EMC's flash storage refresh is more bark than bite, argues Wikibon CTO David Floyer. General availability for EMC's XtremIO flash storage system isn't expected until the summer of 2014 (EMC offers "directed availability" for now), and its XtremSF server flash cards only support the caching/reading of data found on external storage - by comparison, cards from Fusion-io (FIO) and others also support data writes, allowing them to run databases and Web/cloud services. Floyer's takeaway: EMC is still trying to protect sales of its high-end Symmetrix VMAX systems. Update: Floyer responds by stating EMC's XtremSF server flash cards do indeed support full read/write capabilities - a Silicon Angle article discussing his views had indicated otherwise. He also predicts EMC's XtremIO systems "will probably become the leading flash-only array product in the marketplace." [View news story]
David,
Thanks for the update. The post has been updated to make note of your response. Regarding a couple of your remarks:
- It has been written elsewhere that general availability for the XtremIO array won't arrive until the summer of 2014. The post mentions "directed availability" currently exists.
"EMC has chosen not to supplement the array with full read/write PCIe server flash cards. It obviously is trying to protect its large installed base of VMAX high-performance disk arrays, but by so doing it has left itself vulnerable in the market to Fusion-io and the other PCIe vendors."
Hence the line about full read/write capabilities not being supported. However, I see that you've also left a comment on Silicon Angle to clarify that they do.
InvenSense (INVN +4.9%) will likely be a motion sensor supplier for the iPhone 5S, says Wedge Partners in a report that has led shares to spike higher. Apple has been relying on rival STMicroelectronics (STM +0.5%). earlier this week, InvenSense announced it had won a stay on a U.S. suit filed by STM due to progress made by InvenSense in challenging the patents asserted by STM through the USPTO. 24.5% of InvenSense's float was shorted as of Feb. 15. [View news story]
InvenSense's. Updated the post to make that clear.
Intel (INTC) has held talks with Apple (AAPL) about manufacturing its (ARM-based) A-series mobile processors, a "source close to one of the companies" tells Reuters. The rumor comes shortly after Intel landed Altera as a client, and a report it had landed Cisco. Intel's manufacturing process edge - whereas TSMC/Samsung are at 28nm, Intel is at 22nm - could appeal to Apple. Reports have been around for a while that Apple is thinking of using its A-series chips in Macs, instead of Intel CPUs. [View news story]
Faster/more power-efficient chips, if Intel can keep its manufacturing edge.
With international smartphone buyers clamoring for large displays and cheap Android phones spreading like wildfire in fast-growing emerging markets, "Apple’s (AAPL) competitors are finally doing a better job of making the kinds of phones that customers want," writes The New Yorker's James Surowiecki, summing up the biggest fear on investors' minds. But Apple has shown a knack for innovating its way out of tough spots, and can do so again. "Failing to build a phablet or a cheap phone may well have been mistakes, but they’re fixable mistakes." [View news story]
It's completely factual. Check out unit share numbers from IDC, Gartner, and Strategy Analytics for Q4 (Apple's seasonally strongest quarter) for both iPhone/Android and Apple/Samsung.
Samsung sells a lot of Android phones besides the S III and Note/Note II. And needless to say, there are a lot of Android OEMs out there other than Samsung. Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Sony are all seeing growing Android sales.
Have no idea what companies Surowiecki is invested in, but his column ended with an optimistic view of Apple's future. If his goal was to trash Apple for financial gain, he did a pretty bad job of it :).
A "new look" for Facebook's (FB +1.8%) news feed will be shown off at a March 7 event, according to a press invite. While Facebook has been tweaking the algorithm that determines which news feed posts receive priority (with successful results), the appearance of the feed hasn't changed much in recent years. In January, TechCrunch reported of a test for a mobile news feed revamp featuring sliding photo tiles (a la Windows 8). Also: Facebook is testing a single-column Timeline in New Zealand. [View news story]
A majority of Facebook's ad revenue now comes from its news feed. Thus a big change to the news feed can affect ad monetization. But if you don't care, good for you.
