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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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Technology Stocks
HP Delivers Under Meg Whitman’s Guidance
According to Gartner’s latest report, worldwide PC shipments decreased 6.9% over the year to 82.6 million units. This was the worst ever decline in the PC industry. For the entire year, PC shipments declined 10% to 315.9 million units. The global PC market was dominated by Lenovo, which registered a 6.6% growth even in the depressed market to account for 18.1% market share with 14.9 million units. HP continued to struggle with its PC shipments falling 7% globally to 13.6 million units and global market share at 16.4%. Within the US, HP maintained its lead with 26.5% market share and 4.2 million units, but registered a 10.3% decline over the year in terms of units shipped.
Groupon’s Never-Ending Woes
Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) just cannot catch a break. They expected to turn around a failing business model by bringing in a new CEO, but it hasn’t helped much. The company continues to deliver disappointing projections, causing the stock price to fall. They are struggling to find the right mix of offerings and are continuing their experiments with product sales to arrive at a profitable business model.
Shutterfly Continues to Gain Market Share
According to a BCC research report, the digital photography market is expected to be worth $68 billion. Within the market, photo products and accessories amounted to $5.7 billion in 2011.This segment is projected to grow to $7.9 billion by 2016. The online photo printing industry is dominated by Shutterfly (NASDAQ: SFLY) which accounts for more than 50% of the market in the country and is showing no sign of slowing down.
WhatsApp at Facebook and Implications for the Industry
If there were any analysts that had doubts about Facebook’s mobile dominance plans, they have been put to rest. Last week, Facebook announced the $19 billion acquisition of the most popular mobile messaging app, WhatsApp. It is an exciting move by Facebook which seems to be leaving no stones unturned to make sure they dominate the world’s social networking market.
Domo Quietly Amassing Customers and Funding
According to market research firm Pringle & Company, the worldwide business intelligence software services market is projected to grow from $76 billion in 2012 to $143 billion in 2016. The research firm estimates that nearly two-thirds of the industry’s revenue is from consulting, development, and integration-related services, which are estimated to grow from $54.5 billion in 2012 to $96.9 billion by 2016. The growth in the BI market is attributed to the increased adoption of analytics software which is estimated to grow 19% annually.
RetailMeNot’s Growing Competition
eMarketer estimates the online coupon industry to be worth $4 billion annually. The research firm also estimates that the number of people redeeming digital coupons will grow to 100.1 million this year, compared with 92.5 million in 2012. The use of mobile devices to access coupons is also rising and is projected to grow to 53.2 million this year, compared with 12.3 million in 2010.
Intel Back to Focusing on Mobile
According to Gartner’s latest report on the worldwide PC industry, global PC shipments during the last quarter fell 7% over the year to 82.6 million units. This was the seventh consecutive quarter where PC shipments registered a decline. This spells bad news for chipmaker Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), which is still struggling to establish its dominance in the mobile dominated market.
Jive Software Yet to Turn In a Profitable Year
According to an IDC report on the enterprise social software segment published last year, the industry is projected to grow 22% annually over the period 2012 to 2017 to $2.7 billion. The market was pegged to be worth $1 billion in 2012. The report estimates IBM to be the leader in the segment with 14.2% market, followed by Jive’s market share of 10.2%. But despite being a strong player in the market, Jive Software (Nasdaq: JIVE) is finding it difficult to turn profitable.