February may be the shortest month of the year, but don't forget that we get an extra day this time around.
Let's go over a few of the upcoming days to watch.
Feb. 6
Netflix
Netflix is breaking from tradition by making all eight episodes of the inaugural season available at once.
"Netflix's brand for TV shows is really about binge viewing," CEO Reed Hastings said during the company's conference call last week, justifying the move to make every episode available immediately. "It's the ability to just get hooked and watch episode after episode. It's addictive. It's exciting. It's different."
We'll see how both the show and the strategy work out for Netflix. If anything, this is a trial balloon ahead of the larger -- and costlier -- House of Cards that Netflix will roll out later this year.
Feb. 8
Sprint Nextel
Don't hold out for a blowout quarter. Sprint hasn't turned a quarterly profit since 2007, and analysts certainly aren't looking for one now. Sprint is the only one of the three major wireless carriers losing money in this climate.
Yes, Sprint now has the iPhone, but that's turning out to be a low-margin product for carriers relative to the readily available Android smartphones on the market. You know things aren't going well when even RadioShack calls you out.
Sprint's low share price is inviting to speculators, but the telco heavyweight is going to have to earn its keep soon.
Feb. 9
Satellite radio is here to stay, and Sirius XM Radio
Sirius XM already released its healthy subscriber growth metrics for the quarter itself. The media giant tacked on a better-than-expected 540,000 net new subs during the final three months of last year, growing its account base to 21.9 million subscribers.
Investors naturally loved the news, but now we'll get to peel back the curtain to see how the satellite radio provider made it happen. Are gross subscriber acquisition costs in line? Is the average revenue per subscriber climbing or slipping? CEO Mel Karmazin knows, and a week from tomorrow he's telling.
Feb. 22
A bracelet can't save the world, but can Nike's
Nike's FuelBand hits the market in three weeks. Despite the stiff $149 price for the bracelet that encourages active lifestyles by scoring physical activities with a proprietary metric, Nike sold out quickly on its first two pre-order rounds.
FuelBand devices use Bluetooth to communicate with iPhones to track results. It probably won't be the kind of scene at your local Nike store that you see when a new star athlete shoe hits the market, but seeing the kind of premiums that these bands are fetching on auction sites suggests that demand is pretty strong.
Feb. 29
Homemade soda didn't seem feasible -- and much less a sound business model -- until SodaStream
The company's water-fizzing system and wide array of flavors have been wildly popular, and we'll get a taste of how the 2011 holiday shopping season played out when SodaStream reports its fourth-quarter results on the final trading day of the month.
Analysts are bracing for a lower profit on a 26% increase in revenue. A rival carbonated beverage maker hit the market as the quarter was coming to a close, so it will be interesting to see if SodaStream is living up to its European tradition of performing even better when competition arrives (as a result of market validation and education).
Fizz or flat? We'll know for sure on leap year day.
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