Apple (AAPL -1.8%) and its suppliers slump after iPhone/iPad image sensor provider OmniVision (OVTI -10.9%) issues light guidance to go with its FQ3 beat. CRUS -4.2%. SWKS -1.9%. TQNT -1.7%. AVGO -2%. RFMD -3.2%. BRCM -1.6%. On its FQ3 call, OmniVision would only attribute the guidance to "a seasonal trend of business," while adding smartphone market share trends are "highly, highly volatile right now." Like virtually all other Apple suppliers, OmniVision never mentions Apple by name. [View news story]
Apple seems to require that of nearly all suppliers. I find it pretty funny how CRUS goes out of its way not to directly mention Apple on its calls, even though Apple makes up over half its sales.
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
There are other companies that also provide software to handle this. Airwatch, Good Technology, SAP, and Citrix are a few of the big ones. The DoD could opt for BES, but it's not guaranteed.
Intel's (INTC +2.7%) foundry deal with Altera (ALTR +1.7%) is enough to get Drexel Hamilton to upgrade "Chipzilla" to Hold, with a $22 PT. Meanwhile, existing Altera foundry partner TSMC (TSM -2.4%) is now adding to yesterday's losses. RBC thinks Intel, which has a manufacturing process edge against independent foundries, could win more clients at TSMC's expense. SA contributor Ashraf Eassa notes the Altera deal prevents Xilinx (XLNX -0.9%) from striking a similar foundry deal with Intel for its 14nm process. [View news story]
SanDisk's (SNDK +2.5%) transformation into a vertically integrated flash memory solutions provider for OEMs (as compared with its past reputation as a retail flash memory card supplier) is going over well with RBC, which is upgrading shares to Buy and lifting its PT to $65 from $50. Shares are now within $2 of their 52-week high of $52.58. CFO Judy Bruner presents at a Morgan Stanley conference at 12:30PM ET (webcast). (Nvidia partnership) [View news story]
Chairman Ray Lane and 3 other H-P (HPQ -0.3%) board members are set to meet with ~20 major shareholders to help fight off a campaign to kick out Lane and 2 other board members at the IT giant's March 20 shareholder meeting. Among the disgruntled investors is CtW Investment, which owns 7.8M shares. "H-P shareholders are once again suffering from disastrous deal making, lack of accountability and flawed oversight," says CtW head William Patterson, echoing critiques made by many others. (tablet announcements) [View news story]
Check out the WSJ article. Nothing inaccurate about it.
There's a 90% chance BB10 flops and BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%) shares go to $7, argues MKM's Michael Genovese, who is cutting the smartphone vendor to Sell. Genovese claims less than 10% of the most popular Android apps, and less than 5% of the most popular iPhone apps, are available on BB10. He also thinks U.K. Z10 momentum has stalled, and that carrier checks "suggest unwillingness to carry heavy BB10 inventory." Several other firms have also issued critical notes on BlackBerry over the last 7 days (I, II, III, IV); shares -15% since the BB10 launch event. [View news story]
While Nvidia (NVDA) talks up its Tegra 4i baseband/app processor, SemiAccurate claims (in a sensationalistic piece) talks with mobile OEMs indicate Nvidia has alienated OEMs by over-promising with past Tegra chips. The site suggests the dearth of design wins announced with the Tegra 4's January intro (volume shipments start in July) serves as evidence. Following last week's FQ4 report, some analysts were concerned about Nvidia's guidance for a major Q/Q drop in Tegra revenue; Needham predicts Tegra sales will drop 12% this fiscal year. (previous) [View news story]
They definitely provide a slant with their coverage. But if their claim about disgruntled OEMs holds water, that's newsworthy. Especially given that smartphone design win news has been light lightly.
Best Buy (BBY) is making its price-matching guarantee, initially a holiday season promotion, permanent. Starting on March 3, the company will match the prices of "all local retail competitors and 19 major online competitors in all product categories." The glass-half-full view: Best Buy will cut down on showrooming, rob online rivals of a major selling point, and change consumer perceptions. The glass-half-empty view: Best Buy can't afford to do this, given the extra overhead it has, and those who shop online on account of its convenience won't change their habits. [View news story]
Yep. Now they need to make an announcement to win over those who like the convenience of shopping from home, and don't feel the need to try a particular item out in a store. Only way to do that is to have BBY's prices (both online and offline) match the competition's from the start, no price-matching needed. Which will lead to further margin pressure.
