Semiconductor IP: lntel vs. ARM and Tessera’s Expiring Patent

The Intel–ARM rivalry is getting interesting. Last year, ARM (NASDAQ:ARMH) unveiled its processor for netbooks and was perceived as a threat to Intel. And this year, Intel responded with an LG smartphone built on its Atom Moorestown platform. Let’s take a closer look at ARM and the other semiconductor IP players, Tessera (NASDAQ:TSRA) and InterDigital (NASDAQ:IDCC). >>>

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Online Travel Industry Growing Nicely

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated the global travel and tourism industry to have generated $1.87 trillion in direct global revenues in 2009, registering a drop of 3.5% over the previous year. The council expects overall travel industry revenue to grow at 3.6% to $3.39 trillion by 2019. Business is already improving: in January, Orbitz noted that business class fares for tickets booked on its site had grown 4% over the year. Much of the travel growth is coming from international segments. >>>

SaaS Also Rules In Security

An IDC report published in October of last year projects that the Web security market will grow at a 12% compounded rate to reach $2.5 billion in 2013, up from $1.4 billion in 2008. The biggest growth for the industry is expected to come from the SaaS segment, which is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 46%. Compare that with projected growth of 4% for software and 20% for applications. >>>

Major SaaS Players Become Consolidators

According to Gartner, the content, communications, and collaboration segments are the largest SaaS revenue generators, followed by customer relationship management (CRM) with a total of $2.3 billion in revenue in 2009. SaaS has continued to represent a key driver of growth in the CRM market over the past four years, from 8% of the market in 2005 to 15% in 2007 and 20% in 2008, with about $1.9 billion in revenue. By 2011, SaaS is expected to account for 25% of the CRM market. >>>

Intuit Moving Ahead With Connected Services Strategy

In fiscal 2008, Intuit’s (NASDAQ:INTU) new CEO, Brad Smith, announced the company’s connected services strategy, which targets a market where people and businesses are increasingly connected, whether through desktop, laptop, or handheld devices. Last year, Intuit made two major acquisitions – PayCycle (now Intuit Online Payroll) and Mint.com, that support this strategy. More than 56% of the company’s $3.2 billion in fiscal 2009 revenue came from connected services. >>>

Indian IT Services: Globalization and Products

A recent Morningstar report on the IT services and consulting industry projects client demand to rise. Morningstar notes that the U.S. Tech Pulse Index has been rising since May of last year and registered 14.2% annualized growth in December 2009. No wonder ITO and BPO players in India are hiring and expanding their delivery capabilities to cater to the growing demand. >>>

AMD, Nvidia Lose Share As Intel Leads The Graphics Market

According to a recent Jon Peddie Research report, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) increased its graphics chip market share to 55.2% driven by strong Atom sales while Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) share declined to 24.3% and AMD’s (NYSE:AMD) share declined slightly to 19.9%. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Content Players Contemplating iPad Effect

Ad spend analysts labeled 2009 as one of the worst years in terms of ad numbers. Ad spending in 2009 fell 10.2% over the year, according to ZenithOptimedia. Numbers are expected to improve in 2010, which should see 0.9% growth over the year to $448 billion. Overall ad spend is expected to continue to grow at 3.9% in 2011 and 4.8% in 2012 with recovery driven by emerging markets. >>>

Changing Business Mix At HP And Dell

Over the past decade, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has exited commoditized businesses and shifted its focus to high-margin software and services. HP is taking a different path of diversifying its portfolio to capitalize on the trend towards converged infrastructure products that integrate storage, networking, servers, and management software. In 2008, HP acquired EDS for $13.9 billion, a move that strengthened its services business and last year, it announced its plans to buy 3Com for $2.7 billion to fortify its networking arm in order to take on Cisco. Cisco has long been a preferred supplier for HP, but Cisco’s new unified data center strategy has turned the relationship sour. Cisco has now said that it will no longer renew its relationship with HP. >>>

30,000-foot SaaS Trends: Huge Growth

The recession has highlighted the importance of SaaS and its cost efficiencies. In a report released this week, Global Industry Analysts projects the SaaS in enterprise application software (EAS) market to reach $23.15 billion by 2015. >>>