From The Business Insider, Dec. 17, 2009:

iPhoneWho?

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion just crushed Street expectations for Q3 -- the quarter ending in November -- and issued strong guidance for Q4. Shares are up 9% after hours.

RIM shipped its 75 millionth BlackBerry during the quarter.

The real test will be December, where RIM will have to increasingly compete with Google Android devices at Verizon. But in general, it looks like RIM is surviving despite increased competition in the smartphone industry.

Key stats:

• Revenue: $3.92 billion vs. $3.78 billion consensus.
• EPS: $1.10 vs. $1.04 consensus.
• Subscriber additions: 4.4 million, vs. 4.1 million RBC est.
• Devices: 10.1 million shipped, including 75 millionth BlackBerry

Guidance:

• Revenue: $4.3 billion midpoint vs. $4.11 billion consensus
• EPS: $1.27 vs. $1.12 consensus
• Subscriber additions: 4.55 million midpoint vs. 4.45 million midpoint RBC est.

 More coverage from The Business Insider:

• RIM Should Sell Now Before It's Too Late
• Motorola Blows CLIQ Pricing, Lets Apple and RIM Win Again

Google and Apple are locked in a battle to become the "platform" upon which most future mobile applications are built.

So far, Apple has a big lead in this market--the integrated software and hardware iPhone dominates third-party mobile apps--but Google's strategy of giving software away for free to handset makers could allow the company to provide some serious competition.  The latter strategy, after all, is the one Microsoft used in the late 80s and early 90s to take share away from Apple, which then, as ever, was building integrated hardware and software devices.

But now Google appears to have changed its strategy, trying to have it both ways.

Over the weekend, Google confirmed that it is producing integrated hardware and software phones.  Specifically, it confirmed that it has distributed an Android-based phone to employees for them to provide feedback, presumably before selling the phone to actual consumers.

Plenty of questions remain...

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But the financial news wasn't all bad in 2009 and we also have a list of top-searched "market darlings," including Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone.

Henry and Aaron discuss these and other top financial search terms of 2009 in the accompanying video

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Retail analyst Howard Davidowitz debuted on our show in February and declared the American consumer is toast, and that the U.S. standard of living is permanently changed. One of Tech Ticker's most popular guests ever, Davidowitz lit up our message boards.

With unemployment at 10.2% -- a 26-year high -- and Americans saving more and spending less, Howard, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, remains bearish on the consumer. But not all retailers are created equal. In a fierce game of survival of the fittest, the most cost-effective, creative and nimble retailers are actually gaining market share in a weakened economy. Among the "gold standard" retail winners:

Kohl's (KSS): A low cost-to-run leader that's able to offer quality merchandise at lower prices.

Dollar Tree (DLTR): With $1 goods, the chain is so profitable new stores operate in the black right out of the gate.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY): With competitor Linens N Things out of business, the retailer of home merchandise is gaining strength.

Wal-Mart (WMT): You know the story here. But now the behemoth is putting traditional food retailers out of business, too.

Amazon.com (AMZN): Shares of the online retailer hit an all-time high Monday as consumers turn to online shopping for bargain hunting and price-comparison shopping. Plus with no costs associated with running physicals stores, Amazon can compete with giant Wal-Mart.

And the retail losers? Sales trends so far aren't looking good for the luxury sector such as jewelry stores. While Tiffany's (TIF) recently topped analysts' profit forecasts for the third quarter, some-store sales fell 6%. (Quarterly profits were helped by overseas sales and cost cutting.) Longer term, Tiffany's needs to reassess its revenue model, Davidowitz says.

Other retail executives may not share her optimism (at least not so openly) but Irvine spoke to Tech Ticker after Blue Nile notched the best Thanksgiving weekend in the company's 10-year history. The online diamond and fine jewelry retailer is predicting double-digit growth this holiday season, something few retailers can dare dream about.

