European Commission launches two antitrust investigations into Qualcomm

[Rys]

http://www.politico.eu/article/vestager-qualcomm-antitrust-mobile-chips/

Related to Icera (NVIDIA) it seems, the first investigation is looking at whether Qualcomm offered financial incentives to customers to take their modem technology exclusively (over rivals like Icera).

The second investigation will be looking at selling their products below cost to drive out rivals, and looks like it's related to cellular modem technology as well.

The EU commission isn't exactly shy of fining companies large sums, and it's not the first time they've looked into Qualcomm (the last time was with patents).

 

[wco81]

And I just got a notification, that Qualcomm is laying off 15% of its work force, because of poor earnings.

Apple also disappointed and indications are that Samsung and other Android manufacturers are struggling as well.

Maybe the entire industry has flattened, for the time being.

 

[Rys]

There's a lot of things you can say about Apple's performance, but disappointing isn't it. They nailed their guidance and had excellent growth (again).

 

[wco81]

Disappointing in the sense of the market reaction.

The street doesn't expect you to just jump over the bar. It expects you to jump over it by a large margin.

And the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cycle set the bars pretty high.


It seems unlikely that Qualcomm will get Samsung's business back. And other manufacturers like HTC are struggling as well. So Qualcomm may not see the same kind of profits it's seen in the past.

 

[Rys]

I think the market reaction is because of Chinese financial issues and the performance of its stock market, not because Apple itself isn't expected to keep performing like gangbusters.

 

[Grall]

The street doesn't expect you to just jump over the bar. It expects you to jump over it by a large margin.

Well, if that's how they actually reason they're a bunch of stupid you-know-whats. Apple is eating everybody else's lunch and then some, if that's not good for "the street", then there's no salvaging them. What other tech company makes profits like Apple? Microsoft probably did, once, but not anymore.

 

[Alexko]

They probably just expected Apple to do a little bit better than they actually did. These things happen all the time.

 

[pronto]

One word: bureaucrats

 

[eastmen]

A lot of people were disappointed with Apples performance because the 6+ was a one trick pony and there really is no bigger screen to pull from a magical hat at this point. So they are going to fall into the same trap that Samsung did , what do you do to keep people coming in that aren't IPhone users ? Samsung had great growth with the note line but now there is push back with the device on its 5th outing because a lack of sd card and removable battery. But as a note user since the first one , the 4 even lacked a reason for me to upgrade from the note 3.

I think apple will find itself in the same postion in a year or two. The 6s and 6s + should still do well , there are still a lot of users on older iphones , but I think you might see the slow down in the 7th gen phones. At this point they are all good enough