EMC's flash storage refresh is more bark than bite, argues Wikibon CTO David Floyer. General availability for EMC's XtremIO flash storage system isn't expected until the summer of 2014 (EMC offers "directed availability" for now), and its XtremSF server flash cards only support the caching/reading of data found on external storage - by comparison, cards from Fusion-io (FIO) and others also support data writes, allowing them to run databases and Web/cloud services. Floyer's takeaway: EMC is still trying to protect sales of its high-end Symmetrix VMAX systems. Update: Floyer responds by stating EMC's XtremSF server flash cards do indeed support full read/write capabilities - a Silicon Angle article discussing his views had indicated otherwise. He also predicts EMC's XtremIO systems "will probably become the leading flash-only array product in the marketplace." [View news story]
Thanks for the update. The post has been updated to make note of your response. Regarding a couple of your remarks:
- It has been written elsewhere that general availability for the XtremIO array won't arrive until the summer of 2014. The post mentions "directed availability" currently exists.
http://bit.ly/10CR4U8
- The Silicon Angle article discussing your take on EMC's hardware, and which was referenced by this post, features the following lines.
http://bit.ly/YVOdhY
"EMC has chosen not to supplement the array with full read/write PCIe server flash cards. It obviously is trying to protect its large installed base of VMAX high-performance disk arrays, but by so doing it has left itself vulnerable in the market to Fusion-io and the other PCIe vendors."
Hence the line about full read/write capabilities not being supported. However, I see that you've also left a comment on Silicon Angle to clarify that they do.
Eric
InvenSense (INVN +4.9%) will likely be a motion sensor supplier for the iPhone 5S, says Wedge Partners in a report that has led shares to spike higher. Apple has been relying on rival STMicroelectronics (STM +0.5%). earlier this week, InvenSense announced it had won a stay on a U.S. suit filed by STM due to progress made by InvenSense in challenging the patents asserted by STM through the USPTO. 24.5% of InvenSense's float was shorted as of Feb. 15. [View news story]
Intel (INTC) has held talks with Apple (AAPL) about manufacturing its (ARM-based) A-series mobile processors, a "source close to one of the companies" tells Reuters. The rumor comes shortly after Intel landed Altera as a client, and a report it had landed Cisco. Intel's manufacturing process edge - whereas TSMC/Samsung are at 28nm, Intel is at 22nm - could appeal to Apple. Reports have been around for a while that Apple is thinking of using its A-series chips in Macs, instead of Intel CPUs. [View news story]
With international smartphone buyers clamoring for large displays and cheap Android phones spreading like wildfire in fast-growing emerging markets, "Apple’s (AAPL) competitors are finally doing a better job of making the kinds of phones that customers want," writes The New Yorker's James Surowiecki, summing up the biggest fear on investors' minds. But Apple has shown a knack for innovating its way out of tough spots, and can do so again. "Failing to build a phablet or a cheap phone may well have been mistakes, but they’re fixable mistakes." [View news story]
http://seekingalpha.co...
http://seekingalpha.co...
http://engt.co/ZWItvc
Samsung sells a lot of Android phones besides the S III and Note/Note II. And needless to say, there are a lot of Android OEMs out there other than Samsung. Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Sony are all seeing growing Android sales.
Have no idea what companies Surowiecki is invested in, but his column ended with an optimistic view of Apple's future. If his goal was to trash Apple for financial gain, he did a pretty bad job of it :).
