Tag Archives: MSFT

Used Game Virtuous Cycle Game Over, Good Night GameStop

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ByJosh Burwick:

Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled its Xbox One next gen platform focusing primarily on the “all in one” entertainment aspect. However, outside of the main webcast presentation, MSFT confirmed that the used game business will not be business as usual for GameStop (GME). Note Sony (SNE) will also likely adopt a similar strategy as is evidenced by its July 2012 acquisition of cloud based gaming company Gaikai for $380 million.

Getting back to the Xbox One unveiling, while it was not said on stage as to not directly alienate its retail partner, MSFT clearly has plans to take video gaming into the 21st century with respect to digital downloads. According to Kotaku quoting Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison,

Here’s how the system works: when you buy an Xbox One game, you’ll get a unique code that you enter when you install that game. You’ll have to connect to the Internet in


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Nokia Or BlackBerry, Who Dies First?

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By Paid2Trade:

I’m not going to pretend that being perceived as “unbiased” is important in my articles. It just doesn’t matter in financial writing – not to me. But it seems as if “not taking sides” is preferred by some investors. Of course this is as long you don’t take “the other side.”

What I mean by this is, investors don’t mind that a writer “rides the fence” as long as he or she is not seen as “bashing” their company. This has been my recent experience while discussing the status of beleaguered tech giants Nokia (NOK) and BlackBerry (BBRY).

The fact that I’ve shown such conviction is not appreciated. I’m told that I should be "more fair" in my analysis of Nokia. Remarkably, even other writers have complained that I’ve been too hard on Nokia, while insisting that I’ve spoken too "glowingly" about BlackBerry. But what exactly


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Wall Street Breakfast Editors submit:

Top Stories
Bird watching: Doves may offer policy hints in testimony, meeting minutes. Fed watchers (a title which nowadays seemingly encompasses nearly every market participant) will be listening closely to Ben Bernanke’s testimony before the Joint Economic Committee (10 a.m.) in hopes of gleaning some hint as to the future course of monetary policy, even as the Chairman is likely to reveal little in his remarks. Perhaps more interesting will be minutes from the FOMC’s latest policy meeting due, as usual, at 2:00 p.m.

A Dimon by any other name… A bid to strip Jamie Dimon of his chairmanship at JPMorgan (JPM) failed Tuesday when "only" one in three shareholders voted for a proposal to split the dual role of chairman and CEO. It appears the considerable time expended by the board over the past several weeks lobbying for votes indeed paid dividends (no pun intended) as support


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Xbox? PS/4? The Big Winner Is AMD

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ByTom Luongo:

One of the two next-generation game consoles is going to kill it in the marketplace. With the battle for the living room just beginning, the real question on everyone’s lips is, "Who will win?" Frankly, I don’t care which one wins. Today Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled its latest Xbox, the Xbox One, and for the non-hardcore gamer in your household, it looks like they have built something worth considering. With the early announcement of the power of the SoC that runs Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4 and the reveal today, it is pretty obvious that Microsoft has chosen to move in a different direction with the Xbox and that direction is only tenuously attached to gaming. Regardless of who winds up with the most market share in two or three years, the real winner in all of this is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as they are powering both of these consoles. And


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Microsoft Finally Gets How To Grow Windows Phone

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ByTom Luongo:

Frankly, I don’t know what took them so long, but with the initial response to the Nokia (NOK) Lumia 520/21, Microsoft (MSFT) is finally acknowledging publicly that the key to winning market share in the U.S. is through the low-end of the market by providing a superior experience for a better price than what is currently offered by either Apple (AAPL) or the gaggle of Google (GOOG) Android OEMs.

Speaking at Mashable, Windows Phone Marketing Chief, Greg Williams, made clear what I’ve been banging on about for months. The U.S. market is ripe for the plucking at the low-end of the price curve. There are a number of reasons why this is true and Williams touches on a couple:

  1. Smartphone penetration in the U.S. is still low at ~50%
  2. Rising off-contract handset sales now that the smartphone has come down to price points that are affordable to the mass


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For Apple, This Is Not Business As Usual

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By Bill Maurer:

It’s been nearly a month now since Apple (AAPL) reported its quarterly results. While the numbers beat and guidance was low, investors seemed to be more focused on the dividend raise and huge stock buyback increase. Shares of the company, which hit a low of about $385 and were trading around $405 into and after earnings, rallied strongly over the next week or two. When Apple broke $460, I stated that a pullback was coming, and we’ve lost $20 since the recent highs, only after a $10 rally on Monday. We were a bit lower recently.

One of the thoughts being kicked around prior to earnings was that a huge dividend raise would ease investors’ minds about the recent fall in Apple shares. Apple had not launched any new products in a number of months, causing estimates to be cut as it appeared that new products would be


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Microsoft’s Innovation That Apple Missed

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ByJustin Jaynes:

Windows. We’ve all used it. And although some of us may even hate it, it’s still the most prevalent operating system on earth. Windows XP still has roughly 5 times the market share as Apple’s OS X.

Desktop/Mobile OS Graphics taken from Netmarketshare.com:

(click to enlarge)

A look at the mobile space reveals a different story however. iOS has twice the market share of its closest competitor, and more than the rest of the competition combined.

Taken from Netmarketshare.com:

(click to enlarge)

Prior to Apple’s (AAPL) most recent earnings call, analysts were hoping for news of some new innovation to reverse Apple’s downtrend and propel the stock toward the $1000 mark. Potential catalysts ranged from the iWatch, to the iRadio, to the iTV. For comparison, keep in mind that some analysts feel the iWatch is a $6B opportunity for Apple. Ravee Mehta writes in


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Intel Moves Into New Revenue Streams

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By John Mylant:

Intel (INTC) looks like a company that we may not recognize five years from now. With the new CEO and the transition into chips for tablets and smartphones, this is only the beginning. The company will start focusing on new technology and also explore new markets that it has not been in to help generate its multibillion dollar revenue stream in the future. Let’s take a look at some of the journey that we will experience with Intel in the near future.

Brian Krzanich Says Move to Mobile will be Quick

The new CEO says that the company is focused on accelerating its move into the mobile chip market. Intel has found it a bit hard to move into the land of Qualcomm (QCOM) and the $85.4 billion mobile chip market.

Mr. Krzanich was appointed as the new CEO this year but has been with the company since 1982 starting


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