All Stars: Blue Nile, MercadoLibre, WebMD

The National Retail Federation recently announced its projections for the coming holiday season and predicted that overall holiday sales will fall by 1% over the year. In another report, Forrester Research estimated 8% growth in online holiday sales to $44.7 billion; growth will likely come at the expense of business at traditional brick-and-mortar stores. International pick-up in e-commerce is another big trend. The upbeat outlook is reflected in the results of online retailers such as Blue Nile and MercadoLibre. >>>

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Indian Outsourcers: Cognizant Leads The Brigade

The $60 billion Indian IT industry is optimistic about the economic recovery, and the players have not only improved on their quarterly performance, but are also raising their outlook for the coming quarters. Analysts suggest that the recession in the United States has bottomed out and recovery is expected in 2010, which should translate to an outsourcing market growth of 4%-5%. Personally, I am somewhat skeptical about the recovery because the unemployment number sits at more than 30 million, which means that we’re having a jobless recovery of sorts, and this is very fragile. Nonetheless, prices and volumes are stabilizing for the outsourcing industry, resulting in revenue growth. Further, it looks as though the focus on operational efficiency parameters, especially utilization improvement, has enabled big players to improve margins despite the strengthening Indian rupee. >>>

Nokia Vs. Apple

Last month, Nokia (NYSE:NOK), the world’s biggest mobile phone maker with annual revenue of €50.7 billion, reported a bleak third quarter as it swung to a loss for the first time in its history. And in a dramatic turn of events, it is suing Apple for infringing on its patents. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

China Rising To The Solar Challenge

Earlier this year, the Obama government announced its federal-level energy policy to simulate demand for renewable energy. As a result, solar power is no longer the luxury it once was. In addition to federal programs, there are state incentives which together help reduce installation costs by 40% to 90%. >>>

Newspaper Industry Continues Steady Implosion

According to a recent report published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, weekday newspaper circulation fell 11% and Sunday circulation 8% over the year. The San Francisco Chronicle was the worst hit newspaper, with circulation falling 26%, followed by USA Today’s 17% drop. Many analysts believe that even though the economy is picking up, advertising spend within print media will continue to decline till 2011 by as much as 25% of the peak spend in 2007. Ad revenues for the newspaper industry were lower by 17% last year and have already fallen 28% over the year in the current fiscal. Surely these are not good numbers for the newspaper industry. >>>

Netflix Leads Video Market Forward

According to a recent market report, the U.S. DVD and video sales and rental market was valued at $7.6 billion in 2008, of which brick-and-mortar stores claimed 69% of the revenue share. Mail-order companies such as Blockbuster and Netflix together commanded 24% of the market, while kiosks had a mere 6% share and online streaming or download options an even smaller 1%. The report predicts that by the end of 2011, stores will have only 47% of the market share while mail-order companies will have 31%. Both kiosks and online will grow rapidly to 17% and 5% respectively. Online DVD rental pioneer Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will surely benefit from such growth. >>>

Amazon Amazes, EBay Not

While analysts are still debating whether the recession has eased its grip, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is one company that seems to be sure of the economy recovering. The stock recently hit an all-time high of $118.49, surpassing the $106 reached in December 1999. This is surely one player who knows its strategy well. >>>

Windows 7 Breathes Life Into Microsoft

After having recorded a dismal performance in the past few quarters, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) seems to have gotten back some of its lost magic with the arrival of Windows 7. Competition has been slowly gaining ground in a market in which Windows is still dominant: Whereas Windows claimed 93% of the overall OS market in September, Mac and Linux were far behind with a mere 5.12% and 0.95% market share respectively. But, a year ago, Windows had 95% of the market, Mac 3.7%, and Linux 0.86%. With Google joining the OS race, it promises to be a defining period for the industry. Will Windows 7 give Microsoft back its lost course? Or will consumers move in ever greater numbers to the Mac? >>>

Yahoo!’s Strategy Makes Me Sigh

Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) performance finally seems to be improving, with researchers projecting overall online ad revenues to fall 2.9% this year but to grow 5.9% in 2010. Because Yahoo! is a leader in display advertising, its performance can be seen as indicative of larger market trends. >>>

Google Advances In Telephony, E-Books, YouTube

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) finally seems to be regaining some recent lost ground: Following the 3Q09 results announcement on October 15, its stock crossed a 52-week high of $554.75 on October 16 after having slumped to under $250 last year. Many industry observers believe that with the economy picking up slowly, it will be giants such as Google that will manage to rake in the money as advertisers again open their purse strings. >>>