Alexa, Blackberry, Samsung…and hockey?
“Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretsky
I snuggled and/or played with Amaris all night at the hospital in Albuquerque…but we get to home today!
Since I’ll be on the road home today, let’s reschedule this week’s Live Q&A Conference Call for tomorrow at 1pm ET (Dial-in: #: 641-715-0700 Access Code: 709981).
Here are a couple not-so-random thoughts.
Blackberry is up nearly from $8 to nearly $10 per share this morning, rising 20% this morning on this news:
BlackBerry Ltd. BBRY, +18.51% said Wednesday it has been awarded $814.9 million in a binding interim arbitration decision against Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, -0.98% A final award, including interest and legal fees will be issued after a May 30 hearing, the Canadian mobile device maker said in a statement. The companies agreed to arbitrate a dispute last April on whether Qualcomm’s agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a licence agreement between the two. The arbitration hearing was held in San Diego, Calif. from Feb. 27 to March 3. “BlackBerry and Qualcomm have a longstanding relationship and continue to be valued technology partners,” said John Chen, chief executive of BlackBerry. “We are pleased the arbitration panel ruled in our favor and look forward to collaborating with Qualcomm in security for ASICs and solutions for the automotive industry.”
$800 million will nearly double the cash balance for Blackberry, but it’s a one time thing and I’m not sure it will help save the company. Remember when Blackberry was over $100 and we shorted the heck out of it and I was writing these articles:
See BBRY Is Dead; now what? or 49 app stocks that should go up 1000% and one that won’t or BBRY is truly dead, for examples.
We covered that short a long time ago for some nice gains but I wouldn’t try to short BBRY this morning. As for going long? I’d rather stick with Amazon, Google and Apple in the smartphone world, just as we have for years.
Speaking of Amazon and the smartphone world — you guys know I think Amazon’s about to roll out a new Alexa-centric Android smartphone that will let you do things like say to your smartphone, “Alexa, open up my IAm Jim Cramer App” or “Alexa, download the new IAm Carly Simon App and put it on the front screen.”
Remember a couple weeks ago when I was mocking Samsung’s wannabe Alexa voice assistant?
Samsung Galaxy S8: Longer Screen, New AI Assistant – Alexa‘s incredible ease-of-use and the huge traction Amazon already has in Alexa has made Alexa the most-likely de facto standard for voice/AI assistants of the future. Bixby is currently focusing on enabling the user to talk through apps and tasks on the smartphone itself and that is something that Amazon is likely working on for an upcoming new attempt at the smartphone business that will be an Alexa-centric operating system built on top of Android. As for the likelihood that Samsung‘s Bixby can end up successfully competing against Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple and other US-based tech companies’ voice/AI offerings, I highly doubt it. Samsung‘s never been much of a software company. They won’t win in a highly-advanced technology built around software and not hardware/chips.
Well, here’s the news about Samsung’s wannabe:
The English-language version of a voice-activated “virtual assistant” that is a major feature of Samsung Electronics Co.’s newest flagship device won’t be ready to go when the Galaxy S8 smartphone arrives in U.S. stores next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
The delayed English-language rollout of the Galaxy S8’s artificial-intelligence service, dubbed Bixby, could stretch on until as late as the end of May, one of these people said, though these people warned that no final decision had been made on timing.
Let’s keep investing and skating to where the puck is going, eh?
