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Lenovo's Q1 shows 'record high' market share, profits up 30 percent to $141 million
After delivering an overachieving laptop, Lenovo has delivered financial results that also exceeded expectations, producing $8 billion in revenue and $141 million net profit. Those figures are up 35 and 30 percent respectively over last year, which the company has chalked up to a higher than ever market share of 15 percent. That growth came in part from a 59 percent sales bump in emerging markets like India and Brazil, on top of a 9 percent spurt in its home market -- lifting the company 24 percent in world-wide PC shipments for the quarter. Lenovo has also become the second largest player in China's smartphone market, after Samsung, now up to a 13 percent market share. CEO Yang Yuanqing also proclaimed that, unlike other Redmond partners, he wasn't stressed about Microsoft's Surface tablet -- and that his company had "much better hardware" than the software giant.
IDC: tablet shipments drop 28 percent in Q1 2011
Whether you believe we're living in a post-PC world or not, there's no denying the overwhelming growth of tablets in the past few years. Just this March, IDC put out figures saying 2010 saw the sale of 18 million tablets, but despite the recent boom, the outfit's now reporting a 28 percent drop in tablet shipments in Q1 2011, bringing first quarter worldwide shipments to 7.2 million. IDC's latest report points to "slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraint," but nonetheless estimates that total tablet sales will reach 53.5 million by year's end, up from IDC's original estimate of 50.4 million. Once again, Apple's come out on top of the slate game, with the iPad 2 leading the market, despite its own dip in shipments. E-readers have apparently also seen a decline in the first quarter, with shipments dipping to 3.3 million units. Despite a slow start to the year, however, IDC's optimistic about future sales, but you don't have to take our word for it -- full PR awaits you after the break.
TiVo earnings call reveals Comcast Tivo, Stop||Watch expansions on the way
Among the financial details (net loss of $4.1 million, yawn) of today's earnings call, TiVo had big news about its Comcast TiVo product, announcing that remote scheduling will be available this summer in the New England area, the planned Chicago launch is "close," that the cable company will soon offer customers in areas switching to all digital the option of a TiVo HD retail box instead of a digital terminal adapter and in one yet-to-be-named tru2way market, will make TiVo its primary DVR option. That's the word from CEO Tom Rogers, who also said Comcast is going to aggressively roll TiVo out, while its still looking for the "best path" of distribution. Non-Comcast interesting developments? The SeaChange partnership has lead to one independent cable operator, Comporium, offering its service, while the Stop||Watch ratings service is expanding to 300,000 subscribers, 75 times the size of Nielsen's DVR sample. Check the read link for the (.PDF) press release or listen in on TiVo's website for all the info, we're busy pondering a bleep & bloop enabled future for our boring old cable DVR boxes.Update: The transcript of the call is available on Seeking Alpha [Via Davis Freeberg]
HTC first quarter earnings fall a not awesome 30 percent
HTC's unleashed a barrel of bad news on the world today with their first quarter earnings statement. The company's profits fell 30 percent during that period, with a net of NT$4.89 billion -- $148 million -- down from NT$6.94 billion (or $210 million) at the same time last year. HTC still managed to best analysts estimates (shows what they know) which forecast that the company's earnings would be in the area of NT$4.64 billion ($140 million). HTC said that the profits fell in part to missed product shipping deadlines, which have been pushed into April. And the recession continues...[Via MocoNews](Warning: Read link is a PDF)
Nokia outs first quarter earnings, market share slips just a bit
Can't win 'em all, we suppose. After a positively stellar fourth quarter of 2007 that saw Nokia grab a mind-boggling 40 percent of the world's mobile market share, the number one manufacturer slipped a smidge in the first quarter of this year, dropping down to 39 percent globally. That news is just one tidbit of a very interesting report that sees Nokia's year-over-year performance improve by a wide margin, while at the same time warning that the value of its mobile business is expected to decline versus 2007 thanks largely to the weak US dollar and a global economy that's been putting on the brakes as of late. Also of note is CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's comment that the company will have no "major new products" shipping in the second quarter, likely putting to rest any hopes that we'd see the N78 out before July -- unless the guy doesn't consider the N78 a major new product, which we think would be a pretty misguided belief. Nokia also notes here that it still expects to grow its market share overall in 2008 -- despite the 1 percent decline this quarter -- so any other players out there gunning at nabbing a piece of that profitable pie are going to have to keep the pressure on, it seems.
Motorola gives bleak outlook, plays musical chairs with execs
Okay, look, we seriously don't support laughing at Moto's misfortunes, and that's the truth -- but they just made it too easy here. Above is a screen shot of AP's brief about the sitch as it appeared for us on Yahoo! News. How better to compliment a MOTOSTRY than with a MOTOADVT, right? The ad here is encouraging us to get our news right on our V3xx, even if said news has to do with Motorola's bleak outlook for fiscal '07, apparently. Come on, if you don't get a good belly laugh out of that, you need to check your pulse... so yeah, anyway, the post-RAZR hangover continues at Moto, with CFO David Devonshire "retiring" to make way for Thomas Meredeth effective April Fools' Day. Profit forecasts are also continuing to follow their downward trend, with the first quarter now expected to rake in revenues of $9.2 to 9.3 billion, down from the $10.4 to 10.6 billion quoted just two short months ago. CEO Zander himself blames much of the shortfall on competitors' price pressures in the low-end segment; personally, we blame the shortfall on the fact that we still don't have a frickin' MOTORIZR Z8 in our hands, but what do we know?
MS reports Q1 earnings, shrugs off 360 doubters
Microsoft released its first fiscal quarter earnings report earlier this week, beating Wall Street estimates to the tune of $10.81 billion in revenue. That's an 11% increase over the same period last year. The Entertainment & Device division, which includes our favorite next-gen console, reported year-to-year growth of 70%, with 6 million next-gen consoles sold worldwide so far. In other positive news, the company boasts of record cumulative attach rates for software and peripherals, with Xbox Live surpassing 4 million members. Shrugging off skepticism from egghead analysts, MS Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the software giant remains confident it will meet its target of 10 million Xbox 360s shipped by the end of 2006. Since this is a fanboy site, we won't quibble with the difference between "shipped" and actually sitting in somebody's living room. Of course, if you're eager to help MS reach the 10 million milestone, you can always buy Xbox 360s for your extended family this Christmas, plus an extra one for the place in Tahoe.
