According to a recent IDC report, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is the world’s biggest converged mobile phone maker with about 38% share in Q4 2009. However, it has a poor presence in the U.S. market, which is dominated by RIM and Apple. >>>
Analysts are projecting positive trends for the electronics industry in the current year, with estimates ranging from 7% to 9% annual growth. Also, investment in R&D is expected to return after slowing last year. The increased demand is expected to drive growth in the semiconductor industry.
Conservative estimates predict 2010 to be a year of stabilization for the EDA space followed by growth in 2011, and 2010 is expected to be a year of industry consolidation. The largest player, Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS), is already acquiring smaller players in the market and will continue to do so. Cadence is trading at half of Synopsys’ market cap, which makes their acquisition currency weaker. Let’s take a look at the last quarter’s happenings. >>>
Dolby Laboratories Inc (NYSE: DLB) has been taking a keen interest in the 3D market. And thanks to it, we now have a new generation of 3D films. 2009 ended with “Avatar,” and “Alice in Wonderland” was recently released. The 3D market is dominated by RealD, but with Dolby’s 3D technology, even regular theaters can screen 3D movies. Let’s take a closer look. >>>
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) recently announced Q4 numbers that were up sequentially with less of a year-on-year decline. Revenues of $456 million fell 7% over the year but grew 9% over the quarter. EPS of $0.30 was a penny lower than the previous year’s earnings and grew 10% over the previous quarter’s EPS of $0.27. Analysts were projecting revenues of $432 million with earnings of $0.23 per share. >>>
Last quarter, we saw how Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) and TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) declined in the face of increasing competition in their core businesses. While the integration of navigation applications in smartphones is eating into Garmin’s personal navigation devices (PND) business, TiVo is losing subscribers with the advent of broadband and competing services such as Hulu, Netflix, and iTunes. But its recent performance provides a glimmer of hope. >>>
The New York Times announced recently that it will adopt a metered model of charging viewers for online content from next year. News Corp ((NASDAQ:NWSA) is already successfully monetizing content with its WSJ.com site. The company’s recent results reflect its ability to charge for superior online content. >>>
Solid-state drives (SSDs), with faster access times and lower power consumption, are replacing or complementing hard disk drives (HDDs) in communications and consumer electronics equipment. Will they eventually render HDDs obsolete in the enterprise market? Let’s take a closer look. >>>
The 4G race should pick up steam this year with Sprint (NYSE:S) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) accelerating their handset development efforts. Sprint and its joint venture Clearwire are betting on WiMax while Verizon, AT&T (NYSE:T), and T-Mobile are investing in the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology for 4G. Let’s take a closer look. >>>
Even as newspapers fold and circulation numbers shrink, a recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that Americans are not completely abandoning the print medium in favor of digital formats, which is not surprising considering that radio did not totally replace newspapers nor TV totally replace radio. According to the study, 92% of the population surveyed accesses news using more than one source and 59% of users access news both online and offline. >>>
The growing market for mobile devices is proving to be beneficial for the smartphone ecosystem component makers like ARM and Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) that specialize in chips optimized for longer battery power. We covered ARM last week, and in this post we will look at Marvell and Infineon (OTC: IFNNY.PK). >>>