A "new look" for Facebook's (FB +1.8%) news feed will be shown off at a March 7 event, according to a press invite. While Facebook has been tweaking the algorithm that determines which news feed posts receive priority (with successful results), the appearance of the feed hasn't changed much in recent years. In January, TechCrunch reported of a test for a mobile news feed revamp featuring sliding photo tiles (a la Windows 8). Also: Facebook is testing a single-column Timeline in New Zealand. [View news story]
Apple (AAPL -1.8%) and its suppliers slump after iPhone/iPad image sensor provider OmniVision (OVTI -10.9%) issues light guidance to go with its FQ3 beat. CRUS -4.2%. SWKS -1.9%. TQNT -1.7%. AVGO -2%. RFMD -3.2%. BRCM -1.6%. On its FQ3 call, OmniVision would only attribute the guidance to "a seasonal trend of business," while adding smartphone market share trends are "highly, highly volatile right now." Like virtually all other Apple suppliers, OmniVision never mentions Apple by name. [View news story]
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
http://bit.ly/WpxJPv
Zenprise (Citrix) is another one that does.
http://bit.ly/WgAfN4
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
http://bit.ly/Zyegyv
http://bit.ly/ZGJo2x
The DoD will open its networks to iOS (AAPL) and Android (GOOG) devices in Feb. 2014, as part of an effort to develop a "platform agnostic" device policy. That's a negative for BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%), which currently accounts for 470K of the 600K mobile devices deployed by the DoD, and could be contributing to today's weakness. The DoD, which issued security guidelines for iOS/Android gear last year, adds it's looking to support BB10. (Home Depot) [View news story]
Intel's (INTC +2.7%) foundry deal with Altera (ALTR +1.7%) is enough to get Drexel Hamilton to upgrade "Chipzilla" to Hold, with a $22 PT. Meanwhile, existing Altera foundry partner TSMC (TSM -2.4%) is now adding to yesterday's losses. RBC thinks Intel, which has a manufacturing process edge against independent foundries, could win more clients at TSMC's expense. SA contributor Ashraf Eassa notes the Altera deal prevents Xilinx (XLNX -0.9%) from striking a similar foundry deal with Intel for its 14nm process. [View news story]
SanDisk's (SNDK +2.5%) transformation into a vertically integrated flash memory solutions provider for OEMs (as compared with its past reputation as a retail flash memory card supplier) is going over well with RBC, which is upgrading shares to Buy and lifting its PT to $65 from $50. Shares are now within $2 of their 52-week high of $52.58. CFO Judy Bruner presents at a Morgan Stanley conference at 12:30PM ET (webcast). (Nvidia partnership) [View news story]
Chairman Ray Lane and 3 other H-P (HPQ -0.3%) board members are set to meet with ~20 major shareholders to help fight off a campaign to kick out Lane and 2 other board members at the IT giant's March 20 shareholder meeting. Among the disgruntled investors is CtW Investment, which owns 7.8M shares. "H-P shareholders are once again suffering from disastrous deal making, lack of accountability and flawed oversight," says CtW head William Patterson, echoing critiques made by many others. (tablet announcements) [View news story]
There's a 90% chance BB10 flops and BlackBerry (BBRY -3.7%) shares go to $7, argues MKM's Michael Genovese, who is cutting the smartphone vendor to Sell. Genovese claims less than 10% of the most popular Android apps, and less than 5% of the most popular iPhone apps, are available on BB10. He also thinks U.K. Z10 momentum has stalled, and that carrier checks "suggest unwillingness to carry heavy BB10 inventory." Several other firms have also issued critical notes on BlackBerry over the last 7 days (I, II, III, IV); shares -15% since the BB10 launch event. [View news story]
While Nvidia (NVDA) talks up its Tegra 4i baseband/app processor, SemiAccurate claims (in a sensationalistic piece) talks with mobile OEMs indicate Nvidia has alienated OEMs by over-promising with past Tegra chips. The site suggests the dearth of design wins announced with the Tegra 4's January intro (volume shipments start in July) serves as evidence. Following last week's FQ4 report, some analysts were concerned about Nvidia's guidance for a major Q/Q drop in Tegra revenue; Needham predicts Tegra sales will drop 12% this fiscal year. (previous) [View news story]
Best Buy (BBY) is making its price-matching guarantee, initially a holiday season promotion, permanent. Starting on March 3, the company will match the prices of "all local retail competitors and 19 major online competitors in all product categories." The glass-half-full view: Best Buy will cut down on showrooming, rob online rivals of a major selling point, and change consumer perceptions. The glass-half-empty view: Best Buy can't afford to do this, given the extra overhead it has, and those who shop online on account of its convenience won't change their habits. [View news story]