Tech links: 2013-07-19

By Edward Harrison On Jul 19, 2013

I have a few brief comments here on the crop of technology earnings and stories that are coming out. The lead story is actually on Nokia’s earnings because it captures the pricing pressure I believe is happening right across the technology landscape – from handsets to mobile apps to mobile telecom pricing. Everywhere you look, average selling price is declining.

Here’s what ‘The Verge’ says about Nokia’s conundrum:

The company’s average selling price (ASP) for each phone it ships also fell. It now stands at €45 ($59), down from €48 ($63) last quarter. Smartphone-specific ASP also dropped from €191 ($250) last quarter to €157 ($206). Given that the company launched the Lumia 520 (named the 521 in America), its cheapest Windows Phone yet, some drop in ASP was to be expected, but the size of this decrease isn’t likely to go down well with investors.

Now you might think this is just a Nokia conundrum because they are trying to take back share and doing so by actively lowering price. But the dynamics have to impact other vendors as well and we should expect ASPs to decline at Samsung and Apple too. Notice the articles on the Freemium gaming model and the lower and lower ASPs for mobile apps as well. This is telling you that price deflation is rampant. Elsewhere in the TMT space, I don’t think AT&T and Verizon will be successful with their new mobile plans that attempt to keep the contract price up in the face of T-Mobile’s handset unbundling scheme. We’ll have to wait and see.

Nokia loses $151 million in Q2 2013 | The Verge

Schneier on Security: Snowden’s Dead Man’s Switch

iPhone users pay average of 19 cents per app, Android users pay just 6 cents

Verizon Reports Q2 Earnings – Adds 941K New Subscribers and Earned $5.2 Billion in Profit on $29.8 Billion in Revenue – Droid Life

Spec Showdown: HTC One mini vs. Samsung Galaxy S4 mini | Android and Me

Government Surveillance: Why Transparency Matters | CloudFlare Blog

Comparing T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon’s Upgrade Plans – Bonnie Cha – Mobile – AllThingsD

Verizon Edge Upgrade Program Launches August 25 – Bonnie Cha – Mobile – AllThingsD

Google Misses Estimates In Q2 With $14.1B In Revenue, Net Income Of $3.2B, And EPS Of $9.56 | TechCrunch

Microsoft’s Q4 Earnings Miss With $19.9B In Revenue, EPS Of $0.59, Takes $900M Charge Against Surface RT Inventory Adjustments | TechCrunch

Google’s Q2 2013 earnings come in light on revenue and profit | The Verge

Liveblogging Google’s Second-Quarter Earnings Miss – Liz Gannes – News – AllThingsD