2011
Latest
Apple's 2011 MacBook Pro graphics woes lead to class action lawsuit
If you are one of the thousands of owners of a 2011 MacBook Pro who quickly found yourself with visual artifacts and other graphical glitches stemming from faulty hardware, you'll be interested to know that a class action lawsuit related to the matter has been filed in the hopes of reimbursing consumers affected in California and Florida. Plaintiffs Zachary Book, Donald Cowart and John Manners allege that Apple has forced owners of the 2011 MacBook Pro to pay out-of-warranty costs for GPU repairs despite it being clear that the hardware was faulty from the start. The suit notes the high price of the MacBook Pro -- reaching a cost of $3,000 or more -- compared to the average price of a Windows laptop at the time, which was just $489, adding that an out-of-pocket repair for the issue in question could be as much as $600 on its own. The suit (check out a PDF of the entire document here) gets into the nitty gritty details of logic board failures and details exactly what caused the issue in the first place, complete with photographic evidence. As expected, Apple hasn't publicly weighed in on the matter, but with upwards of 20,000 signatures on the petition demanding action be taken over the 2011 hardware issues, it's unlikely that Apple will be walking away from this one without opening its wallet. [via 9to5mac]
Lenovo beats PC market with 46 percent profit surge
Yep, it's party-time in Beijing once again. While the PC industry as a whole reportedly grew by a tight handful of percentage points over the past year, Lenovo has somehow managed to continue its long-running growth spurt, with shipments up 44 percent and operating profits up 46 percent. Sales of both laptop and desktop (including IdeaCentre all-in-ones) grew roughly equally, helped along by blossoming demand in emerging markets, while fledgling smartphones and tablets also proved popular in Lenovo's homeland. The manufacturer reckons it's now second in command of the market behind HP, although it conveniently disregards Apple's iPad from its ranking.
Panasonic racks up a record loss for 2012, looks forward to profits and a partner for OLED TVs
Panasonic's yearly earnings are in and the red ink added up to a record $9.7 billion net loss for 2011. Number one on incoming president Kazuhiro Tsuga's list is turning around the company's TV division, where its heavy investments in both plasma and LCD manufacturing resulted in heavy losses. Currently the company expects a better result in both next year after 2011's write downs and restructuring, although its projections see total sales falling from 17.3 million last year to 15.5 million. Panasonic is expected to follow Samsung and LG into large screen OLED HDTV production and outgoing prez Fumio Ohtsubo mentioned it would likely look for a partner there. Sumitomo has been rumored as a potential ally in the past, though a preference for run-flat tires could not be confirmed at press time.
Sony's final 2011 report shows a record net loss, optimism for 2012
After a slew of bad news and drastically restated projections, Sony has reported the numbers for its full 2011 financial year and as expected, they're not good. The company experienced a record net loss of 456.7 billion yen ($5.73 billion) and an operating loss of 67.3 billion yen. The good news to look forward to however, is that it currently expects an operating profit of 180 billion yen for next year. For the year, it also noted sales of 13.9 million units for the PlayStation 3, 6.8 million PSPs/PS Vitas, 19.6 million LCD TVs and 21 million cameras. Next year, Sony is looking to move 16 million PS3s and 33 million smartphones. New CEO Kaz Hirai has detailed the "One Sony" strategy he hopes will bring the company back to financial health but with its current worth standing at just a fraction of competitors like Samsung and Apple (Reuters pegs it at 10 percent and 3 percent, respectively), the electronics giant has a long, long way to go. Hit the source link below for more dirty financial details, slideshows and spreadsheets.
Toshiba made $898.8 million profit, could manage to lend you twenty bucks
Toshiba isn't going with the flow this financial season, bucking the trend and posting a healthy (albeit reduced) net profit of 73.7 billion yen ($898.8 million). Whilst down from $1.7 billion in 2010, the company points to the European debt crisis, Japanese Earthquake and high oil prices as the barriers to further success. Unlike its local rivals, Tosh branched out early into "social infrastructure," building everything from radiation detectors, power plants and LED light bulbs -- businesses that made a stack of cash while its computer and TV businesses slumped. Unencumbered by these crises in the future, the company is projecting to make $1.68 billion across the next 12 months -- at which point it might treat itself to a spa day, or something.