I spoke with Irvine earlier today about Blue Nile's prospects for the rest of the year and her perspective on related issues, including:

• The renewed activity among affluent consumers, although even the rich are value conscious these days, she says.
• Blue Nile's special Cyber Monday promotions, including free shipping (today only) and daily specials between now and Dec. 23.
• The growing online presence and potential competitive threat from traditional "brick and mortar" retailers like J.C. Penney, Target and Best Buy.

American shoppers hit the stores and Web sites as expected over the Thanksgiving weekend. But while malls were more crowded, consumers spent less -- sticking instead to their budgets and hunting for deals.

Average spending over the weekend fell to $343.31 a person, from $372.57 a year ago, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group that reported sales results Sunday afternoon. Total spending was flat at $41.2 billion, while about 195 million consumers shopped, up from 172 million last year.

Sure, Black Friday is just the beginning of the holiday shopping season. But results so far don't signal a V-shaped recovery, as Henry and Aaron discuss here...

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From The Business Insider, Nov. 23, 2009:

Microsoft (MSFT) wants to pay News Corp (NWS) and other large publishers to de-list their Web sites from Google's (GOOG) search index, the Financial Times reports.

The idea is to force Google (GOOG) to pay for content, thinning its currently fat margins.

Problem is, we can't imagine Google going for it.

For one, the FT reports that Google’s UK director Matt Brittin told a conference last week that Google did not need news content to survive.

“Economically it’s not a big part of how we generate revenue,” he said

For another, we can't imagine links to worthwhile stories originating from News Corp not finding their way onto sites that will happily remain indexed in Google's search engine free of charge.

Still, if News Corp were to "de-list" from Google, we'd expect to see all kinds of ads touting Bing as the only place to find the Wall Street Journal and MySpace pages online. Maybe that'd swing search engine share some, but we doubt it.

More coverage from The Business Insider:

• Droid price drops to $120
• AOL unveils new brand, new logos

Many investors still look to those tech giants for leadership, but Howard Lindzon, CEO of StockTwits.com, says there's a new group of "horsemen" that deserve your attention and (perhaps) your investment dollars:

• Apple
• Amazon.com
• Google
• Priceline.com
• Gold
• Twitter
• Facebook

Lindzon gives the rationale for investing in this pack in the accompanying video, and talks about how his investing style compares with Warren Buffett's. In a nutshell, Lindzon's momentum style is the complete opposite of the value legend's approach. But "it's not the buying [of stocks] that matters, it's the holding and selling that matters," Lindzon says...

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From The Business Insider, Nov. 12, 2009:

It's apparently significantly easier to get admitted to Harvard University than it is to get a job at the Apple Store. At least for Apple's newest store in New York.

At a press event today, Apple said that 10,000 people submitted applications to work at the new store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, according to Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan.

Of those, just over 200 got jobs, for a 2% acceptance rate.

Meanwhile, Harvard's acceptance rate was 7% this past year, according to a March report in the Boston Globe. That's 29,000 applications for about 2,000 admissions.

Obviously, the requirements and admission processes for college and a retail job are much different -- these aren't direct comparisons. But it's amazing how selective Apple can be with its retail employees. And it's amusing that, at least statistically, the odds of getting into Harvard are better than getting a job selling iPods.

This may put new meaning into the term "Genius Bar."

Click here for a few first-look photos of the new store, gathered from Twitter

Microsoft still has dreams to the contrary, but Google has won the search game. With an estimated 70 percent market share worldwide and nearly $25 billion of revenue, the company has left the rest of the industry in the dust.

But what's next? Search growth is slowing, and there's not much more market share to gain. So unless Google wants to have all the sexiness of a utility, it needs to find another growth engine.

There are three possibilities, says Ken Auletta, author of the new book Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It:

• YouTube
• Mobile
• Internet-based applications (like email)

None of these businesses is as profitable as search, and Google has been trying to build all three for years.

But YouTube's new emphasis on professionally produced content has radically improved the unit's financial performance.

And as evidenced by the advertising blitz accompanying Motorola's new "Droid" phones, the mobile business is finally gaining traction.

Again, neither if these businesses currently have economics that look anything like those of the search business. But people didn't think much of search economics in the early days, either.