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Stocks are mixed despite a better than anticipated March retail sales report and a drop in initial jobless claims. Shares of GOOG are up strong versus the rest of technology in early trading. Upcoming catalysts include first quarter 2011 financial results released Thursday, April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time; continued Android momentum; regaining ground in China and pushing into other emerging markets; updated software, adoption and media partners for Google TV; and progress in other newer initiatives (+1, location-based services, mapping, gaming, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 14x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to historical trading levels and the broader Internet group.
Android To Pervade The Low-End Handset Market (Digitimes)
About 20-25 million entry-level Android smartphones at contract-free prices for $150 or less will be sold in the global market in 2011, much more than the 2.5-3 million units sold in 2010, according to Digitimes. Global smartphone sales will hike 54.5% from 2010 to 445 million units in 2011, of which 165 million or 37.1% will be Android models, surpassing Symbian (Nokia) to become the largest smartphone platform.
Gartner Jumps On The Android Bandwagon (Reuters)
Growing demand for smartphones running the Android platform will help the smartphone market grow 58% this year and 35% next year, according to Gartner. Android, a distant second to Nokia's Symbian just last year, will increase its market share to 39% this year while Symbian's share will roughly halve to 19% following Nokia's decision to dump the platform in favor of Microsoft. Windows Phone market share is expected to increase to 20% in 2015.
Google Going The Netflix Route For Streaming Original Content, Goes Down Market (Mashable)
Google plans to create 20 special channels on its YouTube site, and will spend $100 million to create original programming to populate them. Like Netflix announced last month, Google wants to create its own streaming video programs, however, the company will create low-cost programming designed specifically for the web and YouTube, and support the shows with advertising. This is in line with the company's recent acquisition of Next New Networks.
Xoom Is Officially A Flop Compared With The iPad (VentureBeat)
Google's first real answer to the iPad is not exactly blowing the doors off. According to Deutsche Bank, Motorola has only sold 100,000 Xoom tablets so far. The firm arrived at the 100,000 figure by using the Android developer site to see how many people are currently using the Honeycomb OS. To put this figure into perspective, Apple sold 300,000 iPads in the first week. Read more at Business Insider.
Andy Rubin Comes To The Defense Of Android (All Things Digital)
Amid criticisms over Android fragmentation and rumors that the company is clamping down on modifications, the head of the mobile software effort Andy Rubin says that he remains committed to keeping the effort an open source project and has had anti-fragmentation processes in place since Android 1.0. This actually seems a little hard to believe, given how many versions of Android are out there. So whether Google is really making its terms more "onerous" or not, the company probably should seize more control. The platform could really benefit from more standardization. Read more at Business Insider.
Lawmakers Say Google Has A Way To Go In Anti-Piracy Fight (CNet)
For the past year, both Congress has been debating the creation of a law that would allow the government to block websites accused of piracy. Google General Counsel Kent Walker testified before the House committee on Intellectual Property yesterday and why Google was falling short in its anti-piracy efforts. The main message from yesterday was not what Google had done, but what it has left to do.
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See Also:
- Android 3.0 Honeycomb Was 0.07% Of Business Insider's Traffic In March -- iPad Was 50X Bigger
- Here's What's Coming In iOS 5 – The SAIcast Discuss
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