AllThingsD » Canaccord

China at a Smartphone Inflection Point

John Paczkowski — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:00:33 +0000

The billions of dollars China’s wireless carriers invested in 3G network infrastructure a few years back are beginning to pay off — for them and for smartphone manufacturers looking to tap the world’s largest mobile market. Evidently the migration of wireless subscribers from 2G feature phones to 3G smartphones has begun in earnest.

New analysis of the market by Canaccord analyst T. Michael Walkley reveals that China’s wireless carriers posted a 30 percent sequential increase in 3G subscribers from the first quarter of 2011 to the second. In Q1/C2011 there were 61.9 million of them.

And in Q2/C2011? 80.5 million.

Clearly the growth trend here is strong, as the chart at right ably demonstrates. “We believe the 3G smartphone market in China is reaching an inflection point,” Walkley says. “We anticipate … strong growth of 3G subscribers in China will continue, as 3G subscribers account for only 9.1 percent of roughly 883 million Chinese wireless subscribers.”

This, of course, bodes well for any company with a keen interest in China’s smartphone market — especially Apple, which has been particularly vocal about its intentions there. As I’ve noted here before, it’s been estimated that China could represent a revenue opportunity for the iPhone of $8 billion to $9 billion.

Apple to Flip Off Cisco With New iPods

John Paczkowski — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:53:35 +0000

Cisco’s acquisition of Pure Digital, developer of the Flip digital video camera, may prove an ill-timed one. For while the Flip currently dominates the market that it largely created, it’s about to be taken to the mat by a new and formidable rival: Apple.

In a research note issued this week, Canaccord analyst Peter Misek speculates that Apple (AAPL), which recently debuted an iPhone capable of shooting and editing video, plans to bring the same functionality to the iPod.

“We believe Apple is now targeting to enter the low-end camcorder market by adding this functionality into its iPod lineup,” he writes. “…We believe Apple will unveil various iPod versions with camcorder functionality. We believe this will drive sales not only for traditional MP3 players, but as a new competitive dynamic to the lower end camcorder market that is now dominated by Flip line of digital camcorders.”

Misek sees such a move giving a nice boost to iPod sales, which, as Apple revealed earlier this week, have been declining a bit. “On anticipation of this we have markedly raised our iPod growth assumptions and have raised our iPod shipment forecast from 50 million to 65 million units.”

And what of Cisco (CSCO)? What would the transformation of the iPod into a point-and-shoot camcorder mean for the Flip? Certainly not good things. Who’d want to carry two devices for music and video capture when they could carry just one?

Smart Phones: Canaccord Advises Taking Profits

Eric Savitz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:26:28 +0000

The cell phone market right now is awash in buzz, with the debut of the Palm (PALM) Pre, updated Apple (AAPL) iPhones on the way and new models coming from Research In Motion (RIMM) and others.

But has the chatter obscured softening fundamentals?

Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek thinks so. Yesterday, he cut his ratings on 3 major players.

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