As Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) looks toward its future — and the prospect that being chipzilla is less important when the chips it makes are no longer flooding into PCs — establishing a significant footprint in mobile has never been more critical. This was likely one of the primary motivators behind its efforts with Tizen, the new smartphone operating system being designed in partnership with Samsung in others. This is not to say that Intel is not making efforts on the PC side, simply that its involvement with Samsung in balancing the market share against the continuing spread of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android has the potential to revamp the company’s focus a bit.
The importance of Tizen If you have followed the growth of Android at all, you are already aware that in four short years the operating system has gone from newcomer to the name to beat. Research firm IDC puts Android’s market share at 68.3% for 2012, with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS a distant second with 18.8%. While these numbers are impressive, they get even more extreme in the emerging markets; late last year, where the overall smartphone market was showing a 46% growth rate, that figure was 63% in the emerging markets. Apple has very little penetration into these markets, helping to explain why Android has been able to grow so fast.
Behind this growth, however, is a significant problem that Tizen looks to correct. Google’s web applications, which form the integrated programs that are native to Android, are not the preferred option in most of Asia. While we all remember Google’s noble departure from China when the local government told the company that it had to either allow snooping or depart, options such as Baidu and Naver are preferred in most of these countries. The availability of a huge ecosystem and free software have led to the wide adoption of Android in spite of these limitations, but many manufacturers build complex user interfaces that largely strip away much of Android’s functionality.
In an attempt to address this problem, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Samsung have banded together, joined by an amalgam of Asian telecoms — think Huawei and others — to create a new open-source OS that will challenge Android. Functionally, early reports suggest that the look and feel will be very similar to Android — because Google and Samsung have recently run short off things to sue each other over — but the even-more-open Tizen will give specific manufacturers that ability to more easily use other applications.
While no formal announcement has been made, you should assume that as an integral part of its role in helping to develop the new OS, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is endearing itself with all of these manufacturers. Samsung is expected to release a high-end, Tizen-based smartphone by the end of the summer that will directly compete with its own Galaxy S4. As the Tizen ecosystem is developed, assuming it can get a solid foothold, it will make the entire market more interesting.
What will be very interesting is how Google’s Motorola reacts to the news. Going back to Jan. 2012, Motorola and Intel have continued to deepen their partnership. Where most U.S. version of the Razr line uses QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) chips, Intel got most of the European orders. The critical differentiator was Qualcomm’s superiority in 4G LTE. In Europe, where the protocol was at a different stage of development, this distinction was not critical and Intel chips were used.
Other chip applications While the death of the PC has become more of a matter of acceptance than one of debate, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is not going quietly into the night. On the one hand, Intel PC chips are used in Microsoft’s recent Surface Pro. The device, which is the first serious attempt at a hybrid between a tablet and a laptop, was met with mixed reviews. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will be able to make a serious challenge in the tablet arena, but recent projections from IDC suggest that by 2017, Windows – and presumably Intel chips — will account for 7.4% of the tablet market. This may not be a hugely powerful position, but it gives Intel another footprint in mobile.
Finally, Intel is developing an application known as perceptual computing. The concept behind this interface is to allow your laptop to actively adapt to the various types of user interactions seamlessly. At initial inspection, the system looks like a productive version of Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, but it goes deeper and, Intel hopes, will reinvigorate traditional computing.
A new force in mobile It is ultimately too early to make a real determination as to whether Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) will charge into mobile with the same dominance it has exerted in the PC segment, but the company is making significant efforts. When it appeared that QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) was running away with the mobile chip market, by partnering with Samsung on the Tizen OS, Intel again stands on the cusp of real influence. The reception that Tizen receives will be critical, but even ahead of this, Intel looks solid.
The article Can Intel Become a Force in Mobile? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Doug Ehrman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple, Google, and Intel. It also owns shares of Qualcomm.
A 4% dividend yield and five year average dividend growth of at least 3% is a core screen I use for finding dividend paying companies I could live off of. Three stocks on the list that recently caught my eye were AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC).
Why 4% and 3%?
One of the rules of thumb in financial planning is that drawing 4% from a portfolio each year provides a high likelihood that you won’t run out of money before you die. That’s great, but you can get that 4% from dividends and never have to touch your principle.
Likewise, inflation’s historical level is around 3%. So, every year, most things wind up costing 3% more. If you want to keep up with those cost increases, then you have to make sure that your dividend payments increase around the inflation rate, on average, over time.
Passing the Screen
There’s no magic in a stock screen, though. Screens can cut out mostly undesirable stocks, but they really can’t pick the desirable ones. It’s more art than science.
