Tero Kuittinen

@teroterotero tero@bgr.com +Tero Kuittinen

After launching mobile game company SpringToys tragically early in 2000, Tero Kuittinen spent eight years doing equity research at firms including Alliance Capital and Opstock. He is currently an analyst and VP of North American sales at mobile diagnostics and expense management Alekstra, and has contributed to TheStreet.com, Forbes and Business 2.0 Magazine in addition to BGR.

mobile
March 25, 2013
by
Apple Cheap iPhone

Why the budget iPhone would throw the smartphone market into chaos

By on March 25, 2013 at 11:11 AM.

Why the budget iPhone would throw the smartphone market into chaos

The buzz around the budget iPhone has grown deafening, with new reports about the device coming out on a weekly basis. This will be a product launch with a unique impact because of two trends that define the current smartphone market. First, the overall smartphone volume growth is projected to slow down from more than 50% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to about 36% in Q4 2013. Second, the Q4 2012 growth rates of the three biggest Asian smartphone vendors have remained superheated, with Samsung (005930) at 76%, Huawei at 89% and Sony (SNE) at 56%. What made this was possible was Apple’s slowdown to 29% growth during the past Christmas season and the notably weak year-on-year numbers from Nokia (NOK), ZTE and BlackBerry (BBRY). More →

No Comments
mobile
March 25, 2013
by
Featured
BlackBerry Z10 Launch

Buying the new Blackberry Z10 in Manhattan was a chilling experience

By on March 25, 2013 at 9:27 AM.

Buying the new Blackberry Z10 in Manhattan was a chilling experience

To get a sense of demand for the BlackBerry (BBRY) Z10 on its launch weekend, I visited three AT&T (T) stores on Saturday afternoon between 52nd Street and 96th Street. Some of the standard questions I sprinkled between small talk were: “Do you have the new BlackBerry Z10? How is it doing, have you sold many units? What are the best features of the Z10?” More →

No Comments
mobile
March 22, 2013
by
Nokia Lumia 920 Price

Good news for Nokia: The Lumia 920 has stayed far above bargain bin prices in Europe

By on March 22, 2013 at 2:28 PM.

Good news for Nokia: The Lumia 920 has stayed far above bargain bin prices in Europe

Nokia (NOK) priced its latest flagship Windows phone ambitiously — the Lumia 920 was at parity with the 16 GB iPhone 5 in early January. Both the Lumia 920 and the 16 GB iPhone 5 cost €540 in Germany, the largest smartphone market in Europe. By third week of March, the 16 GB iPhone price in Germany has dropped to the €510-€520 range at retailers such as Modeo, Notebooksbilliger and Handyschotte. The price of the Lumia 920 has declined to €497 at retails like Handyshop and Notebooksbillige, but perhaps surprisingly, the price has remained above €520 at most retailers, ranging from Modeo to Notebook. More →

No Comments
mobile
March 21, 2013
by
WhatsApp Market Share

WhatsApp dominates download charts, but it may have a hidden weakness

By on March 21, 2013 at 12:50 PM.

WhatsApp dominates download charts, but it may have a hidden weakness

WhatsApp has reigned as the undisputed messaging app champion across dozens of countries over the past two years. However, huge download volumes in all these countries doesn’t necessarily translate to high consumer engagement. A research firm called Mobidia has provided BGR with a fascinating comparison chart providing a direct engagement level comparison between WhatsApp and its major rivals in some of the biggest mobile markets. Mobidia chose a cut-off-point of 2 MB per month to make sure it is counting only consumers who truly use a messaging app actively. More →

No Comments
Business
March 20, 2013
by
BlackBerry Earnings Preview Q4 2013

The plot thickens: BlackBerry’s February subscriber math will be a nail-biter

By on March 20, 2013 at 1:10 PM.

The plot thickens: BlackBerry’s February subscriber math will be a nail-biter

Wall Street believes that BlackBerry (BBRY) will ship between 300,000 and 800,000 new BlackBerry Z10 smartphones during the February quarter. This is the most widely discussed number for BlackBerry’s fiscal fourth quarter, but it’s far from the most important metric. Since the Z10 was not shipping to the U.S. market and was available only in select countries for a fraction of the quarter, the Z10 shipment figure is going to be open to interpretation. Instead, the firm’s total subscriber base is the number that is going to be highly relevant. This is because in the August quarter, BlackBerry added 2 million net subscribers and in the November quarter, the company lost 1 million subscribers. Late autumn appeared to mark a dramatic turning point. The subscriber growth in emerging markets slowed down so much that it no longer was able to offset the base erosion in the U.S. and the U.K. More →

No Comments
mobile
March 20, 2013
by
Samsung Tizen Strategy

Is Samsung sabotaging Windows Phone deliberately to boost Tizen?

By on March 20, 2013 at 10:05 AM.

Is Samsung sabotaging Windows Phone deliberately to boost Tizen?

There has been a great deal of confusion among carriers and retailers regarding Samsung’s (005930) strangely tepid Windows Phone support over the past few months. Samsung’s supposed flagship Windows Phone device, the ATIV S, debuted in Europe in December and sank without a trace. The ATIV was simply the Galaxy S III with very minor tweaks and the Windows Phone OS slapped on. It now looks like the ATIV S will never launch in India. The U.S. launch of the ATIV Odyssey at Verizon (VZ) has been a complete disaster; the phone received no marketing support and is not even listed among the top 20 contract models at Verizon Wireless. More →

No Comments
Business
March 19, 2013
by
Sony Xperia Price

Sony is going after HTC with all guns blazing

By on March 19, 2013 at 8:45 AM.

