Financial, Real Estate, Stock Markets Trends and Current Affairs

Newsbytes and bits of interest in the mobile computing space. h/t BoomBustBlogger H. Kwint...

• “In memoriam: Microsoft’s previous strategic mobile partners”
• Nokia also considered an alliance with RIM / Google, so maybe Windows was third choice? –
• Steven Elop: “And a huge monetary transfer” (from MS to Nokia it seems) – which leads to the conclusion Microsoft “bought” Nokia
• Probably, you saw the activist shareholders and their plan B, but the site is offline now. For those who missed it... Maybe the real website will be in Google cache tomorrow?
• NOK and MSFT also form a strategic “patent-alliance” against Apple, which might have been a consideration too, because if Apple really feels threatened I’m pretty sure they'll start litigating like last time HTC threatened them.
• For the Android-revenue growth model, this might be interesting: App Economy: The Android Market is Maturing with Growth in Paid Apps
• To add to the ‘margin compression’ news: Samsung, Toshiba, Nokia and Sony envision phone-computing without ‘dock’ (meaning the Atrix is already outdated) using Mobile High Definition Link. Mouse / keyboard via Bluetooth; no dock needed, only a ‘lousy’ cable, meaning even less margin. An industry-wide standard such as this MHDL is also bad news for Apple, meaning potential consumers / peripheral makers feel less willing to buy into Apple’- “proprietary-connector business”.
• And specifically meant to add to the discussion of margin compression when it comes to the not-yet-announced cheaper ‘mini’-iPhone: In China, sub $200 Android phones have been selling for six months now (meaning like you claimed, Apple has to play catchup). Anecdotally, $200 Android phones running 2.1 are selling right now in Chinatown, NYC. That's right! Right on Canal Street! I've seen it with my own eyes.
• Yuhua is also OK with the phones selling in supermarkets, meaning even more margin compression for the telco’s.

Click here for recent BoomBustBlog articles in this space or here for the earlier Mobile Computing War series.