Rovio makes a Mighty Eagle's $68 million in profit in financial squawk
Rovio has announced that in 2011, it made a huge $106.3 million turnover and a whopping $67.6 million in profit (before tax), showing that flinging feathery fowl is a very serious business. Fueled by the success of Angry Birds, Seasons and Rio, the company grew by a factor of eight in the last year, from 28 employees all the way to 224. The company adds that the three games were downloaded 648 million times and are now used by 200 million daily users, while sales of merchandise contributed to around 30 percent of the total revenue. The report adds that the only barrier to future profits is if people stop buying new smartphones, but we're not sure that's likely to be the case for a while.
Sharp posts $1.4 billion extraordinary loss, refocuses on mobile displays
Sharp has reported an extraordinary loss of 117.1 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for the financial year ending March 2012. The company has cited restructuring costs and inventory losses as the causes for the write-down, but also projected that its TV business would lose a further 18.7 percent of its projected sales in the current year. The company has decided to convert some of its big-screen LCD production lines into mobile LCDs as it tries to reassert its dwindling display business. It's yet more bad news after the company sold part of its LCD manufacturing business to Hon Hai, Sony withdrew from a joint venture and refused to deal with Sharp in the future, plus an 86 percent collapse in profits.
Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent
Huawei's annual earnings report is out and it's a mixed bag, since while turnover increased by 11.7 percent to 203.9 RMB ($32.3 billion), profits plummeted 53 percent to 11.6 billion RMB ($1.8 billion). Revenue from overseas sales (138.4 billion RMB) equated for over half the company's total income and it boasted of having sold 150 million consumer devices, including 20 million smartphones in the year. The company didn't provide reasons for the drop in profit, emphasizing that it's increased R&D spending by 34.2 percent to 23.7 billion RMB ($3.75 billion) and that in any event, it's got around $30 billion of assets that can shoulder the brunt of a bad year. However, the company may not see a rosy 2012 either, after both America and Australia refused to give the company big infrastructure deals (Huawei's bread and butter) thanks to allegedly close relationships between the company and the Chinese government. It seems to be following a similar trajectory to rival ZTE, which also felt margins squeeze as it entered the global retail space and felt the heat when its political dealings were thrown in the spotlight.
Sony revises projections, sees $6.4 billion net loss for 2011
While we wait to hear Kaz Hirai's new plan for Sony, the news is getting worse before it gets better. The company just announced new projections that are more than double the net loss it predicted in February for the fiscal year 2011, to the tune of $6.4 billion. The reason? According to Reuters, it's additional tax expenses that are causing the pain, as Sony says it's "due to the establishment of valuation allowances against certain deferred tax assets, predominantly in the U.S." There is a silver lining to this cloud however, as the company is projecting an operational profit of 180 billion yen ($2.2 billion US) in 2012, compared to a loss of 95 billion yen ($1.16 billion US) last year. There are already predictions that Kaz will announce significant cuts in jobs and bonuses on the 12th, and from the numbers in the PDF linked below you can see why.
Sega streamlines US, European operations after posting $86 million loss
Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. has announced that it will begin streamlining its American and European operations after posting an 7.1 billion Yen ($86 million dollar) extraordinary loss for the 2011 year. The move is expected to create a "smaller company positioned for sustained profitability" with the company planning a shift to a new "digital content" strategy. It'll cancel work on new, forthcoming titles and just concentrate on key earners like the Sonic, Football Manager and Total War franchises. There's no official word on if it'll involve job losses, but the company is setting aside 4.9 billion yen ($59.7 million) of that loss figure in order to cover the costs of the corporate reorganization. In the meantime, we're off to pour one out for one of our childhood staples.
ZTE announces 2011 financials: turnover up, profits down, political scandals tricky
ZTE's annual earnings report is out and it's a mixed bag for the Chinese company with aspirations to go west. Revenues grew 23 percent to 86.25 billion RMB ($13.7 billion) but net profit fell a hefty 36.6 percent to 2.06 billion RMB ($327 million). More than half of ZTE's operating revenue came from overseas as the company moves into the global space and, while some of that cash came from its smartphone business, much more poured in from the infrastructure arm that supplies LTE equipment to networks. At the same time, ZTE is having to deal with accusations that it sold $131 million worth of snooping gear to Iran to monitor its own citizens, forcing the company to limit its operations there -- although it insists this won't have any impact on its future income.
Breakfast Topic: Is DKP starting to become obsolete?