Sony is going after HTC with all guns blazing

Sony’s (SNE) Xperia Z was probably the biggest surprise hit of February. It sold out substantial early shipments from Japan to France and is currently dominating the U.K. smartphone market outside the Apple (AAPL) – Samsung (005930) axis. This has been a very painful experience for HTC (2498). The launch of the new flagship HTC One was recently delayed until the end of March and it looks like April shipment volumes are going to be very thin, most likely due to camera module sourcing problems. Wasting no time, Sony is now rolling out its cheaper Xperia models at lower than expected price points. The Xperia SP will launch in some European countries below 400 euros and the Xperia L will debut below 300 euros in Netherlands and Italy. More →

No Comments
Business
March 18, 2013
by
Bitcoin Analysis Cyprus Crisis

Bitcoin apps soar in Spain – will the Cyprus shocker boost virtual currencies?

By on March 18, 2013 at 8:40 AM.

Bitcoin apps soar in Spain – will the Cyprus shocker boost virtual currencies?

Interestingly enough, several Bitcoin-related apps started spiking on the Spanish iPhone market over the weekend. Bitcoin Gold shot up in the Spanish iPhone Finance category from 498 to 72, and another app called Bitcoin Ticker zoomed from 526 to 52 in just one day. A leading service called Bitcoin App jumped from 194 to 151 between Friday and Sunday as Spaniards brooded over the Cyprus crisis. More →

No Comments
Business
March 15, 2013
by
Smartphone Market Share February 2013

iPhone again shows surprising market share growth in February

By on March 15, 2013 at 4:40 PM.

iPhone again shows surprising market share growth in February

StatCounter’s February tracking results indicate that the iPhone’s global mobile OS market share continued the surprising growth it showed also in January. StatCounter’s trend data reflected disappointingly soft iOS market share in November and December, which dovetailed well with the softer than expected iPhone sales volume Apple (AAPL) reported for the Christmas quarter. But over the past two months, Apple’s mobile market share climbed from December’s 23.3% share to 27.2% in February. This sharp bounce seems to have stopped Android’s strong market share gains, which extended from May to January. Between January and February, the Android OS share stalled at 36.9%. More →

No Comments
Business
March 15, 2013
by
Sony PlayStation Vita Analysis

Sony’s PS Vita roars back to life

By on March 15, 2013 at 9:50 AM.

Sony’s PS Vita roars back to life

Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation Vita, a powerful but pricey portable console, had an awful year in 2012. In its home market, the Vita has often dipped below 10,000 units per week, getting outsold by as much as 10-to-1 by Nintendo’s (NTDOY) 3DS. In the week of March 3rd, Sony finally bit the bullet and cut the price of the Vita under 20,000 yen, or about $215. That sliced just 20% off from the Wi-Fi version launch price. Nevertheless, the sales of the Vita rocketed from 11,000 units to 62,000 units. This in itself wasn’t a sign that Vita has a future; price cuts often give doomed devices a short sales spike. But in the week of March 10th, something fairly magical happened: Vita unit sales stayed above 60,000 units and a new Soul Sacrifice game sold more than 100,000 copies. More →

No Comments
mobile
March 14, 2013
by
Samsung Apple Rivalry

At the end of 2011, Samsung started morphing Apple into a follower

By on March 14, 2013 at 4:36 PM.

At the end of 2011, Samsung started morphing Apple into a follower

Up until mid-2011, the entire smartphone market was slavishly copying Apple’s (AAPL) moves. Apple wrested the control of phone industry trends from Nokia (NOK) and Motorola in the summer of 2007 and held the lead for more than four years. But since late 2011, Samsung (005930) started making moves that Apple first scoffed at and is now compelled to mimic. In the Christmas of 2011, the first Galaxy Note proved that a jumbo display smartphone was a device with substantial demand. The Galaxy Note II confirmed the trend a year later and demonstrated Samsung can run two mass market high-end lines simultaneously — something no handset vendor had managed since Nokia in 2007. Now Apple is expected to launch its own big-screen phone in the summer of 2013, nearly two years after Samsung pioneered the niche. More →

No Comments
Gaming
March 13, 2013
by
SimCity PR Nightmare

SimCity PR nightmare escalates

By on March 13, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

SimCity PR nightmare escalates

Over the past couple of days, “SimCity” has eclipsed “Pope” in global search volume. Electronic Arts has finally created something that has captivated the world with an intoxicating melange of drama, tragedy and sick humor. Too bad all of these elements emerge from EA’s project management, not the game itself. The first stage of the SimCity fiasco stemmed from how EA’s servers spectacularly failed to cope with the entirely predictable launch week traffic. But the next stage is potentially even more damaging. On EA’s Answer HQ website, one of the most heated discussion threads is now about whether the entire pathfinding and traffic management systems of the game are badly broken. More →

No Comments
Business
March 13, 2013
by
HTC Production Problems

HTC’s March production problems may carry a dreadful cost

By on March 13, 2013 at 7:45 AM.

HTC’s March production problems may carry a dreadful cost

The latest setback for the new HTC (2498) flagship model is the announcement by UK retailer Clove about the device’s British launch getting delayed from March 15th to March 29th. This come after a long series of brokerage research notes discussing the component sourcing problems HTC is having. It has seemed clear for months that early volumes of the HTC One are going to be thin through April; but it now looks as though March shipments could be minuscule. More →

No Comments