J.Gold Associates Breaking News - Commentary and Analysis

Breaking News -
Commentary and
Analysis

30 July 2014
BlackBerry Secures It Voice
protection of maximum security level organizations. Customers include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a just
announced contract to supply tech to NATO. We expect this capability to be repurposed and achieve widespread adoption in
mainstream enterprises.

16 July 2014
Apple and IBM in the Enterprise: Joined at the Apps
Apple and IBM announced they will be partnering on providing solutions to the mobile enterprise based on iPhone/iPads
devices and IBM’s MobileFirst technology and service offerings. Although this is a win-win situation for the vendors, the
market effects will be more limited overall, and will primarily impact IBM’s installed base of enterprise solutions.

13 June 2014
The Enterprise PC: Not Quite Dead Yet…
The PC is dead. That’s what some pundits have been saying as the market for tablets has been expanding dramatically. But
Intel begs to differ. It just released an advisory increasing its expected quarterly and yearly revenues and gross margins, and
said, “The change in outlook is driven mostly by strong demand for business PCs.” So perhaps the PC market isn’t quite
dead yet, to quote Monty Python.

28 May 2014
Intel's Rockchip to China
Intel and Rockchip have announced a strategic partnership making Intel’s x86 architecture chips and 3G modems (based on
SoFIA) available to the mass Chinese market for lower end tablets (and potentially smartphones). This is a win-win strategy,
giving Intel a massively expanded sphere to sell chips to (via Rockchip) in the explosively growing low end tablet market. And
Rockchip gets to leverage Intel’s extensive IP.

20 May 2014
Microsoft Re-Surfaces the Pro
Rather than the speculated downsizing, Microsoft has announced a new larger format and more powerful version of its
Surface Pro tablet. Its bigger screen size (12 inches), Windows 8.1 OS and full capability Intel Haswell processor makes it
destined to be an enterprise play and not one targeted at the highly competitive consumer and/or BYOD market. This is a
smart strategy, clearly differentiating Microsoft’s product from other tablets and the best hope for Microsoft to finally have
impact in this space.

14 April 20
ARM-ing the Enterprise
The ARM ecosystem is the king of mobility, with the vast majority of smartphones and most tablets being powered by ARM
based devices. And while enterprises are adopting ARM powered devices through BYOD, vendors creating solutions to meet
enterprise challenges are increasingly broadening the scope and breadth of products. This will expand dramatically over the
next 2-3 years as ARM gets serious about enterprise solutions beyond its current niche.

20 February 2014
The "Enterprise of Things"
Enterprise mobility is maturing into a mainstream offering for most organizations. But the next wave of mobility, the
“Enterprise of Things”, is about to dramatically alter the way companies think about operations and conduct their business.

28 January 2014
The Battle for Mobile Chip Supremacy
A battle is simmering in the mobile device chip market, and all the vendors are trying to out maneuver each other for a
leadership role.

15 January 2014
The Year of Mobile Chips
2013 turned out to be a milestone for the chip industry in many ways. From a more competitive posture against the behemoth
of PCs and servers, to a move to increasing reliance on the ARM architecture by the many new contenders, to an
abandonment of a revolutionary architecture now past its time, the year reflects on the growing dominance of mobility and
sweet spots in the market.

18 October 2013
BlackBerry Goes for a Triple Play
BlackBerry has been attempting to make a major recovery from its difficult market position. Its share of Smartphone devices
has fallen drastically, and its user base is shrinking, although modestly so far. It is clearly in turn-around mode. But can the
creator of the first ubiquitous smartphone communications devices find new footing and become a credible market force
once again? Does it have a solid strategy to do so?

3 September 2013
Microsoft's Finish Line
Microsoft announced they are buying the devices business of Nokia. While there have been rumors circulating to this effect for
many months, especially once Stephen Elop took over as Nokia CEO, it nevertheless surprised me, mostly because I believe
Microsoft already had the best of both worlds the way things were.

21 June 2013
Nvidia's Preemptive Strike!
Nvidia has announced that it will begin licensing its most valuable assets – its graphics processing IP. We see this as a bold
(and necessary) move by Nvidia, and one that could reap major rewards.

5 June 2013
Why Microsoft is Failing with RT (and what it can do about it)
Rumor has it that Microsoft is thinking about dramatically reducing prices on Windows RT tablets to stimulate sales.
Considering the fact that RT hasn’t sold well against the competition, this is not surprising. But I believe this is a wrong
approach for Microsoft to pursue for longer term success in tablets

2 May, 2103
Intel Names New CEO - And Points to New Course
We’ve all been waiting for the announcement of Intel’s replacement CEO for the retiring Paul Otellini. The pundits have
debated whether they should promote from within or go outside for new blood. Well, this morning the anticipation ended
when Intel named its new CEO and I see some interesting ramifications in this choice.

