Sony's tablet could be the next to stumble, says another
BlackBerry PlayBook
Wall Street's best and brightest are expressing varying degrees of shock at the news Thursday that Research in Motion (RIMM), which delivered 500,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in the quarter that ended in May, shipped a dismal 200,000 in the August quarter -- suggesting that most of those first half-million units are still sitting, unsold, on store shelves.
"We believe the PlayBook is poised to follow HP's TouchPad as the next casualty of iPad's tablet dominance." wrote Ticonderoga's Brian White in a note to clients Friday, a reference to Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) decision to pull the plug on its tablet after the TouchPad failed to make a dent in Apple's (AAPL) market share.
In a similar vein, J.P. Morgan's Mark Moskowitz noted that Motorola Mobility's (MMI) tablets had also failed to gain much traction before Google (GOOG) offered to buy the company. And having had a chance to play with Sony's (SNE) forthcoming tablet entry, he doesn't hold much hope for that one either.
"We had the opportunity to demo a tablet from Sony ... before today's official launch," he told clients in a Friday note. "We were not impressed. To us, Sony's tablet lacks the refined, sleek feel of the iPad and its bezel-like back is not user-friendly."
Moskowitz dismissed recent speculation that Apple could release an iPad 3 before the holiday season.
"Our latest research continues to indicate that there is no such device slated for production this year. In our view, Apple should be in no rush. The other tablet entrants have stumbled so far, and that trend-line could persist deep into 2012."
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"There are a lot of sweet patents in that portfolio." -- Dean Becker, ICAP Patent Brokerage CEO, on Motorola Mobility's (MMI) 17,000 patents. (Bloomberg)
* Arik Hesseldahl over at All Things D does the math and guestimates that HP (HPQ) could be losing anywhere between $140 million and $300 million MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Aug 23, 2011 3:30 AM ET
The search giant's $12.5 billion acquisition bid is a bold move that could reshape the mobile business. It's also fraught with potential pitfalls.
By Alex Konrad, contributor
FORTUNE -- Sometimes, plan B is pretty good. When Google missed out on buying Nortel Networks' patent hoard earlier this summer, few could have predicted it would make a stunning $12.5 billion cash bid for Motorola Mobility.
The move is sure to change Google's (GOOG) business, MORE
Aug 18, 2011 10:33 AM ET
The market has had 3 days to chew over the Googorola news. It's not sitting well.
After thousands of news reports, analysts notes, blogs and tweets, the chart at right may tell you all you need to know about Google's (GOOG) plan to fight/emulate Apple (AAPL) by buying Motorola Mobility's (MMI) brand, patents and device manufacturing business for $12.5 billion.
In the three days of trading since the news broke, Google has dropped more than $30 a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 18, 2011 7:57 AM ET
In the Harvard Business Review and a 50-minute podcast, a deep dive into what it means
Horace Dediu
Horace Dediu -- the Harvard-trained analyst who writes the influential Asymco blog -- was studying the mobile phone market for Nokia (NOK) in 2005 when Google (GOOG) bought Android, primarily as a defense against the perceived threat that Microsoft (MSFT) was about to do to cellular telephony what it did to desktop computing.
The MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 17, 2011 1:12 PM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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