That’s where a little elbow grease comes in. While 4% and 3% are a good start, I review the list (which normally has over 100 names on it) for those companies that I think might be worth owning. Here are a few that caught my eye:
AT&T (T)
Acquisitions and an increasingly dominant position in the mobile market have kept AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)’s top line on a fairly steady upward climb over the past 10 years. While earnings have been a touch volatile, the dividend yield has been a rock solid grower.
AT&T’s business has been increasingly dominated by the mobile market, in which it has an effective duopoly with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). With a massive subscriber base, the company’s revenues are annuity like. Moreover, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) stands to see revenues per customer increase over time as more and more customers get accustomed to streaming bandwidth-intensive media through their mobile devices.
This is a recipe for more dividend increases from a solid company. Debt is kind of high, but based on the business and the recurring revenues it shouldn’t be too big an issue. The shares recently yielded around 5%.
ConocoPhillips (COP)
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is an interesting story. The company bulked up a few years ago at what, in hindsight, was the wrong time. It then started to strip down, with the culminating event the 2012 spin-off of its downstream assets as Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX). In other words its a whole new company.
That might concern a dividend investor, but there are things to like here. For example, ConocoPhillips is the largest independent exploration and production company in the United States. As oil and natural gas have become increasingly difficult to find abroad, having a solid core at home materially reduces the company’s risk profile.
At the same time, new drilling methods for oil and natural gas have made that home market more appealing. So the company is also positioned to benefit from the increase in domestic output. This makes ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) a great option for dividend investors who want energy exposure, but don’t want to invest too far afield.
Although it is hard to make long-term comparisons here, a yield of nearly 4.5% and a history of dividend increases before the spin off make the company well worth additional review.
Intel (INTC)
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) shares have been suffering because of the company’s lack of exposure to the mobile market. This is the new “It” segment in technology. Being among the biggest players in the computer chip space just doesn’t cut it anymore.
There’s a good reason to be concerned. Although the top line is up notably since the 2007 to 2009 recession, it’s largely flat over the last couple of years. This isn’t surprising since tablet computers appear to be taking market share from Intel’s PC stronghold. However, there’s still a lot to like at this former market darling.
While PC sales may be off, the company’s chips essentially help power the computer systems that underpin the Internet. The “cloud” is a wonderful concept, but it still needs heavy lifting computers to make it work. Also, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has been pushing harder to gain traction in the mobile space. The company has a lot of money and extensive industry relationships; it stands a good chance of succeeding.
With years of dividend increases under its belt, investors would do well to consider Intel while the company’s shares remain unloved.
No Magic Numbers
Four and three aren’t magic numbers. However, they are a good start toward building a portfolio you could live off of, as long as you add a little elbow grease. While there are no “perfect” stocks out there, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) each have a lot to offer dividend investors.
The article Stocks You Could Live On originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Reuben Gregg Brewer.
The PC industry is starting to show signs of stagnation, resulting from the dramatic rise of smartphones and tablets. Last year, it took the assault of nearly 830 million mobile computing devices to drive PC sales down 3.5% — the first annual decline in over 12 years. This data suggests that the PC is perhaps beginning to look a little long in the tooth for consumers who continue to shift their electronic spending towards mobile computing devices. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s touch-friendly Windows 8 has yet to excite consumers largely because touch-enabled laptops remain in limited supply. According to NPD, last year’s Black Friday sales of touch-enabled laptops only accounted for 3% of laptop sales. Given this apparent supply constrain, it’s no wonder the PC has underwhelmed the consumer in the age of touch-enabled smartphones and tablets.
A shot in the arm For the time being, the PC isn’t going to compete on price against the tablet, but it may begin to show the world that a major overhaul to becoming more mobile is underway, which could translate into improved reception down the road. Looking longer term, it largely depends on how the PC industry can offer compelling alternatives to tablets for the right price. Since there’s so much riding on PC makers to get it right, I think it’s just a matter of time for it to happen, and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) Haswell seems to be the first step for PC makers to one-up the tablet industry.
When the dust settles, there’s likely a high utility for an 11-inch hybrid Ultrabook since it offers the convenience of the tablet and the productivity of the PC in one device. It’s entirely possible that such a device has the potential to threaten the 10-inch tablet’s existence. Perhaps it’s the 7-inch tablet and the 11-inch hybrid that go on to become the future face of mobile computing.
The article Will the PC Ever Be Great Again? originally appeared on Fool.com.
By Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Google (GOOG) has spent billions over the past few years investing in renewable energy projects and trying in general to cut its impact on the environment. Google is a successful business, and these investments have not been just for the benefit of the environment, or to increase their sense of wellbeing; they are investments made with a goal to making a profit in the future.
Rick Needham, the director of energy and sustainability at Google recently gave a presentation at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, in which he explained that, “while fossil-based prices are on a cost curve that goes up, renewable prices are on this march downward.”
