WebMD And Epocrates Lead The Way In Mobile Health Apps

Manhattan Research estimates that 72% of doctors in the country currently own smartphones. This number is projected to rise to 80% by 2012. The research also estimates that among physicians, the smartphone is primarily used to look up prescription drug information at the point of patient care. The growing demand of mobile-based services is driving mobile initiatives of medical information providing companies.

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An IPO For Glam Media?

A few years ago, I covered the women-focused distributed media network, Glam Media, and asked if Glam could do more than just create a seat for itself at the fashion table. Recently, the company has been rumored to be readying their IPO plans, suggesting that they are truly “A Vertical Ad Network Powerhouse.”

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The Sky’s The Limit For Shutterfly

The U.S. printed greeting card market is expected to be worth $12 billion, of which a mere 5% is estimated to be transacted via the Web. The country’s stationery market is estimated to be worth $7 billion to $7.5 billion with 2% of the market’s transactions being conducted over the Web. These low Internet penetration rates are big opportunities for online photo sharing and printing site, Shutterfly.

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Disney Plans For Aggressive Growth In Parks And Education

According to market estimates, sales of new DVDs fell 20% over the year in 2009. Total spending on home entertainment, which includes DVD and Blu-ray rentals and sales, together with electronic downloading, fell 10% to $4.7 billion for the year. Researchers estimate that the consumers are shifting from the purchase of DVDs to an online streaming model such as that offered by Netflix. Declining DVD sales are impacting other traditional entertainment companies’ market performance. Recently announced results by Disney reflected this weak market.

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Adobe Beats Estimates

Last month, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported strong second quarter results that beat estimates. The clash between Adobe and Apple over Flash ended with Adobe making a conciliatory move and releasing a Flash-to-HTML5 converter. Last week, Google also released a Flash-to HTML5 converter called Swiffy. Let’s take a closer look.

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Accenture Plans To Hire 66,000 More People In 2011

During the previous quarter, Accenture’s strong market practices helped them to establish a solid presence in the global market. Not only are they winning big contracts worldwide, but they are also being given numerous accolades. Last week, Standards & Poor’s announced plans to add Accenture to the S&P 500 Index starting July. Last month, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals named the company the leader among the Global Outsourcing 100 List for the fourth consecutive year. It is thus no surprise that their quarterly performance also surpassed the market expectations.

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Gilt Groupe Sees Gold In Diversification And Overseas Expansion

Flash sales sites shot to attention after a spate of acquisitions announced over the past few months. Earlier this year, Nordstrom bought HauteLook for $270 million. Last year end, e-tailing giant Amazon also ventured into the market when it bought the members-only site BuyVIP for $96.5 million. The global market in luxury flash sales is led by the French company Vente Privée, which is projected to record sales of over $1.5 billion this year. Within the U.S. though, the market is led by New York–based Gilt Groupe, which has managed to stay independent thus far.

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Oracle To Avoid Large Acquisitions

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) last week reported strong results driven by its software business. Hardware sales were below expectations and raised investor concerns about the integration of the Sun acquisition. However, Oracle said that these results reflected its decision to go after profit rather than revenue. CEO Larry Ellison also said that Oracle would be focusing more on organic growth. Let’s take a closer look.

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Tumblr Struggles With Monetization

Founded by David Karp in New York City in 2007, tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that has re-envisioned the interface of traditional blogging by aggregating posts from different blogs and giving them a fun visual navigation through quick, mixed-media posts. Tumblr has simplified the effort required in sites like WordPress for blog creation and also added features that are not possible in much simpler micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter. Below is a brief overview on this blogging site, which now hosts more blogs than the veteran player, WordPress.

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Zynga’s Thought Leadership In Immersive Advertising

Besides Yelp, Zynga is another online player that appears to be waiting to cash in on the IPO market. Analysts expect Zynga to file for an IPO by the end of this month. Meanwhile, the company is busy launching new games and creating attractive marketing tie-ups in the entertainment industry.

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