Two Companies Going Downhill

Early in the year, we saw that Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN), which is known for its personal navigation devices (PND), was looking to launch more smartphones even after disappointing sales of its nüvifone. Now it is finally correcting its flawed strategy and looking to exit its smartphone business. Let’s take a closer look.
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Loss Of Symantec Does Not Slow Down Digital River

According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the second quarter of the current year grew 1.5% over the previous quarter to $37.2 billion. Compared with the previous year, e-commerce retail sales grew 13.7% and now account for 3.8% of total retail sales. However, over the same period, overall retail sales grew 7.5%. >>>

Private Cloud Analytics Is A Major Trend

Based on our TLCC interviews, it is evident that cloud analytics is a major trend. My conversations with IBM’s Ric Telford and Pat Toole clearly demonstrate IBM’s strategy of building a private cloud offering for analytics to cater to large enterprise needs. Today, we analyze Informatica’s prospects against this backdrop.

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Smartphone Use Fueling PLD Market

With the growing popularity of smartphones like the iPhone, the number of smartphones users is multiplying at an astonishing rate, and so is the demand for bandwidth to access applications, data, and videos online. We recently saw how this trend benefited the optical networking industry. Another industry benefiting from the build out of telecommunications infrastructure is the programmable logic device (PLD) market. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Accenture Should Lead Near-Shore Trend

At a Senate roll call on Tuesday, all forty Republican senators, joined by four Democrats and one independent, voted against advancing to a full debate on legislation that proposed tax benefits to companies that did not outsource jobs and brought jobs back to the United States. Fifty-three senators voted in favor of advancing the proposed bill and 45 against; 60 votes were need for it to advance. While many had been expecting this outcome, outsourcing companies were still waiting anxiously for the result. Meanwhile, the global consulting and outsourcing giant Accenture (NYSE:ACN) continued to deliver a performance far exceeding market expectations. >>>

India’s Microfinance Industry Trying To Scale

Recently, Hyderabad-based SKS Microfinance, the world’s and India’s largest microfinancier listed on India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This was the first ever microfinance institution (MFI) listing for the Indian market. SKS focuses on providing microfinance products through a group lending model to India’s impoverished women for access to agriculture, livestock purchases, and other micro business ventures. It was founded in 1997 by Vikram Akula as a nonprofit venture with funding of ~$50,000. By 2001, it had over 2,000 borrowers in rural India. >>>

Demand For Bandwidth A Boon For Optical Networking

The optical networking sector is on a strong growth curve as the demand for bandwidth continues unabated. Smartphones, tablets, and netbooks have led to a surge in the demand for online video, social networking, and multimedia applications, which in turn consume a lot of bandwidth. Riding high on these trends, optical networking players, JDS Uniphase (NASDAQ:JDSU) and Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR) reported strong quarters in their recent results. >>>

Electronic Arts Introduces Gaming On Kindle

According to researchers, retail sales of video game equipment and software in the United States fell 10% in August. Hardware sales declined 5% to $282.9 million and software sales fell 14% to $403.5 million. Overall, from January to August 2010, video game sales dropped 8% over the year. >>>

Adobe Looking At Acquisitions

This week Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported a strong quarter driven by the strong momentum for its flagship software Creative Suite 5 released in April as well as Omniture and Enterprise products. However, they missed the sales estimate and also gave a weak outlook. Early this month Apple announced that it will be easing restrictions for developing iPad and iPhone applications and allow developers to use Adobe’s Flash for iPhone apps. Steve Jobs in a blog in April cited Apple’s reasons for not opting for Flash Player.
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U.S. Housing Market Getting Worse

Housing inventories in many U.S. cities continued to rise for the eighth consecutive month in August, reflecting the downtrend in the housing market. The number of available homes for sale in twenty-six major metropolitan areas at the end of August grew 0.4% over the month. The demand in the industry has fallen significantly on account of the expiration of the April deadline for the homeowner tax credit. Researchers estimate that at the current pace, the market is carrying a 12.5-month inventory compared with a six-month inventory that a healthy housing market is expected to carry. According to Zelman Data, national inventories are at their highest levels since November 2008. >>>