Accenture Should Expand SaaS-Enabled BPO

Earlier last quarter, Gartner announced a dismal projection for worldwide enterprise IT spending. According to the researcher, IT spending will grow 3.2% over the year in 2010 compared with the 3.9% growth projected earlier. In 2011, IT spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion, recording a mere 2.4% growth compared with 2009. According to the research firm, while key verticals such as manufacturing and financial services may have a couple more years before their IT budgets recover to pre-2008 levels, there will be other areas which will grow faster. The research firm expects IT growth to be “driven by the consumer” along with the four key trends of cloud computing, social computing, context-aware computing, and pattern-based strategy to drive IT business values. But despite the conservative estimates, IT outsourcing giant Accenture declared strong results.

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A Booming 2010 For Semis, But 2011 Weaker?

According to iSuppli, semiconductor revenue in 2010 is believed to have achieved record growth of 32.5% to $304 billion, courtesy of a boom in DRAM and NAND sales. NAND flash has received a major boost from demand from the smartphone and tablet markets. Another new trend that could drive up demand is laptops based on NAND flash memory. Apple’s MacBook Air is based on it and could lead the way for increased use of flash in laptops. Samsung and Toshiba/SanDisk are believed to be the Flash suppliers for the MacBook Air. Samsung and Toshiba are the leading suppliers of NAND Flash and are the main suppliers to Apple products like iPhone and iPad, while Micron is the third-largest supplier. Let’s take a closer look.

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Adobe and Apple: Kiss And Make Up?

The year 2010 has been eventful for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE). It released its flagship software Creative Suite 5, the momentum of which led to its crossing the $1 billion milestone in quarterly revenue. But it was also a year with controversy surrounding Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones. Let’s take a closer look.

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Tessera And InterDigital Bring In Some Cheer

Shutterfly Flying High

The online photo sharing market has been in the news lately due to patent infringment suits filed by Kodak and Shutterfly against each other. Analysts believe that Kodak’s patents are exceptionally broad that cover images stored in a central repository and which can be ordered online. The legal battle will be closely watched by Facebook, now the world’s largest photo-sharing site. To its photo sharing capabilities, Facebook recently added features such as enabling users to upload or download high-resolution photos, bulk tag photos, and the lightbox UI that help focus on the image.

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Will Healthcare IT Stimulus Help With America’s Deficit?

In a Treasury report released earlier last week, the U.S. government’s net financial position for the year ended September worsened to $13.5 trillion deficit from $11.5 trillion deficit reported a year ago. The fiscal deficit for the period grew to $2.1 trillion from $1.3 trillion a year ago. On a brighter note, the cash budget deficit did drop marginally from $1.4 trillion a year ago to $1.3 trillion. But analysts expect this number to remain above the $1 trillion mark due to the continuation of tax cuts in the current year. To control the growing deficit and manage health care administration costs, a year ago, the Obama administration released the government’s health care funding stimulus with benefits such as a $30 billion federal aid for hospitals adopting electronic records. Existing manual processes in the industry add to the expenses. For instance, a call for an eligibility benefits check costs the insurance company as much as $11 and has cost the country as much as $9 billion. It is thus not a surprise that health care IT companies are having a strong run in recent quarters.

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Online Real Estate Sector Update

The U.S. housing market is still struggling despite the lowest mortgage interest rates in nearly 60 years, with average 30-year fixed rate loan interests bottoming at 4.21% in October. But while the interest rates have eased, credit norms have become tougher. During the third quarter, 13% of bank loan officers surveyed by the Federal Reserve reported that standards had grown tighter, while fewer than 4% said standards had loosened. And, even when falling prices could have fuelled demand, expiry of the home owner tax credit and the legal battle over the process of repossessing foreclosed properties has further dampened the market. Unemployment rates remain high; according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national jobless rate increased marginally to 9.8% in November, and this isn’t helping the market, either.

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Oracle’s Shopping List

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported strong results last week driven by its Sun acquisition. With the acquisition, Oracle is competing aggressively against HP and IBM in addition to its age-old rivalry with SAP. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

RIM’s International Footprint Widening

Research in Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) last week reported strong third quarter results that beat all estimates. On the other hand, research firms and analysts have been reporting on dismal performance of its BlackBerry phones compared to that of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones. Let’s dig deeper. >>>

Governments Meddling In Microfinance

Earlier last week, the Andhra Pradesh state government passed a bill restricting the interest rates and debt collection methods followed by the microfinance industry. To control collection measures, the bill restricts recovery agents to collecting debts only at the district government office. The bill also restricts the frequency of debt collection to once a month instead of weekly. Further, to control interest rates, the bill stipulates that the amount of interest on a loan cannot exceed the loan principle. The state’s politicians are encouraging borrowers to default on their loan repayments in a bid to discourage profit motives of the micro-financiers. According to reports, on the insistence of politicians, creditors in the state have stopped repayments on loans, and less than 10% of borrowers made payments in the past few weeks. India’s microfinance sector is estimated to have a total loan portfolio of Rs 31,500 crores (~$6.90 billion), of which Andhra Pradesh accounts for over Rs 9,000 crores (~$1.96 billion). The recent legislation is expected to hurt the microfinance sector in the country. >>>