing A Cut Of Small Business Revenues

While services like Google Wallet are focused on helping consumers use their smart phones to make payments, there is another big player who has created a smart tool focused on the needs of businesses. Founded in 2009 by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey and James McKelvey, Square was initially founded to provide a solution, especially for small business owners, to accept credit card payments through their mobile phones. >>>

Power To The IP Players

Semiconductor IP players like ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) and InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC) have benefitted immensely from the booming sales of smartphones. ARM dominates the mobile computing space and has sets its sights on Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) domain of traditional computing. InterDigital, which has about 1,300 patents in cellular technology, recently announced that it is considering strategic alternatives, including a sale. Apple and Google are said to be among the interested companies. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

IBM Penetrating Markets Beyond BRIC, Including Africa

There doesn’t seem to be much stopping IBM’s performance. Since the beginning of the year, the company has been setting year-high records for their stock price. Their recent quarterly results continued to beat the market expectations and were driven by their strategy of focusing on higher-margin businesses including software and services. There couldn’t have been a better way for the company to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.

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Netflix Navigates Changing Dynamics

Netflix’s rapid growth finally seems to have slowed. In the latest quarterly results declared earlier this week, the company announced disappointing growth in the number of subscribers. Subscribers in the U.S. to Netflix’s DVD and streaming services grew by a relatively smaller number of 1.96 million to 24.6 million users, compared with the 3.6 million users added a quarter ago. Growth is projected to slow further in the current quarter. Netflix expects to end the current quarter with a domestic subscriber base of 24.6 million to 25.4 million.

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Stronger Mobile Strategy Scoring For eBay

According to comScore, e-commerce spending excluding travel grew 12% over the year in the first quarter to $38 billion. Growth continued this quarter, e-commerce spending for May coming in at $12.3 billion, recording growth of 12% over the year. E-commerce player eBay’s quarterly results reflect the industry’s sentiment.

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Enough, Yahoo!

Unlike the results documented in recent quarterly reports by tech giants such as Google and Apple, which shattered market expectations, Yahoo’s results continued to disappoint. Not only has their stock taken a beating, but the falling market standing and the Alipay mess begs the question, When will CEO Carol Bartz figure out a clear strategy? Although some shareholders have been questioning her position, the company’s board is still sticking by her.

According to eMarketer, the online ad market is expected to be worth $31 billion, and Yahoo’s share is projected to fall to 11% by the end of 2011 compared with the 16% share it commanded in 2009. Compare that to Google, whose market share was projected to reach 41% from 35% in 2009, and Facebook, which is projected to own 7% of the market compared with 2.4% in 2009. These are troubling statistics for Yahoo.

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Apple Firing On All Cylinders

Apple shipped its first iOS device, the iPhone, in the summer of 2007 and has not stopped since. Within a quarter, they sold over one million units. By July 2010, the company had reported sales of iOS devices to have crossed 100 million units sold, and this January, they reported sales of 160 million units. Last month, cumulative iOS device sales crossed 200 million units. To date, Apple has shipped 222 million iOS devices. Apple’s device popularity can be gauged from COO Tim Cook’s comment in the iPad2 “…we sold every iPad 2 in the quarter that we could make and so there certainly was not a shortage of demand.”

Apple is gaining market share across the globe within different market segments. Within the U.S., they are the third-largest PC seller. According to IDC Research, global PC shipments grew 2.6% over the year in the second quarter, compared to the 12% growth in the first quarter. Apple surpassed Acer to own 10.7% of the domestic PC market driven by strong sales of the iPad. A year ago, Apple commanded a 9% market share. In Europe, they recently overtook Nokia, again, this time in mobile ad impression share. InMobi research estimates that during the previous quarter, more than 2 billion ad impressions were served on Apple devices in Europe, commanding 19.5% of the Continent’s mobile ad share. The share of Nokia devices fell to 18.7% of ads in the region. >>>