Tag Archives: sndk

Amazon Tap Casts Apple Suppliers; Texas Instruments Leads Echo Dot

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) tapped Texas Instruments ( TXN ) to lead its “hockey-puck-sized” Echo Dot Alexa-infused speaker, and incorporated Apple ( AAPL ) suppliers Broadcom ( AVGO ) and NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) in its portable Tap stereo, iFixit teardowns show. But the teardowns did little to help chipmakers Thursday on Wall Street. Chip stocks were broadly down in afternoon trading on the stock market today , in conjunction with fractional dips for the major indexes. Texas Instruments won five chips — including a digital media processor —  inside the Echo Dot , but that total was skimmed down from eight chips inside the larger Echo . Also, Samsung succeeded SanDisk ( SNDK ) as the flash memory supplier. Echo Dot also features a DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip from Micron Technology ( MU ), apparently replacing a Samsung RAM chip in the Echo. Qualcomm ( QCOM ) re-won the Bluetooth function from the Echo. The smaller Echo Dot earned a six out of a best-possible 10 in its repairability rating, dropping from seven in the earlier Echo iteration. Amazon’s Tap won a seven out of 10. It’s Amazon’s first Alexa-equipped portable speaker vs. the Echo Dot and Echo, according to iFixit. Maxim Integrated Products ( MXIM ) topped the Tap with two chips — an audio codec and a power management chip. Texas Instruments supplied an amplifier. Apple suppliers Broadcom and NXP won a chip apiece — WiFi/Bluetooth and an applications processor, respectively. The device is powered by a lithium-ion cell, such as those used in Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) vehicles, iFixit notes. It provides for nine hours of music playback, according to Amazon, vs. the iPhone 6S Plus, which has “a battery with a similar output for a radically different job.”

GoPro Adds Developer Program After Snatching Apple Designer

GoPro ( GPRO ) has launched a developer program with 100 companies, a day after the digital camera maker announced that it hired away a key member of Apple ’s ( AAPL ) industrial design team. GoPro stock rose 2% in the stock market today after surging 19% on Wednesday after the San Mateo, Calif.-based company announced the hiring of Danny Coster as vice president of design, effective at the end of April. He has been a core member of Apple’s design team for more than 20 years. Even with the two-day gains, GoPro stock is down over 20% in 2016. It has a low IBD composite rating of 31 out of a possible 99. The digital camera maker unveiled the “GoPro Developer Program” at a press event in San Francisco on Thursday. The program aims at helping third-party companies to create mobile apps, accessories, and physical camera mounts. Initial partners include car maker BMW ( BAMXY ), toy maker Fisher Price (owned by Mattel ( MAT )),   Twitter ( TWTR )-owned Periscope, Sennheiser, SanDisk ( SNDK ) and Volkswagen ( VLKAY ).

Western Digital Started With Buy Rating After SanDisk Acquisition

Summit Research initiated coverage of Western Digital ( WDC ) with a buy rating, saying that the company’s market position improved following its $16 billion acquisition of SanDisk ( SNDK ) this month. Summit Research analyst Srini Sundararajan set a price target on Western Digital of 74. Western Digital stock was near 46, down a fraction, in afternoon trading in the stock market today and just above its 50-day moving average. Western Digital is the largest supplier of disk drives, followed closely by Seagate Technology ( STX ). Western Digital holds a 44% share of the disk drive market, with Seagate at 40%. Western Digital shareholders approved the deal to acquire SanDisk early this month, creating a company that is a formidable competitor in both disk drives and flash-chip storage. SanDisk is a leading provider of chips used for data storage in a wide variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs. The acquisition is expected to double Western Digital’s addressable market from to $75 billion from $37 billion. Sundararajan, in a research report, said that SanDisk, which has a strong retail business, will be able to move up the ladder in the enterprise market, where Western Digital is strongest. Western Digital, meanwhile, gets the ability to offer chip-based storage in areas where its disk drive technology is losing ground. The combined company will have annual revenue of nearly $20 billion, vs. $13.7 billion for Seagate. Image provided by Shutterstock .