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PayPal Decides Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Amazon Fire Are Dead Ends

E-payments giant PayPal ( PYPL ) announced Wednesday that it will release an updated mobile app for the Apple ( AAPL ) iOS and the Alphabet ( GOOGL ) Google Android operating system next month But it also offered further evidence that also-ran mobile operating systems from Microsoft ( MSFT ), BlackBerry ( BBRY ) and Amazon.com ( AMZN ) are obsolete. PayPal said in a blog post that users of its Apple iOS and Android OS mobile apps must update to version 6.0 between June 3-30. As for Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Amazon Fire, there’s no app upgrade. In fact, PayPal will discontinue apps for those services as of June 30, though they can still access PayPal via browsers. Windows Phone and BlackBerry have seen continued market share losses, with Windows Phone market share falling below 1%. Amazon, which uses a modified Android, killed its ill-fated Fire Phone, though its Kindle tablets remain numerous. “It was a difficult decision to no longer support the PayPal app on these mobile platforms, but we believe it’s the right thing to ensure we are investing our resources in creating the very best experiences for our customers, wrote Joanna Lambert, PayPal’s vice president of consumer product. Microsoft announced plans Wednesday to cut another 1,850 smartphone jobs.

U.S. Solar Markets ‘Will Fail’ Or Install 1 Terawatt By 2040: BNEF

In 2040, solar installations will account for 30% of U.S. installed energy generation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Hugh Bromley predicted Wednesday during SunPower ‘s ( SPWR ) Sustainable Energy Symposium in San Francisco. That would be 1.6 terawatts — an as-yet unneeded metric for the solar industry. In 2015, cumulative U.S. solar installations hit 24.7 gigawatts, and industry tracker IHS expects the U.S. to add 5.6 GW before the end of the year. Worldwide, the installed base is expected to surpass 310 GW in capacity. To reach the 2040 target, the U.S. will have to transform the way it funds solar, Bromley said. Navigating The Regulatory Flux Last year was a landmark year for the U.S. solar industry. Congress extended the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) — a key subsidy underpinning the solar industry — and President Obama unveiled his Clean Power Plan in an effort to combat global warming. California set a goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030. On the other hand, net-metering debates spooked potential customers and became fodder for lawsuits. In Nevada, regulators cut payments to solar customers for energy fed back to the grid, prompting residential installers SolarCity ( SCTY ) and Sunrun ( RUN ) to exit the state. “If the economics go the way we think they will, what that would suggest is the energy markets we have today at the wholesale level trickling down to retail simply won’t work as they do today,” he said. “They will need to change. They will fail.” And therein lies the risk, Bromley says. Customers buying or leasing solar systems for 15-20 years, on average, have little to no visibility into the future of the solar industry which SunPower CEO Tom Werner earlier called “turbulent.” Customers are “exposed to several layers of price risk,” Bromley says. “What is your energy bill going to look like? Will there be increased fixed charges and demand tariffs? How is your asset going to be positioned in whatever retail billing looks like in 10 to 20 years’ time?” That’s where SunPower shines, Werner argues. Unlike rival developer SunEdison which “went bankrupt in spectacular fashion,” and SolarCity which is growing rapidly but not profitably, SunPower is diversified and has cash on hand to make it long term. SunPower reported a 30-cent per-share loss ex items for its Q1. It was SunPower’s first quarter in the red in three years vs. residential installers like SolarCity and Vivint Solar ( VSLR ), which have never been profitable. Top rival First Solar ( FSLR ) reported a loss once in the past three years. Solar: ‘A No Brainer’ Balance sheet aside, SunPower’s tech innovations — which combine hardware with software — will weather the upcoming regulatory flux, Werner says. The company’s Helix product isn’t a “cut and paste solar system,” it’s a complete solution that includes storage and energy management. Wall Street often considers solar storage a pie-in-the-sky ideal that could allow solar customers to entirely cut ties with the electrical grid, thereby avoiding net-metering and other regulatory pain. As it is, the grid fills in at nighttime and on cloudy days. Already, software-run energy management allows customers to see “in dollars and cents” the crux of their energy usage and then manipulate it for better economic value, Werner said. Adding storage is a game changer. “Solar is becoming a no brainer because it makes economic sense,” he said. Companies like Google ( GOOGL ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Facebook ( FB ) have figured that out, Bromley says. The quartet is among the country’s top solar users. Investor pressures will continue to push the Fortune 500 to renewable and sustainable futures, he said. Now, Bromley is waiting on a new tech that can gap up on renewable leaders solar and wind. Between 2016 and 2021, Bromley expects those sectors to install 18 GW and 19 GW, respectively, by far outpacing other renewables. But any new renewable innovation faces a steep uphill battle. “Any new tech needs to lobby support from the government and come up with an argument as to why we need a third cheap, clean tech,” he said. “Unless, it’s something that deals with intermittency issues.”

Microsoft Takes $950 Million Charge To Revamp Smartphone Unit

One week after Microsoft ( MSFT ) sold its low-end feature phone business, the company on Wednesday announced plans to streamline its remaining smartphone business and take a $950 million impairment and restructuring charge. Microsoft expects to cut up to 1,850 jobs as part of the realignment. It will record the financial charge in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends June 30. “We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement . “We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms.” Microsoft acquired the feature phone and smartphone businesses from Nokia ( NOK ) for $7.5 billion in April 2014. Microsoft wrote off the entire value of the deal in July 2015 when it recorded an impairment charge of $7.6 billion related to the Nokia assets. At the time, it also laid off 7,800 workers from those operations. On May 18, Microsoft announced it is selling its entry-level feature phone business for $350 million to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Foxconn, and HMD Global, a newly created company in Finland that has licensed Nokia’s brand and intellectual property. Microsoft has had a tough time competing in the mobile phone market against Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) iPhone and handsets using the Android operating system from Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google. Microsoft’s Windows phones accounted for less than 1% of smartphone sales to end users worldwide in the first quarter, research firm Gartner said. Microsoft shares rose 1% to 52.12 on the stock market today . RELATED: Microsoft Stock Oversold, Gets Upgrade On Cloud Prospects