Q22010
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Sony posts $852m profit: PS3, PC sales up
Sony got itself back in black with a $293m profit last quarter courtesy of improved PS3 and Bravia sales, and the good times continue: the company just posted a second-quarter profit of ¥68.7b ($852m). The Networked Products and Services division that encompasses PlayStation and VAIO was Sony's strongest performer, with revenue going up five percent to ¥369b ($4.6b) on top of 3.5m PS3 sales (a slight increase), a 40 percent increase in PS3 software sales to 35m units, and "significant hardware cost reductions." PC sales were up to 2.3m units from 1.4m units last year, and Bravia and digital camera sales also increased, to 4.9m and 6.2m units, respectively. Now for the bad news: PSP sales continued their precipitous decline, down 50 percent to 1.5m from 3.0m last year. By way of comparison, that's the same number of PS2s Sony shipped this past quarter -- maybe it's time to break out a totally new PlayStation Phone, eh, Sony?
RIM posts impressive second quarter, expects even better third quarter
Coming off some negative press in the hands of the Torch, RIM would just like to remind everyone that it's still selling a crap ton of BlackBerrys... and it's got the cash to prove it. The company's second-quarter results are out, showing revenue growth of 31 percent year-over-year and shipment growth of 45 percent over the same period -- up to 12.1 million, meaning the company has now shipped a grand total of around 115 million devices bearing the BlackBerry label. Of those 12.1 million shipments, about 4.5 million accounted for new account activations, meaning that the company isn't simply keeping existing customers in the fold with new hardware -- it's still managing to sell noobs on the platform, too (or at the very least, there are still companies out there forcing BlackBerrys into new employees' pockets). Net income was up a tick against the prior quarter, though a stock repurchase of around $1.5 billion means that RIM finished out Q2 with significantly less cash on hand than it had in Q1, around $2.03 billion at the moment. The company's forecasting even better third quarter numbers, too, with somewhere between 5 and 5.4 million new account activations and EPS up another 16 to 24 cents. High hopes for the Curve 3G and BlackBerry 6 upgrades, perhaps?
Dell's Q2 2010 sees 16 percent increase in net income, flat revenue from Consumer unit
First with HP, and now with Dell. The PC maker (and occasional phone dabbler) posted its second quarter fiscal 2010 report, which actually gives a good perspective on the relative position of each company in the global PC market. Whereas the House that Hurd once ran reported a $30.7 billion revenue and $2.3 billion operating profit, Dell posted $15.5 billion (up 22 percent) in revenue and $745 million operating income. Like we said earlier, operating income shouldn't be confused with net income, which deducts those massive corporate taxes. Looking at net, the company profited $545 million, up an impressive 16 percent year-over-year. Focusing on the Consumer unit, revenue was flat at $2.9 billion, while at the same time operating income incurred a $21 million loss. According to the press release, the company "remains confident that initiatives underway will improve operating margins for the segment." Is all this enough to quell irate shareholders? Chances are slim, but hey, it's a start.
Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion's accelerating around the world
Last quarter we reported on some pretty stellar growth numbers for Android in the global smartphone marketplace. Back then, Google's OS had a 9.6 percent slice of the pie, but today that's ballooned to a robust 17.2 percent, meaning that in terms of end-user sales over the last three months, Android has nearly matched RIM's BlackBerry sales. That's quite the feat when you consider that a year ago the latter was shifting ten times more units than the former. This extraordinary growth rate has narrowed down Symbian's lead at the top, in spite of Nokia's favorite OS actually shipping on more phones this year, while the big loser of the quarter has to be Windows Mobile, which contracted both in terms of market share and actual shipments. Overall, smartphone sales were up by 50 percent year-on-year, according to both Gartner and IDC, while Gartner adds that mobile devices as a whole grew at a tamer 13.3 percent pace. In terms of phone manufacturers' global share, Nokia and Samsung have held on to their top positions, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola have experienced some uncomfortable shrinkage, and HTC, RIM and Apple have capitalized to expand their portions. Looking over to IDC's smartphone share data shows, again, that all smartphone makers are growing remarkably well, but it does highlight HTC (129 percent) and Samsung (173 percent) as really improving their presence in the sector. The reason? Android, Android, Android.
