Two highly ranked IBD 50 stocks are surging to new record highs Thursday on bullish earnings reports. Generic-drug maker Akorn (AKRX) reported earnings that jumped 257%, its fifth straight quarter of faster growth. Sales climbed 168%. Both topped analyst expectations, and so did its guidance. Avago Technologies (AVGO) late Wednesday reported earnings that soared 149% to top views, while sales increased 131%. It was the Apple (AAPL) chip supplier’s
Microsoft’s (MSFT) stranglehold on the personal computer market is slipping. Microsoft’s Windows operating system will drop below 90% of the market in terms of unit shipments worldwide this year, a new report says. Technalysis Research predicts that Microsoft’s Windows OS will be on 88.7% of PCs shipped in 2015, down from 90.4% last year. Its market share is shrinking as Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS computers and Google’s (GOOGL) Chrome OS PCs make gains. Apple Mac computers will account for 6.9% of global PC shipments this year, up from 6.2% in 2014, Technalysis estimates. Google Chrome OS computers will take 2.9% of the PC market in 2015, up from 2.2% last year, the research firm says. In 2020, Microsoft’s Windows is forecast to represent 86.7% of PC shipments worldwide. Apple’s Mac OS is seen growing to 8.6% of the market, with Google’s Chrome at 3.6%. Linux and other operating systems will…
Google (GOOGL) Android maintained its dominance in the smartphone operating system field in the fourth quarter with a 78.2% market share, followed by Apple (AAPL) at 17.5%. But Apple gained on Android from the year-earlier period, boosted by its iPhone 6 launch, according to research firm IDC. Shipments of Android smartphones rose 26.6% in Q4 from the year-earlier period. Apple rose 46%. Among the top smartphone vendors, BlackBerry (BBRY) had the