HTC Market Value Passes Nokia

HTC Corp., Asia’s second-largest maker of smartphones, passed Nokia’s market value.

The 5.3 percent gain of HTC shares in Taipei trading yesterday took the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company’s market value to $33.8 billion, exceeding the $33.6 billion value of its competitor. Nokia climbed 1.1 percent to 6.26 euros. HTC shares closed unchanged today.

HTC stock tripled in the past year as smartphone shipments grew at more than twice the pace of the wider market for mobile handsets.

HTC Market Value Passes Nokia as Smartphones ‘Change Mindsets’ - Bloomberg

Smartphone subsidies hit Canadian mobile profit margins

While rising smart phone penetration has led to higher average revenue per user, and increased mobile data revenue at the three main Canadian operators (Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility and Rogers Wireless), a Wireless Intelligence study found that, in most cases, operational expenses also have increased, resulting in a contraction of profit margins (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Opex costs are higher in large part because of increased handset subsidy costs for new smart phone customers and retention of existing customers who upgrade to smart phones.

That might not be the case in markets where handsets are not subsidized, typically in exchange for a two-year contract.

The study suggests s that the cost of acquisition per subscriber at Bell rose 13.4 percent between 2009 and 2010 and by 3.9 percent at Telus over the same period. There were similar trends in retention spending, which (as a percentage of service revenue) increased by 2.4 percentage points at Bell and 0.7 percentage points at Telus year-on-year, and by 7 percentage points at Rogers in Q4 2010. Opex also increased at all three operators during the period.

High-cost smartphone subsidies impacting operator margins - GSMA Mobile Business Briefing

Mobile Financial Services Up 54%

The report found that In the fourth quarter of 2010, 29.8 million Americans accessed financial services accounts (bank, credit card, or brokerage) using their mobile device, an increase of 54 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, according to comScore.

Some 18.6 million users accessed their financial accounts via mobile browser in Q4 2010, up 58 percent from the previous year, 10.8 million accessed their accounts via applications, up 120 percent. SMS (text message) represented the smallest access point for financial service audiences with 8.1 million users, up 35 percent.

Mobile Financial Service Audience (Accessed Bank, Credit Card or Brokerage Account) 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Dec-2009 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Total Unique Audience (MM)
	Q4 2009	Q4 2010	Percent Change
Accessed Mobile Financial Services*	19.3	29.8	54%
Accessed via Mobile Browser	11.8	18.6	58%
Accessed via Application	4.9	10.8	120%
Accessed via SMS	6.0	8.1	35%

Number of U.S. Mobile Financial Account Users Surges 54 Percent to 30 Million in Past Year

Will Hotspots Kill LTE?

For as long as public Wi-Fi has been an issue, some have argued that public Wi-Fi would compete with 3G mobile broadband. These days, that same argument might be made about Wi-Fi cannibalizing fourth generation networks as well.

"With most of the public WiFi hotspots in the U.K. being offered by fixed operators, there is a potential value shift from mobile to fixed networks," says Telco 2.0. "As the hotspots grow and critically, once they become interconnected, there is an increasing risk to mobile operators in terms of the value of investment in expensive ‘4G’ and LTE spectrum."

It's just a guess at the moment, but I suspect the concern about cannibalization will be no more correct for 4G than it has proven to be for 3G. Wi-Fi used to be a radio tail to a fixed line network. These days, it might also be a radio tail to a radio network (mobile hotspot). There will continue to be application scenarios for fixed access, fixed access using a radio tail circuit, fully mobile broadband and untethered but not mobile access.

People will use "all of the above." In some markets, where a smartphone purchase also requires a minimal data plan, that will be even more true.

Public Wifi: Destroying LTE/Mobile Value? - STL Partners / Telco 2.0 Research

Infrastructure as a Service $10.5 Billion in 2014

Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is more likely to be purchased by an enterprise, while small businesses are more likely to buy "applications as a service." Still, the market for all types of cloud services is seminal. Today there is no standard, "one size fits all" offering and no single provider successfully addresses all segments of the market, according to Gartner. That is what one would expect in a new market.

Worldwide IaaS revenues were about $3.7 billion in 2011 and will reach $10.5 billion in 2014, Gartner now forecasts.

"We are still at the beginning of the adoption cycle for cloud compute IaaS," said Lydia Leong, Gartner research VP.

Cloud IaaS is the capability provided to the consumer to provision processing, storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications.

Gartner Maps Out the Rapidly Evolving Market for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service

Dish to Compete with Netflix?

YouTube to Create Channels

YouTube is getting ready to launch new "channels" featuring premium content, around topics such as arts and sports. YouTube is looking to introduce 20 or so "premium channels" that would each feature five to 10 hours of professionally-produced original programming a week.

YoutTube also is planning to spend as much as $100 million to commission the creation of original content for the premium channels.

Google to Revamp YouTube With 'Channels' - WSJ.com