AT&T's bullish earnings report suggests iPhone exclusivity is almost over
You can tell a product ranks high in the public consciousness when something like this is news: AT&T's quarterly earnings report makes it sound like the telecom may finally lose its iPhone exclusivity deal. While a class-action lawsuit recently confirmed the handset was originally locked to AT&T / Cingular for a full five years, the company's Q2 SEC filing has the company making a considerable number of familiar excuses why AT&T's cellular business will thrive even "as these exclusivity arrangements end." While the iPhone isn't mentioned by name, it's hard to imagine sentences like "We believe offering a wide variety of handsets reduces dependence on any single handset" could refer to anything else -- but before you start defecting to Team Red, know there's nothing in there that suggests a date, much less proof of the fabled CDMA iPhone.
T-Mobile's second quarter: revenue up, but customers still leaving
The good news for T-Mobile USA is that it seems to be moving upmarket thanks to a huge push into the smartphone space with devices like the HD2 and the myTouch 3G Slide -- enough of a push, in fact, so that it recorded slightly higher revenues in the second quarter of 2010 both year-over-year and against the first quarter ($5.36 billion in total). The bad news, though, is that it continues to lose customers -- roughly 93,000 this time around, 16,000 worse than the 77,000 it shed in the first three months of the year. Indeed, ARPUs were generally up over the first quarter, with data revenue up a whopping 18 percent against the second quarter of 2009; blended ARPU was down year-over-year, though, likely accounting at least in part for the $180 million decline in net income over the same period. With Sprint starting to add customers again, could this mean a merger's more appealing than ever? Follow the break for the full press release.
Garmin: revenue from phone segment in Q2 was 'below our plan'
Garmin's second-quarter results hit the wires this week, and overall, the company seems to be pretty healthy; its automotive, outdoor, aviation, and marine businesses all posted growth, average selling price was up, and shipped units grew a solid 8 percent year-over-year. If you read a little deeper, though, there's one segment that undelivered -- smartphones, a joint venture the company shares with ASUS -- which contributed $27 million in revenue in the last three months. $27 million in profit would be business as usual for a division of a company of Garmin's size, but $27 million in revenue is a drop in the bucket -- and sure enough, the earnings report goes on to say that the performance was "below [its] plan." They go on to say that they're "working aggressively with T‐Mobile and other carriers around the globe on the appropriate positioning and pricing of our devices in the competitive smartphone space," interesting wording considering our shock at the Garminfone's initial pricing (and the fact that it's more recently come down to $130 for new subscribers). In Garmin's own words, the smartphone business is competitive to say the least -- you can't waltz in with an overpriced first-gen product and expect the world -- so it'll be interesting to see how they adjust going forward.
LG, Samsung report earnings, phone businesses not in perfect health
South Korean archrivals Samsung and LG have both come clean with their second-quarter earnings this week. While there's still black ink across the board, LG suffered a 33 percent decline in net profit year-over-year, undoubtedly due in large part to a little bit of bleeding going on in the giant mobile division where they've posted a year-over-year loss "due to investment in R&D and expansion of channels in emerging markets for future development." Samsung, meanwhile, saw a 7.2 percent profit margin in its mobile business and a respectable 22 percent year-over-year improvement in shipments, but it came at the cost of higher price pressures -- margins are razor-thin for these guys, and they seem to be getting even smaller. The company ends on a positive note by saying that the Galaxy S series and the Wave should help push it through the third quarter, but considering how these guys flood the low end (read: the part of the market where it's especially difficult to make a buck) with dozens of devices every year, it seems like it's going to take superhuman efficiency to keep shareholders smiling.
