Yahoo Expansion Without Gwyneth Paltrow

Yahoo has been looking at ways to get back on track as the former internet giant has experienced continuous decline in advertising revenue. Yahoo has acquired about 40 companies since Marissa Mayer became CEO a bit over two years ago but these have not been able to ad anything significant to the button line.

Most recently Yahoo has been working on hiring celebrities as guests writers to attract visitors and Since Gwyneth Paltrow is running the successful lifestyle blog Goop, she came up as the ideal candidate to write for Yahoo Food. That however did not happen according to The Hollywood Reporter as Marissa Mayer  “disapproved of the fact that Paltrow did not graduate college.”

We are pretty sure that wouldn’t have mattered to readers and followers of Gwyneth Paltrow.

Pharrell Williams And 40 Other Singers Threaten To Sue YouTube

Pharrell Williams and about 40 other singers and songwriters have joined forces and are demanding that YouTube takes down about 20,000 videos, otherwise they will sue the company for $1 Billion.

The group of artists are all part of a newly founded legal Group called Global Music Rights which is headed by Irving Azoff who is a well known manager of many artists.

Google has announced the new subscription service Music Key under the YouTube brand which will go up against other streaming services such as Spotify. The company claims they do have the rights and so far has not agreed to take down the content.

This is the latest drama when it comes to digital music and the debate about artists being compensated properly. Just recently, Taylor Swift pulled all her music from Spotify ahead of her new 1989 album, here is what she said in an interview about the move:

“Music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment,” Swift said. “And I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music. And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”

It will be interesting to see if the big players in the streaming business change the way they compensate artists in order to avoid law suits or music being pulled completely.

Apple Wins Class Action Law Suit – iPod Updates Were Genuin Improvements

Apple has won the class action law suit which could have resulted in the Cupertino company paying $1 billion.

The jury took only three hours to rule in favor of Apple. Consumers and retailers were looking for compensation as they claimed Apple abused their dominant position in the digital music space as they ensured iTunes music could only be played on the iPod and they also blocked other services with ongoing updates which Apple has said all along were simply updates to improve the iPod.

The jury agreed and also dismissed claims that the Apple strategy resulted in inflated prices for the iPod.

Apple said the following in a statement:

“We created iPod and iTunes to give our customers the world’s best way to listen to music,” Cupertino, California-based Apple said after today’s verdict. “Every time we’ve updated those products — and every Apple product over the years — we’ve done it to make the user experience even better.”

Samsung Market Share Continues To Decline, Xiaomi Soars

Samsung continues to see their smartphone market share decline. The Galaxy S5 has sold well below expectations and the South Korean giant has also struggled in China where Xiaomi took the number 1 spot from Samsung earlier this year.

The latest numbers from research firm Gartner reveal that Samsung continues to struggle while the growth continues for Xiaomi.

In the third quarter of 2014 overall smartphone sales increased by 20% thanks to demand in emerging markets.

Smartphones which account for 66% of total mobile sales are gaining traction in emerging markets, especially since the price difference to feature phones continues to decrease.

Samsung is still the largest smartphone maker but has lost almost 8% within a year. Xiaomi has seen the largest growth and are now the 4th largest smartphone manufacturer as market share increased from 1.5% to 5.3%. Huawei holds the third spot but Xiaomi is expected to overtake Huawei as they are growing quicker and are only 0.1% behind. Considering Xiaomi is only for sale in a number of regions the future growth potential is enormous.

Apple sales grew 26% in the third quarter thanks to the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Gartner expects Apple to have the best quarter ever in terms of iPhone sales during the fourth quarter.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q14 (Thousands of Units)

Company	3Q14 Units	3Q14 Market Share (%)	3Q13 Units	3Q13 Market Share (%)
Samsung	73,212.4	24.4	80,356.8	32.1
Apple	38,186.6	12.7	30,330.0	12.1
Huawei	15,934.9	5.3	11,665.7	4.7
Xiaomi	15,772.5	5.2	3,617.5	1.5
Lenovo	15,011.9	5.0	12,882.0	5.2
Others	142,891.6	47.5	111,445.0	44.5
Total	301,009.9	100.0	250,297.0	100.0

Source: Gartner (December 2014)

“Over the holidays we expect record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but we should not underestimate the Chinese vendors and local brands,” said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner. “Chinese players will continue to look at expanding in overseas emerging markets. In Europe prepaid country markets and attractive lost-cost LTE phones will also offer key opportunities for these brands.” Gartner expects sales of smartphones to reach 1.2 billion units in 2014.

In terms of OS market share it is no surprise that Android is dominating with 83.1%. iOS holds 12.7% while both Windows and Blackberry declined.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 3Q14 (Thousands of Units)

Operating System	3Q14 Units	3Q14 Market Share (%)	3Q13 Units	3Q13 Market Share (%)
Android	250,060.2	83.1	205,243	82.0
iOS	38,186.6	12.7	30,330	12.1
Windows	9,033.4	3.0	8,916	3.6
Blackberry	2,419.5	0.8	4,401	1.8
Other OS	1,310.2	0.4	1,407	0.6
Total	301,009.9	100.0	250,296.8	100.0

Notebook Shipments Increased 10% In November

Notebook brands have recently adjusted their strategies in order to limit the impact tablets and smartphones have had on sales.

