Tech links: 2013-07-19

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