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- PCs and their makers trying to morph to more - mobile, pads, storage, what next? More M&A - http://bit.ly/aFGWAK $DELL $GOOG $MSFT $AAPL
- Launching The Thematic Investor newsletter - take a look here http://bit.ly/bLO1H7 $KOPN $EQIX $CSCO $CL $K $PG $AAPL $NFLX $RIMM $SVVS $T
- Tune in to Chris Versace on America's Morning News....http://bit.ly/cta0IQ #economy #investing #politics
- $KOPN: Solid 2Q10 Lays the Ground for a Better 2H10 http://bit.ly/bPNFIU
- Getting ready for the July employment report http://bit.ly/aadu2D
- $IIVI Bookings for the quarter increased 120% to a record $125,985,000 compared to $57,245,000 in the fourth quarter of last fiscal year
- Big Lots 2Q revenue comparison rises http://bit.ly/cSdVvJ $BIG
- Smartphone demand drives 54% year-on-year growth in Kopin’s III-V revenue in Q2 http://bit.ly/cGKhkB $KOPN $SWKS
- Commented on: "Universal Display: Showing a Less Than Promising Future" http://soc.li/k0PiaxO $PANL
- Since when does #SmarTrend call EPS upside? showing consensus # is not the same as calling for upside http://bit.ly/9QMdoe $PANL
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Posts Tagged ‘Apple’
Chris Versace, the Thematic Investor and Director of Research at Think 20/20, was recently interviewed by the International Business Times regarding Nokia’s announcement with Intel to open a laboratory focused on developing 3-D capabilities on their MeeGo mobile platform.
Corporate earnings continued at a fast and furious pace this week, and we started to hear from a wider variety of companies.
Again, however, it was a mixed bag. Solid earnings and outlooks from the likes of Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Morgan Stanley and eBay Inc. were offset by disappointing earnings, outlooks or both by Yum Brands, Starbucks, IBM, Goldman Sachs Group and others. This resulted in a topsy-turvy stock market, which should be expected. Not only is that one of the trials and tribulations of any earnings season, but it is amplified by where we are in the domestic economic recovery.
Or not.
While some may cut to the quick and ask, “How can he say that?” I would quickly point to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s semiannual report to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Wednesday. At the heart of Mr. Bernanke’s testimony, he stated that the Fed continues to forecast moderate growth for the domestic economy this year despite a “somewhat weaker outlook.”
Mr. Bernanke went on to pronounce the outlook as “unusually uncertain.”
Think 20/20’s Mike Canevaro discusses the decision to discontinue VCR Plus+ codes and its ramifications as we head further into the all-digital world of GoogleTV, Apple TV and others as devices get more connected…
The end of the floppy disc. It has been announced by Sony Corporation (SNE) that in March of 2011 they will cease production of the 3.5” floppy-disc, a format first introduced circa 1982. Long forgotten, and well passed its prime, this diskette format marks the end of an era that introduced us to the disk based storage system. Certainly this product will not be missed, but it is a milestone of sorts, as the world readies for another phase out of technology, and a revolution in content delivery that makes the floppy disc look prehistoric.
Next up, the demise of the VCR Plus+ code system used to set VCR’s. ROVI Corporation (ROVI) has decided that it will no longer support and distribute the codes used to program VCR’s to record television programming. ROVI, who acquired the merged company of GEMSTAR and TV Guide in 2007, contends that the technology is “very very old” seeing “zero support” for the codes.
It’s interesting that these two antiquated technologies have lasted as long as they have, before being sent to the glue factory.
Contact customerservice@think2020research for more on this viewpoint
With the stock market coming under increasing pressure as concerns about the viability of the economic recovery rise, several people have e-mailed me asking how they can protect themselves. The short answer is you can, and the more complicated answer is there are several ways to do so - some simpler ones and some that are more complex and better suited for more risk-tolerant investors.
Without question, there is growing concern that the economic recovery is losing steam. While we can point to several economic data streams over as many weeks, headlines on the Web, in magazines and in other publications are raising the issue if not stoking it. In the past week, some headlines have been: “U.S. Needs ‘Bright Star’ to Stimulate Economy,” “Federal Reserve weighs steps to offset slowdown in economic recovery,” “CBO tells Obama deficit panel that forecast remains bleak,” and “U.S. Jobs Picture Darkens.”
On Thursday, we received several new and unsettling updates, including one from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which raised concern that risks to the speed of the global recovery are mounting.
Think 20/20’s Bill Plummer discussed Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 - what it is and what it means to the industry in a world of increasing connectivity and connected devices.
As Congress debates an overhaul of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a separate debate related to one of the lesser-known provisions of the 1996 Act is also underway, with the potential to critically impact on future information and communications technology innovation. What complicates this instance of digital post-convergence/pre-chaos/current collision is the highly emotionally charged nature and topic of the debate: ensuring communications and Internet accessibility to individuals or varying ability or disability.
Section 255 of the 1996 Act, implementation of which was debated for many years, requires telecommunications products and services to be accessible to people with disabilities, to the extent that such accessibility is “readily achievable.” The definition of readily achievable has always meant different things to different people, but the FCC, disability advocates and industry players generally agreed it to mean “easily accomplishable, without much difficulty or expense.” Of course “much difficulty” and “much expense” were situational definitions at best.
In any event, per Section 255, if manufacturers cannot make their products accessible, then they are required to design products to be compatible with adaptive equipment used by people with disabilities, again, “where readily achievable.”
For more, please contact customerservice@think2020research.com