It seems that the strategy is going to work out for the holiday season. While overall notebook numbers are expected to see a small decline, in November it actually increased by 10%.

The two main reasons are strong HP enterprise sales and high demand in the low-cost consumer segment.

HP ordered 4 million units from ODMs, which is a 60% increase from the previous month.

All seven major vendors being Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, HP, Asus, Dell and Acer are expected to make further adjustment when it comes to their product offering which should shake things up in this space.

Source: Digitimes

iPhone Market Share More Than Triples

The iPhone 6 has given Apple a record third quarter but if we look at the latest research figures and taking into consideration that Apple has made it available in a lot more countries during this quarter, it is pretty certain that Apple is going to report record iPhone sales.

According to analyst firm Kantar Group, the iPhone has gained a lot of market share in the U.S., Japan, Germany and Great Britain.

In Great Britain the iPhone market share more than tripled from 8.5% to 31%. In Japan it also almost tripled from 17% to 48% while market share in the U.S. increased to 41.5%, up from 32.6%.

In Germany the market share was up 5.1% to 16.9%. According to the report some other regions in the EU decreased and so did the market share in China but could be down to the late launches and the fact that a majority of the market in those regions is in the entry level space.

Some positive news after the class action law suit has made headlines in the last few days.

Amazon Gives Student $6,000 Of Free Stuff

Robert Quinn is a 22 year old student in London and Amazon just took care of all the Christmas shopping and the cost of designing a cannabis grinder!

Last week the deliveries just started pouring in: he received a 55-inch 3D TV worth about $1,400, a Galaxy Tab Pro which would usually have set him back over $500, two more tablets, a leaf blower, a stroller, a PSP console, a projector and other items.

In an interview with Daily Mail Robert said the following:

“At first I phoned up Amazon and they said that people must be ‘gifting’ them to me, but there’s no way that’s happening because I don’t know any of these people,” he said.

“I was worried that people were losing out on their stuff so I phoned Amazon again and said I’m happy to accept these gifts if they are footing the cost, but I’m not happy if these people are going to lose out. But Amazon said ‘it’s on us’.”

The student said he would give away some of the products as Christmas presents, some to charity and sell others so he could fund a cannabis grinder he has been working on.

Here is a list of some items he received, you can read his interview here.

Item	Price
Samsung 55 inch 3D TV	£889
Galazy Tab Pro	£338
Radeon R9 290X graphics card	£250
Cosatto Supa Baby Buggy	£150
Draper leaf blower	£130
Large Nobo projector screen	£120
Brabantia ironing board	£70
Small Android tablet	£70
Tonbux tablet	£62
Bookcase	£50
Dimplex Optiflame Heater	£50
Mobius HD Action cam	£50
Sony PSP console	£50
Wahl professional shaver	£50

Intel Increases Focus On Asia With $1.6 Billion Factory Expansion

Intel is increasing focus on Asia as the market will continue to experience strong growth in the future.

The chipmaker today announced that it will be expanding the factory located in Chengdu for $1.6 Billion which will be supported by the government.

“Deploying our newest advanced testing technology in China shows our commitment to innovating jointly with China. The fully upgraded Chengdu plant will help the Chinese semiconductor industry and boost regional economic growth,” said William Holt, Intel Executive Vice President.

Intel has increased the focus on Asia in recent years, especially in China and understand the importance of investing in the region and working with the government in order to be successful. Many other international companies fail to do exactly that and are therefore locked out of China.

Android 5.0 Available For Samsung Galaxy S5

Users in Poland have reported that Samsung has started an over-the-air update of Galaxy S5 devices.

It is not known when the update will be available in other regions.

Maybe the update will help Samsung to increase sales on the flagship smartphone as sales has been way below expectations so far.

LG was the first company to make the new Android OS available to G3 users, Motorola and Google have also offered Lollipop to their users.

Sony and HTC have announced that they are going to make the update available within shortly as well.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Receives 1,000% Salary Increase To $84 Million

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadellla’s $84 million pay package has been approved by shareholders. Nadella who has been with Microsoft for 22 years, held the position of Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group before he was appointed CEO in February this year.

In his previous role his total compensation for 2013 came in at $7.6 million. Talk about a pay rise!

Here is a breakdown of the $84 million package:

• Base salary: $918,917
• Bonus: $3.6 million
• Stock Grants: $79.8

The package will not continue at this level though since $59 million of the stock package was issued for the promotion to the CEO position. Aside from performance related bonuses, Microsoft has already announced that Nadella will receive stock valued at $13 million next year.

Microsoft has had a strong year, the stock price has gone up 30% and the latest quarter showed growth across the board. Shareholders have a positive view of the strategy under Nadella however a lot of the growth comes from decisions made under former CEO Steve Ballmer. That being said, the cloud business grew 128% year over year, the business unit Nadella ran before he became CEO.