4 posts and columns on discretionary

I Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription Is…More iPhone!

in Mobile on June 25, 2010 at 8:06 am PT

Here’s an interesting bit of survey data from Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner, who found, like Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, a significant portion of iPhone 4 sales Thursday to be upgrade purchases by existing iPhone owners. The majority of people buying the iPhone 4 don’t particularly need it. But they’re buying it anyway.

Could Movies, Books and Music Be Amazon’s Achilles’ Heel?

in Media on June 22, 2009 at 8:58 am PT

Even as the rest of the retail world stumbled in the past year, Amazon kept cruising and increasing market share. So if a cratering economy can’t hurt the e-commerce giant, what could? Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney throws out a suggestion: Movies, books and music–the same stuff that helped Amazon get the lead it enjoys today.
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Ariba: JMP Sees Trouble in Services Business; Cuts Estimates

in News on December 11, 2008 at 3:17 pm PT

Ariba, which helps businesses manage spending via its software solutions, got a cautionary note today. The service business may not fare as well as analysts were assuming, given that product upgrades and extensions are met with more caution in the current economy. Also, Ariba has 170,00 square feet of office space it needs to sublet, with a shrinking pool of potential tenants–which could end up costing the company $150 million over the next five years.

Comcast Shares Jump Ahead of Earnings Tomorrow A.M.

in News on October 28, 2008 at 3:32 pm PT

Comcast’s earnings get announced before tomorrow’s opening bell, but the company has a couple of things going for it that might be helping analysts predict what those numbers will look like. First, 70 percent of consumers prefer bundling, and currently only cable can offer it. Second, even as we head into a recession, broadband and video are considered “no more discretionary for most families than running water.”