Google hope that investments made now will put them in a strong position in the future when renewable energy becomes much cheaper than fossil fuels.
Related article: Clarifying the Clean Energy Innovation v Deployment Debate
One reason for the opposing trends that renewable energy and fossil fuels are experiencing can be found within the basic fundamentals of the energy sources:
• The renewable energy industry relies on mass manufacturing and ever more efficient technologies to harvest energy from limitless natural resources; this leads to constantly cheaper prices of electricity.
• The fossil fuel industry on the other hand relies on increasingly more complex and expensive technologies to extract dwindling reserves from ever more challenging locations. As time goes on the cost of producing the electricity just continues to increase; even anomalies such as the US shale boom which sent gas prices to record lows, are not enough to reverse the overall long term trend.
Related article: General Electric: Hot and Highly Diverse
Google has already invested around $1 billion in alternative power projects with a combined capacity of more than 2GW, and has also supported studies into energy efficiency, which enables their data centres to run on half the power of conventional ones, saving over $1 billion in energy costs.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Why-Renewable-Energy-is-so-Attractive-to-Google.html
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
Referenced Stocks: GOOG
This is ARGUS-IS (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System), it is a camera that can be mounted to the belly of a UAV. This DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) funded project enables for better surveillance than ever before. Not only can the ARGUS-IS take 1.8 gigapixel photos, but it it takes them in video form and with special software can track objects.
The video offers a small glimpse into what the camera can do, because this $18.5M is still classified most parts cannot be seen, but they demonstrate the software that shows it tracking objects.
The ARGUS-IS can scan a 25 square mile area at 20,000. To compare, you’d have to get 100 predator drones to scan the same area. 25 square miles is the average size for a medium-sized city, and this camera can scan it all at once in ultra-high detail. For an example, in the video they show that they can track a small bird flying through the city.
The camera can detect something as small as 6-inches on the ground easily.
You might be asking about how much space a 1.8 gigapixel can take up in a single day. As presented in the video. In a full day, the camera will take up 1 million terabytes.
This will definitely be something to watch out for in the very near future and may be coming over a city near you.
[Source: Gizmodo]
I wanted to share with you a few of the apps I use to earn free stuff and even cash money.
1>Field Agent - Field Agent is an app that pays you for completing small jobs usually at local retail stores near your specified zip code. These jobs usually consist of taking a picture of a…
Congress approved a plan to end Washington’s long drama over the “fiscal cliff” late Tuesday after House Republicans surrendered to President Obama’s demand to let taxes rise on the nation’s richest households.
The House voted 257 to 167 to send the measure to Obama for his signature; the vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation.
Whether TV viewers are live-tweeting about their favorite show or the show itself is promoting a branded hashtag, there’s no denying that Twitter has become increasingly intertwined with television. And, as a result, measurement and information giant Nielsen has teamed up with Twitter to establish a social TV rating that will deliver “a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter.” This new rating will complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings, which will give networks and advertisers valuable, real-time metrics that will help them better understand TV audience social activity. After all, Twitter is a virtual treasure trove of information, and a site that Steve Hasker, president of Nielsen Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions, calls “a preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.” Stats from Nielsen’s 2012 Social Media Report show that the percentage of active Twitter users tweeting about TV has risen throughout 2012, reaching 33% in June (as pictured below). And what’s more, active Twitter users send 1 billion tweets every 2.5 days, a volume of information that Nielsen calls “a necessity in producing standardized metrics representing online and mobile conversations about television.” The new rating system will take effect in fall 2013 and will encompass both those participating in the Twitter conversation and those exposed to the activity. As a result, industry stakeholders will get a clear picture of the number of unique tweets associated with a given program, as well as rankings for the most social TV programs. We’ve been fascinated by the continued integration of Twitter and television—and, yes, we completely admit to live-tweeting our favorite awards shows, sporting events and, in my case, anything and everything having to do with the WWE. And the fact that Nielsen is prepared to gather this data in a way that will be helpful and meaningful to TV executives and advertisers shows that they’re tapped into the future of television, something that’s becoming an increasingly multi-screen experience. We’re excited to see the subsequent reports that are published starting next fall—we expect they’ll be a data lover’s dream. What will be equally interesting is how marketers, executives and advertisers will use the data to create a more tailored experience for their viewing audience. After all, data doesn’t mean much if you don’t put it to work—and that’s a key step that’s often missed in the larger marketing and advertising equation. What do you think of the Nielsen/Twitter partnership? Lead image via HarshPatel;Photographer via Creative Commons Read more: http://www.v3im.com/2012/12/nielsen-and-twitter-team-up-to-launch-social-tv-rating/#ixzz2GNXHipqv
