Lyft should accept the gift Uber is offering. Lyft has filed confidential documents with the SEC signaling its intent to go public in 2019 but given the state of its battle with Uber, I think it should delay going public for as long as it can. The public markets are not for the faint of heart and certainly not for...
The hits keep on coming. The UK government has opened up yet another front against Facebook with the publication of a series of e-mails dating back to before 2015 that imply a complete disregard for user privacy and the custodianship of data. The UK committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has released a series of emails between Facebook executives...
Epic throws down the gauntlet to the app stores. In another direct challenge to the app stores, Epic has decided to launch its own app store for PCs, which if it gets traction, may end up on mobile in another direct challenge to the existing status-quo in app economics. Thanks to the huge success of Fortnite, Epic now has the momentum...
A big step forward but still needs more work. DeepMind has convincingly won an academic competition that tests researchers’ ability to predict the structure of proteins from their genetic sequence which opens a door to improved understanding and treatment of genetic disorders. Proteins are the exclusive product of DNA and as such are responsible for 100% of all functions and...
Google’s automotive deals may be coming unstuck. Volvo and Ericsson have signed a 5-year digital automotive deal that leaves me wondering whether all the fanfare about Volvo using Android in its vehicles was nothing more than noise. Volvo has signed a worldwide agreement with Ericsson that will see Google use Ericsson infrastructure and software to deliver both automotive and infotainment...
Samsung needs hardware differentiation more than ever. I think Samsung is undergoing a flurry of display innovation with its Infinity-O screen and it’s new folding screen form factor because it is really beginning to feel the heat from Huawei breathing down its neck. The result will be that any successful differentiation created in this manner will have to be kept...
The rest must be in a real pickle. Waymo is taking a step backwards in terms of the commercial readiness of its autonomous driving offering by reinstalling safety drivers and monitoring systems. If Waymo is having these basic difficulties, it implies that everyone else is in even greater difficulty and that autonomous driving may take longer than its proponents would...
99.9% of India will be free not $9.99. Hopes of edgy investors are being raised by the notion that Spotify is now in a position to launch in India, but anyone hoping for an immediate deluge of premium subscriptions is likely to be very disappointed. Spotify appears to have secured rights to stream music in India (see here) which is...
A Small light at the end of the 5G tunnel. The latest data confirms what RFM’s Digital Life Pie has been indicating for some time: namely that increasingly, mobile is the Internet access medium of choice in developed markets. This represents a major change from just 2 years ago when Fixed internet was the first port of call for most...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Alibaba – Domain game
AliMe is no Google Assistant beater. Alibaba is making strides to develop its AI, and its voice assistant in particular, but despite a very impressive demonstration, I think it remains very far away from what Google Assistant can achieve. At the 2018 Neural Information Processing Systems conference, Alibaba shared more details of its AliMe speech recognition and natural language processing...