Despite losing money on every Kindle Fire sold, Amazon more than makes up for it in terms of content users purchase for the device. According to a study from investment banking firm RBC, each Kindle sold results in $136 in additional income for Amazon over its lifetime.
HTC's lowered fall outlook may be a sign it expects to take a blow from the iPhone 4S, analysts pointed out Monday. Its expectation that it would only move 12 to 13 million phones, down from 13.2 million, was likely factoring in the effect of a Sprint iPhone on its sales, Baird analyst William Power said. HTC may consider Sprint its most important customer in the US and would want to reflect that in expectations, which were much lower than the 14.5 million phones that Wall Street had expected.
A new study by RBC analyst Mike Abramsky suggested Apple could get rapid adoption of the core services it rolled out with iOS 5. A full 76 percent of the 1,500 iPhone owners asked were either somewhat or very likely to use iCloud. Its value as online storage was likely to partly nullify one of Android's advantages and improve the "loyalty and stickiness" of iPhone users that might have otherwise jumped ship.
Motorola's Droid smartphone may have sold several hundred thousand units in less than a month, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue said in a research note today. Based on store surveys, the expert believes between 700,000 and 800,000 of the Android devices may have been sold since November 6th. Major Verizon stores could be selling as many as 100 to 200 Droids every week.
Palm's designs for the Pre and webOS have spurred RBC analyst Mike Abramsky today to upgrade his rating of Palm's stock, indicating that the smartphone creator may be a takeover target due to its appeal versus the iPhone. He now expects Palm to outperform market expectations and specifically cites the Pre's hardware and software advantages as potentially leading other companies to consider a buyout. Estimates would put the company's worth at about $15 to $16 per share, or about twice the going rate for Palm's stock.
