What’s Next For Motorola?

Gartner’s latest report on worldwide smartphone operating systems (OS) puts Android in the No.2 position, overtaking RIM and iOS. From a 3.9% share in 2009, Android has leapt to a massive 22.7%. Its success comes from being part of the smartphone strategy of multiple vendors, including Samsung and Motorola. Motorola has managed a successful turnaround based on its Android phones and recently split into Motorola Mobility Holdings (NYSE:MMI), which will sell mobile handsets and television set-top boxes, and Motorola Solutions, which will supply wireless technology to governments and enterprises. >>>

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Is Cisco Losing Focus?

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) this week reported second quarter results that beat estimates, but the company gave a disappointing outlook because it expects public sector spending to worsen over the next few quarters.

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Cognizant, Genpact Expanding In Latin America

According to the Everest Group, global transaction volumes in the fourth quarter of 2010 for outsourcing deals reached a three-year high. The annual contract value of outsourcing deals signed during the quarter grew 44% over the previous quarter to $4.9 billion. Outsourcing giants Cognizant and Genpact are also enjoying the good run.

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ARM Eyes Computing

For an IP licensing company, ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) is doing extremely well. ARM licenses its low-power chip design to over 230 chip manufacturers, and more than 90% of the mobile phone chips are based on its low-power design. With the design for Apple’s iPad under its belt, it has carved a niche for itself in tablets. As the line between mobile and personal computing blurs, ARM is eyeing the traditional computing industry as well. Meanwhile, rumors abound about its possibly being taken over by a large U.S. group.

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Virtualization Reigns

According to IDC, more than 23% of all servers shipped in 2014 will actively support virtual machine technology, and more than 70% of all server workloads installed on new shipments in 2014 will reside in a virtual machine. The researcher estimates that more than $19 billion will be spent on server hardware in support of these applications, with shipments of virtualized servers growing at an annual rate of 14%. In a recently conducted survey of over 2,000 CIOs by Gartner, the CIOs said that their priority investments in the coming years will be in cloud computing and virtualization. Both EMC and VMWare are already benefiting from this trend.

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Concur Becomes A Consolidator

Last quarter, we saw how SaaS companies Concur (NASDAQ:CNQR) and NetSuite (NYSE:N) were on a growth track but had yet to get on to the consolidation path. But where there is growth, consolidation follows. And sure enough, Concur recently announced plans to acquire TripIt, a mobile trip manager, for about $120 million.

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New Paychex CEO Leads Company To SaaS

Paychex, with annual revenue of $2 billion in fiscal 2010, recently reported its first SaaS acquisition. Competition was heating up for Paychex as Intuit and ADP continued to make SaaS acquisitions. Intuit, since acquiring PayCycle in 2009, has emerged as a strong threat to Paychex in the small business segment. Paychex has finally risen to the challenge.

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Netflix Should Not Get Too Comfortable

According to Digital Entertainment Group, in 2010 total revenues from DVD, Blu-ray, and digital sales of movies and television shows in the U.S. fell 3% over the year to $18.8 billion. In 2010, sales and rentals of standard DVDs fell 11% over the year to $14 billion. In the same period, Blu-ray sales and rentals grew 53% over the year to $2.3 billion, while downloaded and streamed content revenues grew 19% over the year to $2.5 billion.

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Amazon Aligned With Multiple Major Trends

ComScore holiday sales estimates show that overall online retail sales in the U.S. grew 12% over the year to $32.6 billion for the two-month period of November and December. For the holiday season, e-tailer Amazon saw record sales on Cyber Monday, with 13.7 million items sold worldwide; this translates to 158 items sold per second. The numbers were 44% higher than the previous year’s record holiday peak day sales of 9.5 million items, or 110 items per second. Meanwhile, for the current year, market researcher Forrester estimates e-commerce spending growth to continue at 12% to $197.3 billion.

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Microsoft Scores With Kinect But Needs A Tablet Strategy

According to Gartner, global personal computer shipments in the quarter ended December 2010 increased 3.1% over the year to 93.5 million units, falling short of the anticipated 4.8% growth for the period. Gartner attributed this lower-than-expected growth rate to rising competition in the form of tablets and other devices such as game consoles. For the same period, IDC reported that worldwide PC market increased a modest 2.7% over the year. The report claims that total shipments for 2010 increased 13.6% over the year to 346.2 million units.

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