– Apple is all-in on its premium price strategy, defiantly raising its price point for the iPad Mini and holding the line on the iPad Air in the face of falling market share. – The new iPads are terrific, and
– NFLX posted 3Q13 upside surprises for subs and earnings, and promised more of the same for 4Q13 – no surprise, the stock is up big after hours. – Global subs are up 36.7% to 40M, US subs up 24%
– GOOG posted an excellent 3Q13 – ex MOT sales were up 18.9% YoY and net of TAC up 22.6% – bouncing back from the 2Q13 miss in a strong web ad market – Profitability was particularly strong. EPS beat
– TWTR’s original S-1 showed 2Q13 US MAUs up just 2% QoQ, raising some concerns that US penetration was stagnating – An amendment filed tonight showed US user growth re-accelerating in 3Q13, up 8.2% QoQ and 32.5% YoY, not far
TWTR’s S-1 affirms its considerable growth and profit potential. Sales have more than doubled YoY, driven by 44% growth in users, 16% growth in visits per user, and 23% growth in ad revenues per visit. We believe that all of
– AMZN will deliver a set-top-box for the Holidays, leveraging 10M+ Prime customers, a slick interface and content from other on-line partners – AAPL updated its TV software, added content, and is expected to offer new hardware with a faster
All of the major smartphone players face big questions in 4Q. Media types gushed over the new iPhones and existing customers stood in line to buy them in record numbers, but by resolutely ignoring the global consumer’s preference for larger
– Ebay’s deal for Braintree fills a hole for PayPal, giving it a well-regarded one-touch payments API solution for apps that has been adopted by trend setters Uber, AirBnB and Open Table. – Braintree also enables “auto-fill” of payment
The Surface 2 boosts performance, battery life and display vs. the disappointing Surface RT. $449 is pricey, but free Office, SkyDrive storage and Skype calls sweeten the deal. Surface Pro 2 moves to “Haswell” and gets faster processing and 75%
– Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has big advantages for mobile payments – 160 ft range, low power, 1Mbps speed, device ubiquity, low cost, no SIM requirement – beating NFC on every spec. – While Samsung and other Android licensees have
