TechCrunch reports that Microsoft MSFT may spend $1 billion to buy Nook outright from Barnes & Noble NE. In the pre-market Barnes & Noble stock moved up as much as 30% and was still higher by nearly 20% on the day in the afternoon. Microsoft has an existing investment in Nook of about one-sixth of the
For several months I have been writing that the market for smart phones in the developed markets is near saturation and Apple AAPL does not have the right products for major growth in emerging markets. In emerging markets, Google GOOG Android has been growing my leaps and bounds. This morning there is research showing that Apple’s
Ever since I wrote “Samsung’s Bendable Phone Could Break Apple’s Innovation Hegemony” here on Forbes I have continued to receive a trickle of emails from readers wanting to know when a device with an unbreakable screen will be available. Usually such emails contain a story of a broken screen on
On Wednesday after the markets closed, Qualcomm QCOM reported earnings. Buried in Qualcomm’s results is bad news for Apple AAPL, BlackBerry and Nokia . Qualcomm owns intellectual property related to code division multiple access (CDMA). This technology is behind many of today’s wireless networks. Qualcomm also provides chip sets for mobile devices. Since Qualcomm licenses the technology
Quarterly earnings from Apple for the three months ended March 30 come out Tuesday after the market closes. Unlike in prior quarters, there is not a high probability scenario that can be laid out with any degree of confidence ahead of earnings. Acting on Apple stock ahead of earnings this
Apple became the largest company in the world by market capitalization on the strength of innovation in mobile phones. Fortunately for Apple, the last several years there has been a consumer trend to treat their phones as status symbols or fashion accessories. This kind of consumer behavior has also been
(CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE THE CHART) Consumers have voted with their wallets and now it is official that Windows 8 is a flop. The new data from IDC show the steepest decline for PCs in one quarter. Only 76.3 million PCs were shipped in the first quarter of 2013. This number is
Ever since Apple announced that it would offer a streaming music service, there has not been much doubt that Apple would attempt to beat Internet radio heavyweight, Pandora. The thinking is that Apple will squeeze music labels to get better terms than Pandora. Such a scenario is certainly better for Apple, but
It does not yet seem to be well understood, but Facebook has just launched a bazooka against Google, Apple, Microsoft, and BlackBerry. Present-day phones are built around apps. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, asked the right question, “Should the phones be designed around people and not apps?” His answer was apparently that people are more important
Apple is ready to introduce an old design by Steve Jobs as the next iPhone, perhaps called iPhone 5S, according to the San Francisco Examiner, reporting on comments Apple government liaison Michael Foulkes made to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. Foulkes reportedly told Gascon that the next two generations of iPhones