I was trundling through Wowpedia the other day for some background reading on loot systems (I'm writing a follow-up to Robert's not-so-original WoW miscellany) when I was struck by a sudden thought: I literally cannot remember the last time I saw a guild on my server advertising a DKP system or common variant like Suicide Kings. They advertise what level they are and what type of players they're looking for, the kind of raid content they do if they're raiders, if they do Rated Battlegrounds, and all that good stuff. But only very rarely is DKP ever mentioned, rarer still with a 10-man raiding guild. I trawled through the guild recruitment forums to see if this was actually part of a wider trend, but don't know what to think. The 25-man raiding guilds are the most likely to say they use a DKP system or variant; 10-man raiding guilds nearly all use loot councils, at least from my (admittedly brief) survey of the current advertisements. Is this also happening on your realms, or have I gotten this wrong? We all know that every DKP system has its issues and that administrating them is one of the larger headaches for guild leaders. 10-man raiding is also more popular than 25-man raiding right now, and it probably doesn't make sense for a guild to obsessively track DKP for a 10-man where most players probably aren't rolling on the same stuff. Is DKP dying, or is it just a sign of the popularity of the 10-man model?
Nokia submits yearly SEC report, details €1.4b loss and Windows Phone risks
Nokia submitted its annual report (Form 20-F) to the SEC today, and -- as required of all publicly traded companies -- the information provided a candid overview of its financial health and market risks. Based on its quarterly reports, we've already known it was a rather bleak year for the Finnish outfit, which saw a €1.4b annual loss compared to €1.3b in profit just one year ago. Further, its net sales similarly took it on the chin, which amounted to €38.6b in 2011 versus €42.4b in the previous year. In terms of units sold, Nokia pushed out 339.8m feature phones during the year -- a three percent decline from the 349.2m units sold during 2010. The company attributed the drop to its aggressively priced competitors, as well as its lack of a dual-SIM handset for the first half of the year. Nokia's smartphone segment took an even harder hit, which fell to 77.3m units sold -- a 25 percent drop from the 103.6m devices shipped just one year ago. Once again, the company cites its aggressive competition as the primary factor for the decline, along with a waning interest in the Symbian platform.In its discussion of potential threats to the company's bottom-line, Nokia provides a rather forthright assessment that accurately pegs its future success in the smartphone marketplace upon the acceptance of Windows Phone among developers and consumers. Likewise, its projections to sell 150 million Symbian units is failing to materialize -- big shocker there -- and Nokia now expects demand for its homegrown platform to continue deteriorating. Nonetheless, it remains stalwart in the commitment to support Symbian through 2016 -- though surprisingly, no comment on how this in itself could be a disaster to the company's bottom-line. Should Nokia's smartphone effort fail, that leaves it with the Series 40 feature phone segment, which it characterizes as a low-margin business that may see its demand erode as smartphones reach even lower price points. Nobody ever said that the mobile industry was a bed of roses, but if you'd like to view the world through Nokia's eyes, you're certain to find its commentary (pages 13 - 47 of the source document) an interesting read.
MetroPCS Q4 results are in: increased revenue, slowing growth
The nation's fifth largest wireless provider -- MetroPCS -- has checked in with its Q4 2011 financials, and on the whole, the company looks to be doing quite well. Metro reported $1.2 billion in consolidated quarterly revenues and $362 million in earnings, an increase of 16% and 15% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. A few other positive vitals: average revenue per user (ARPU) was up $0.76, net income rose to $77 million and churn dropped 80 basis points from 4.5% in Q3 to 3.7% in Q4. Two small blemishes can be found in the net customer additions and cost per user (CPU) columns. While MetroPCS added well over 197,000 new customers in Q4, the rate at which it grew slowed dramatically -- down 34% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. The company's CPU also rose $1.17 during that same period -- which can be partially attributed to LTE network services, along with general expansion and operating costs. One other mildly unfortunate note was word that voice over LTE wouldn't be launching till the second half of the year, slightly later than we had been anticipating. Taking all that into consideration, it was still a strong quarterly showing from the value-centered wireless carrier.
Visualized: iOS 2011 sales smoke 28 years of Mac
Love it or hate it, Apple had a pretty stellar 2011. According to crunched numbers from Asymco, between its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, the Cupertino outfit sold some 156 million iOS devices in 2011, marking a grand total of 316 million in the mobile OS' short history. What's most interesting here, however, is the fact that last year's digits alone have completely blown past the 122 million units daddy Mac has managed in its 28 years of existence. It's no wonder the company borrowed a few tricks from iOS for its latest desktop operating system.
