Blog Posts by Carmi Levy

Will Microsoft follow up its just-launched Surface RT tablet with a smartphone it can call its own? The growing importance of building a competitive platform strategy in a fast-evolving mobile market makes it all but inevitable.

It's easy to see why Microsoft, after decades of limiting its PC-based hardware offerings to peripherals like keyboards and mice, would jump head-first into the self-branded waters. The market is growing too fast to ignore. IDC says 179.7 million smartphones were sold worldwide last quarter, 45.3 per cent more year over year. In the U.S., comScore says 119.3 million people — or 51 per cent of the market — owned smartphones as of the end of September.

The feature-phone-to-smartphone changeover is accelerating, as that figure is up 8 per cent over the previous quarter. With growth picking up and close to half of all consumers yet to buy their first smartphone, there's more than enough room in the market beyond Apple's iOS and Google's Android, which according to

If BCE was expecting to win Astral Media's hand in marriage, its just-released Q3 earnings report was supposed to be the newly-hitched couple's coming-out party. Instead, Bell's been jilted at the altar thanks to a newly recalcitrant CRTC, and the company's mixed-bag financial numbers are already casting a shadow over what comes next.

On their own, the numbers aren't all doom and gloom. In fact, they represent notable improvements in critical areas of performance:

• Operating revenue increased 1.5 per cent to $4.98 billion, just ahead of analyst estimates of $4.94 billion.
• Net income slipped was $569 million, 11 per cent off of the $642 million recorded in the year-ago period. That quarter, however, was marked by a one-time tax recovery that positively affected the results.
• Earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 15 per cent, which BCE says is its best Q3 performance in five years.
• Post-paid subscribers grew by a healthy 17.1 per cent.
• Average revenue

As Microsoft kicks its global Windows 8 launch into high gear today, one thing is abundantly clear: a significant chunk of the company's future rides on it.

Windows 8 isn't a simple feature-enhanced update to everything that's gone before. It's being introduced at a time when worldwide PC sales are shrinking, with IHS iSuppli projecting sales of traditional desktops and laptops this year will fall 1.2% - its first year-over-year decline in over a decade — to 348.7 million. Worse for Microsoft and its hardware partners, mobile devices are no longer just nibbling at the edges, with surging sales for tablets sapping demand for lower-end conventional laptops.

Microsoft and Intel, the two poster children of the PC era, have relatively little presence within the emerging mobile landscape, and this needs to change. Windows 8 is that change agent.

Status quo: not an option

Against that stark backdrop, Microsoft had no choice but to swing for the fences. The traditional interface, with its

If Apple is sorry it missed analyst estimates in its just-completed fourth quarter, it isn't saying it. Instead, CEO Tim Cook wants everyone to focus on what comes next.

"We're entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever," Cook said in a statement, "and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline."

More records, but…

The company recorded record revenues of $35.966 billion U.S., up 27.2% over the $28.27 billion booked in Q4 2011. Net profit was $8.2 billion, an increase of 24.3% from the year-ago period's $6.62 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, revenue was up $1 billion, while net profit slipped $600 million. The company paid a $2.50-per-share dividend.

While the quarter's $8.67 earnings per share represented a 24% jump year-over-year, they fell short of analyst expectations of $8.75 per share.

The figures reflected a product line in transition, with new-generation devices driving growth and older platforms slowly receding into

Apple's introduction of its smaller iPad mini doesn't only make its tablet more accessible to a wider audience. It also solidifies the growing family of devices as the core of the company's brand.

The company introduced the downsized tablet at a much anticipated event in San Jose, California. The new tablet sports a 7.9-inch screen, down from 9.7 in the original model, and weighs half as much as the iPad. It lacks the larger unit's high resolution retina screen, but includes front- and rear-facing cameras.

Cheaper, but not cheapest

The new device, which starts at CA$329 for a 16Gb Wi-Fi-only model, lets Apple sell to consumers for whom the $519 entry for a full-sized iPad is too dear. The company has sold 100 million iPads globally since their June 2010 launch, but needed a lower-end model to accelerate takeup and fend off emerging competition.

At the same time, the iPad mini is not so capable that it threatens to cannibalize sales of its larger, more expensive tablets. If anything,

When an industry bellwether reports worse-than-expected earnings, everyone wants to know why. When that bellwether is Google, and the why is a toxic combination of shifting platform patterns and soft cost per click (CPC) performance, the industry may wish it hadn't asked the question in the first place.

Google surprised analysts last week by missing estimates for its just-completed quarter. A posting error by its publisher caused the results to go live hours before they were supposed to: an embarrassing turn of events, but hardly fatal. Far more worrisome was Google's online advertising performance.

Softening performance

Although volumes were up — paid clicks soared 33 per cent compared to the year-ago quarter, and revenues spiked 45 per cent - net income was down 20 per cent to US$2.18 billion, well below guidance. Net revenue grew 17 per cent year-over-year, the first time in three years that it was below 20 per cent. Worse, the all-important CPC numbers were down 15 per cent over

If anyone wondered whether the CRTC had a spine, they no longer need to. The federal telecom regulator's decision yesterday to kill BCE's $3.4 billion proposed buyout of Astral Media ranks as one of the most stunning moves in the industry in recent memory.

In its ruling, the CRTC said the deal was nixed because it would have left too much industry control in one company's hands.

"BCE did not demonstrate that it needs to be bigger to compete with foreign services," the ruling said. "The commission does not consider that there is compelling evidence on the record to demonstrate that foreign, unlicensed competitors are having a significant impact on negotiations for program rights by Canadian broadcasters'

George Cope, BCE and Bell Canada President and CEO, called on the federal government to reverse the decision.

"This is a decision that should not stand. Canadian consumers were told today by the CRTC that they don't deserve more - more choice, more competition, more Canadian content

Paying with your smartphone is coming soon. And Research In Motion wants to lead the industry.

With the months ticking down until RIM launches its first smartphones based on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, CEO Thorsten Heins is already positioning the platform, set to go live in Q1 of 2013, as more than just a messaging device.

In a Jakarta Post article, Heins said while messaging capability will be a given — including a new version of BlackBerry Messenger that goes "beyond texting" — RIM is really gunning for the emerging e-commerce market, as well, with devices and apps that support secure point-of-sale, phone-based payment.

"Think about transacting money," Heins told the Post. "This is one element in which you could have a huge BBM population in Indonesia transferring money from one partner to another."

Indonesia is a key growth market for RIM, currently responsible for 8 per cent of its overall revenue. Strong takeup of BlackBerry 10 there will likely fuel similar demand