5 January 2013
The Legacy Trap - Getting Caught by the Innovation Curve
Many have speculated whether or not Apple can maintain its leadership, whether Microsoft can recapture its momentum,
whether BlackBerry of Nokia can once again be market leaders. All have come face to face with the hazards of the Innovation
Curve. What does this mean for their futures?

18 December 2012
RIM and Nokia – Not Quite Dead Yet. But Moto May Be
It’s the best of times (not so much) and the worst of times (not totally). This may sum up the survival chances of former high
flying mobile companies: RIM, Nokia and Motorola. All were early pioneers in the cellular (Nokia, Moto) and smartphone (RIM)
markets. But over the past few years, the market has simply “blown by” these companies. They simply didn't innovate quickly
enough to keep pace. Can they recover?

9 August 2012
Is HP Getting Ready for a Really Big Move?
HP announced that it is merging two of its big divisions: the Personal Systems Group (PSG) and the Imaging and Printing
Group (IPG), with the resulting group being lead by Todd Bradley (current GM of PSG). Between them, these two groups
represent approximately 50% of HPs revenues. Is this a first step in some greater strategic initiative being implemented by
the new executive administration of Meg Whitman or something less dramatic?

9 August 2012
AMD Takes to Sea
AMD announced it is acquiring SeaMicro, a company concentrating on very low power multi-CPU servers optimized for web
services and similar large I/O centric cloud services. While the low power server space is growing dramatically as more web-
oriented and cloud-based companies come on line, we believe the results of this acquisition is a mixed bag for AMD. It gains
AMD some much needed new technology to exploit, but ultimately it may hurt its bottom line more than it helps.

13 June 2012
Could Looming Chip Supply Issues Derail The Mobile Market?
Over the past several years, the semiconductor market has changed from a primarily vertically integrated model (e.g.,
ownership of design through manufacturing) to one of chip design efforts separated from production (the foundry model).
This has allowed many new entrants into the market that no longer needed to raise incredible sums to build and operate their
own fabs. But can process technology and production keep pace with the needs of the mobile market or is trouble on the
horizon?

23 April 2012
Intel’s Ivy Bridge Triple Threat
Intel today released its first Ivy Bridge chips, starting with desktop processors and will soon also announce mobile chips. Intel
is doing more than just releasing a new processor, which of course it is. It is also putting a stake in the ground around
technology and performance that others will have a hard time catching. With this release, Intel has extended its lead in the
semiconductor field by at least 2 years, and has accelerated its pace of innovation to stay well ahead of its primary
competition.

9 November 2011
Adobe Acknowledges the Phone Gap – Extinguishes Flash
Adobe announced that it is restructuring. Included in its resource redirection is an acknowledgement in a blog post that it will
no longer create new versions Flash Players on mobile devices. The battle for rich media content for mobile devices has
raged for several years now between supporters of technologically superior Flash vs. the proponents of the still evolving
HTML5 as the wave of the future (most notably Apple). With this announcement Adobe is essentially throwing in the towel and
acknowledging defeat.

26 October 2011
Nokia's New Phones- Not Raising The Bar Enough?
Nokia’s CEO announced its next generation phones, Lumia (Windows Phone 7.5 based) and Asha (S40 based). Although
Asha is an interesting device for many emerging markets, it’s the Lumia that is most important to Nokia’s future. So while
Nokia did introduce two new Windows Phone smartphones of nice design, and three S40 devices meant for the market
between feature phones and smart phones, overall the announcements at Nokia World disappointed on a number of
accounts.

15 September 2011
Intel and Google – Who Needs Who?
Intel and Google recently reaffirmed their relationship at the Intel Developers Forum by announcing they will optimize Android
for the Atom platform. While some believe that Intel needs Google more than the other way around in order to compete
against the ARM onslaught, I see it differently.

23 August 2011
WebOS Has a Mobile Future - Just Not with HP
Speculation is rampant about what’s next for WebOS now that HP has essentially abandoned the platform (at least for
mobility markets). The speculation is that it will get licensed, or even sold to the likes of Samsung, LG or Amazon. But are
those the best bets for continuing WebOS as a viable mobile platform? I don’t think so. I believe a dark horse candidate will
move in to buy/license WebOS, one usually not mentioned but with the ability to turn WebOS into a mobile contender.

11 July 2011
Microsoft's "Can't Lose" Mobile Strategy
Microsoft has been trying to recapture momentum in mobile after ceding the early market leadership it had 5-6 years ago due
to its lack of adequate investment and resultant inability to stay competitive. And its renewed focus and execution over the past
1-2 years is indeed enabling it to make progress. But behind the scenes Microsoft has a strategy to become a driving force in
the market and will likely produce more profits than many of the handset manufactures. And this is regardless of whether
Windows Phone is successful.

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