HBO Go rolls out to most Samsung Smart HDTVs -- but not through all providers
It's been nearly a year since Samsung first announced HBO Go access would be coming to its Smart TVs, and today the company announced on all forms of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ -- there may be a YouTube video out there somewhere) it's finally available. Most should be familiar with HBO's TV Everywhere offering that opens its archives to users on various internet devices and has already been well received on iOS, Android and Roku platforms. The official HBO Go Twitter account mentions news on the Xbox 360 client is "coming soon" but for now subscribers can just grab the app and start watching -- with a few caveats.For reasons not mentioned, the HBO Go app doesn't play nicely with every Smart TV, with access available on all 2010 and 2011 models with the exception of several from last year (listed after the break). Also key to remember is that not every TV provider has given its blessing to allows customers access to HBO Go in the living room, so it seems Comcast, DirecTV and Time Warner customers are still out of luck. If you've got the right combo of service provider and hardware go forth and download from the Samsung Apps marketplace right now, we'll be busy trying to figure out where the old episodes of Arli$$ are.Update: As a few readers pointed out, DirecTV customers actually are able to access the service on Samsung TVs, and HBO representatives confirmed they should have access to the service, contrary to the list posted on the HBO support site. Stream on satellite subscribers, stream on, and if you notice any other discrepancies in the official lists let us know in the comments.
Comcast slows the flood of video customer losses in Q4 2011
It's not often that a company announced it lost 17,000 customers in a quarter and that's considered good news, but for Comcast that's exactly the case when it comes to cable TV. Compared to the 135,000 customers lost in the same period a year ago (which was also lower than the year that preceded it), it's a slowing of a trend over the last few years and if you believe cord cutting is taking a toll on Big Cable, could indicate that is tailing off as well. That's not all of the good news however, as it also increased the number of customers picking up extra services like internet and phone. We didn't get too many tidbits from the earnings call, but did hear a mention that it's investing in new cloud-based software for its TV boxes -- hopefully that means we'll see that new Xfinity TV guide roll out widely sooner rather than later.
Reminder: Vote for the 2011 Engadget Awards!
Emmys? Check. Grammys? Check. Engadget Awards 2011? Almost there. Now that we've gone through the nomination process, it's time for you to let us know who deserves to be crowned king of its category, which in some special cases, might not be something to be completely proud of. The clock's ticking and you have until 11:59PM ET on Monday February 20th to drop your precious ballot in. We'll let you know soon thereafter who's walking away a winner and who's heading back to the shelves empty-handed, as well as who earned our Editors' Choice picks. Who's got your vote? Fill us in by hitting up our voting page here.
Sprint announces Q4 2011 results: the iPhone brings in 720,000 new customers
Following its bittersweet Q3, the latest financial report from Sprint this quarter offers up another mixed bag of news. Net operating losses totalled $438 million, more than the $139 million posted in the same quarter last year. It suffered a staggering $1.3 billion net loss (much of that due to upfront costs associated with launching the iPhone), dwarfing the Q3's $301 million losses. Operating revenue increases were, however, the largest in the last five years, up to $8.72 billion from $8.3 billion. Net subscribers now total 55 million, with 33 million postpaid, 14.8 million prepaid and around 7.2 million arriving from wholesale, adding an extra 1.6 million Sprint customers in the last quarter. This was also the first time in a long while that new subscribers on the Sprint platform outpaced losses at the Nextel and wireline businesses. Sprint hoped to see its iPhone draw customers into its network, putting it toe-to-toe with the bigger carriers, and it largely did, with 40 percent of the 1.8 million iPhones sold landing directly in the hands of new customers. However, the higher subsidy costs of the iPhone was also responsible for these tougher financial results. Last year also saw the tentative launch of Sprint's LTE network, and that's where the future appears to be for the carrier, with its forward-looking statement hinging on exactly how fast they're able to grab the 4G bull by the horns and get it into their customers' hands. Compatibility with Clearwire's next generation network is mentioned here, as is the "financial performance of Clearwire and its ability to build, operate, and maintain its 4G network." Lightsquared, however, was conspicuously absent from Sprint's future machinations.
Virgin Media's Q4 2011 report: Brits love TiVo, Fast Broadband, Vampire Diaries
Virgin Media's school report for both last year and last quarter has been pretty positive for the Branson-Branded service. It pulled down £4 billion ($6.3 billion) in revenue for the year and made its first ever profit with a tidy £76 million ($120 million). In the last quarter alone, it added 273,000 TiVo subscribers, a figure that doubled its overall figure to 435,000. Favorite shows included Coronation Street, which was most caught-up with and The Vampire Diaries, which was the most binge-watched series. It's also clear that us Britons do love some super-fast broadband, 133,000 users plumped for speeds over 30MB in Q4. Flush with cash, it's going to buy back some shares and double consumers broadband speeds as it promised in January -- which we suppose is a fair way to spend your first profit, even if we'd have preferred to go to Disneyland.
