Microsoft dominated PCs and Nokia mobile phones, but both are irrelevant in the dominant model for tech in the next decade, smartphones and tablets. An acquisition may have been necessary, but by itself it solves nothing.

Smartphones are now half of all mobile phone sales, and the 255m smartphones and tablets sold in Q2 2013 dwarf the 76m PCs sold. Microsoft now powers less than a quarter of all the personal computing devices being sold.

Microsoft retains a leading position in enterprise and in console gaming. But if it cannot return to relevance in consumer, the strength of the whole business will suffer.

Virgin Media and Netflix have agreed on a ground breaking trial that blurs the traditional distinction between pay-TV platforms and OTT services by permitting TiVo customers direct access to Netflix via their set-top boxes The deal promises to benefit both parties as Netflix enhances the Virgin Media content offer to its TiVo customers with minimal risks of cord-shaving, while availability on Virgin Media TiVo offers Netflix the prospect of incremental subscription growth The question is whether other pay-TV platforms will follow suit, including Sky with its competitive interests in film rights acquisition, but where the Netflix value to UK viewers is increasingly seen to lie in its TV content

Multichannel Networks (MCNs) operating on YouTube (YT) have seen a surge of interest from financial and strategic investors over the last year, mirroring their rapid growth on the platform and popularity among YT’s core demographic of 13-35 year olds.

As an extension of YT’s partner programme, MCNs provide production, traffic, monetisation and rights management services to content creators and brands, thus closing a gap in YT’s ecosystem by offering trusted environments with higher quality and monetisation standards.

MCNs are a key element in the professionalisation of YT and hence attractive vehicles for third parties to gain exposure to YT’s reach and potential. Looking ahead, for YT to continue its evolution and reach new levels of monetisation and content quality, structural and control issues need to be addressed that currently cap the upside.

Netflix H2 2013 results show continuing steady expansion in its domestic US and international streaming businesses, mostly towards the upper end of company guidance Netflix has always posed as a disruptor, yet there is nothing revolutionary in its business model or content origination strategy, while confidence in the future owes much to growing acceptance of Netflix as another channel outlet by incumbent content owners Although Netflix releases no international streaming data by country, there is some evidence to suggest it is edging towards two million in the UK; but is still on a tightrope as it races to add subscribers and revenues to cover its fast growing and somewhat shrouded content obligations

The ITV Interim 2013 results show a very strong start to the year to yield an 11% rise in EBITA, reflecting primarily strong growth in content production revenues and reductions in both schedule and other costs The weak spot was the -3% fall in NAR in a market that was estimated to be down -1% in H1 2013, although this was owing to seasonal sports factors and ITV anticipated ITV NAR to be broadly flat across the first three quarters of 2013 The overall outlook for H2 2013 and 2014 looks very positive, as ITV continues to build its content and online, pay & interactive revenues, but we also anticipate strong NAR growth in H2 2013 to continue in 2014 and for ITV to return to growing share of total TV NAR

Reports of the death of the PC have been greatly exaggerated, but rapid adoption of mobile devices is changing how, when, where and why consumers access the internet.

Over the next few years, we forecast that PC user growth will be limited to population growth, smartphone penetration will rise from two thirds currently to over 80% by 2020, and tablet users will converge to the same level as the PC audience.

In addition, we project that overall internet consumption will nearly double by 2020, with PC-based usage declining before levelling out, and smartphone and tablet use increasing threefold.

Of the traditional media sectors, we expect print media to be the most negatively affected by the rise of the mobile internet, with less impact on radio and TV viewing and advertising likely to be relatively resilient.

Virgin Media’s subscriber figures were slightly soft in Q2, even accounting for seasonality, with transaction distractions and reduced marketing spend likely contributing

RGU ARPU growth however remains strong at well over 2%, and increased marketing activity around high speed broadband by competitors will give the company the ongoing capability to keep pricing firm

The company management has had a number of changes, but Liberty Global’s overall strategy – profitable growth, not subscriber chasing – would indicate that any changes in approach will not be radical

A cheaper iPhone has been discussed almost since the original launch in 2007, but we believe costs have fallen and the market developed to the point that it now makes sense for Apple to offer a $200-$300 (unsubsidised) model.

We see a positive but fairly small financial impact on Apple. The key benefit would be defensive: by extending the ecosystem and preserving iOS as developers’ first choice, Apple would secure the whole portfolio.

We believe a well-executed and distributed $200-$300 iPhone would sell double-digit millions of units – a significant challenge to Android OEMs and Google. However, the US market’s pricing structure might limit the impact there.

Regional and local newspaper circulation decline continues to accelerate as consumer demand erodes, especially among daily titles in large towns and cities where readers are younger

Publishers are successfully mitigating circulation revenue decline through aggressive cover price rises but are unable to push up advertising yields in a market where print is considered to be grossly overvalued – especially by national advertisers

The promise of a truly digital future remains unfulfilled. The digital classifieds market has largely been won by internet specialists and the local advertising market is becoming hotly contested, not least by Facebook, as mobile traffic rises

Magazine consumption and advertising will be more affected by the explosion in mobile device ownership than they were by the desktop internet - classic magazine 'time' is being eroded

In addition to the ubiquity of free digital content, publishers are also challenged by the myriad of digital services that disrupt the extensive role magazines have long had in the discovery to transaction funnel

Opportunities exist for publishers and brands in the new ecosystem and their biggest challenges will be in harnessing the right skill sets and structuring operations for effective execution