Nokia quarterly profits drop 40 percent year-on-year as CEO says speculation must end 'one way or another'
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was already a man in a hot seat and these latest numbers will do little to lower the temperature. Nokia's net profit for Q2 2010 was €221 million, which most companies would be happy with were it not for the fact that this company pulled in €380 million in the same quarter last year -- and that's with 2009, as Nokia's own report indicates, representing an economically tougher environment. Average selling prices for Nokia handsets used to be €64 back then, which dipped to €62 in the first quarter of this year, and is now at €61. Nokia says this has been caused by price pressures, "particularly in certain high-end smartphones," and though the change may appear small, a Euro's difference tends to be amplified when you're shifting upwards of 111 million units each trimester. For his part, OPK has said that the speculation about him being replaced isn't doing Nokia any good and he's determined that it "must be brought to an end one way or another." Guess we better keep an eye on this one then.
Intel has its best quarter ever, brings in $2.9b profit
Sure, smartphone and tablets might be the Next Big Thing, but desktop computing ain't dead yet -- just ask Intel, which just reported its best-ever quarter with a $2.9b profit on $10.8b in revenue. That's an increase of $445m in profit from last quarter and a whopping $3.3b from last year, all driven by record laptop and server chip revenue, as well as a 16 percent increase in Atom revenue. What's more, the average sale price of all those chips went up, and selling more chips at a higher price is always good for business. Intel's got a call to discuss these numbers in depth at 5:30PM ET, we'll let you know if we hear anything good.
Apple has another record quarter, posts $3.07b profit
Apple might not be too happy about having a fourth-gen iPhone prototype get stolen, but there's nothing like cold, hard cash to turn a frown upside-down -- and the company certainly made plenty of it in the second quarter of 2010, posting a $3.07b profit on $13.5b in revenue. That's the Apple's best non-holiday quarter ever -- profits were up 90 percent while revenue was up 49 percent -- and yet another record quarter for Steve and the gang. Mac sales were up 33 percent from a year ago with 2.94m units sold, iPhone sales were up 131 percent with 8.75m units sold, and iPod sales were down one point with 10.89m units sold. We're just about to jump on the analyst conference call, we'll let you know if we hear anything good -- we wonder what people might be asking about? Update: Oh, why not -- let's liveblog this thing. Follow along after the break at 5PM ET.
Piper Jaffray estimates a big boost in Mac sales
In a report issued today (cited by Apple 2.0 and SAI), Piper Jaffray's leading light on all things AAPL gazed into his crystal ball and served up some notes on NPD retail sales data. Gene Munster's numbers are especially interesting as we head into tomorrow's earnings report. The lowdown: Munster is looking for a Mac sales number between 2.8 and 2.9 million machines, based off of NPD's retail data showing a 25% year over year boost in Mac sales for the quarter. He's also looking for iPod sales between 9 and 10 million, and 7.5 million iPhone sales. What's weird is that NPD data showed Mac sales up 39% for January and February... perhaps there was a March slowdown as anticipation built for new laptop models. Considering that Q2 2009 was a record quarter for both revenue and earnings for Apple -- 2.22 million Macs sold, 11 million iPods and 3.79 million iPhones -- it will be interesting to see where this year's numbers end up, with a rebounding economy and more outlets for the iPhone 3GS. This is the second quarter of Apple's new revenue recognition scheme for iPhone and Apple TV, meaning every single sale of an iPhone hits the bottom line in full force (not to mention the 1/8th share of iPhone sale prices from previous quarters). Apple 2.0 has its quarterly rundown of analyst predictions at the ready, with a consensus earnings number close to 12 billion. I'll get out my dartboard and make my predictions here: Revenues of $12.79B, 3.25 million Macs sold, 7.75m iPhones sold. Disclaimer: I hold a small long-term position in AAPL.
