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Sony ups loss forecast to $2 billion following smartphone struggles
Sony is now forecasting a 230 billion yen ($2.15 billion) loss for the fiscal year ending in March 2015, a revision nearly five times more than the company previously projected. The Japanese electronics giant was expecting a 50 billion yen loss, but today it announced it's downgrading the value of its mobiles business by 180 billion yen ($1.68 billion) following an internal review. Sony began the review in July after cutting forecast smartphone sales by 14 percent following a sluggish opening quarter. The mobile business' "mid-range plan" is now no longer focused on growth, but instead designed to "reduce risk and volatility, and deliver more stable profits."
Sony expects losses to quadruple because of its smartphones
Once again recalibrating its bad news for the latest financial quarter, Sony has quadrupled its forecast loss for the financial year and it's down to those Xperia smartphones. The company already cut its forecast for smartphone sales in July, and this latest reassessment - to the sum of a 180 billion yen ($1.7 billion) "impairment" - comes following an internal review of it mobile arm in mid-summer. It found that the mobile arm was focused on "achieving significant sales growth" which apparently is no longer the game plan: the company is now aiming towards reducing risk, volatility and "more stable profits". (Some profit is likely a good place to start.) The revision will also factor new strategies depending on regions, and a focus on its premium smartphones -- and likely a reduction in its midrange devices. Update: The Wall Street Journal reports that in an analyst meeting in Tokyo, Sony admitted that it won't be a major player in smartphones due to rising competition from Chinese brands and the inability to penetrate the US market. So much so that the company currently has plans to cut about a thousand jobs in its mobile division. Instead, Sony hopes to focus attention on higher-end phones for elite customers and other markets such as wearables.
Climendo's weather app compares forecasts to deliver the most accurate
Sure, your favorite weather app might look good, but can you really tell how accurate it is? Instead of relying on just one weather source to provide you with an overview of the week's weather, Climendo wants to do things a little differently. It compares and combines data from the most popular and/or accurate providers to give you the most precise forecast possible. On top of that, it'll also match predictions with historic data from professional weather stations, letting you know exactly which provider you can trust.
Samsung admits 'weak demand' for its phones is damaging profits
Samsung's marketing budget has always been vast, but in the last quarter it was far larger than even the manufacturer itself would have liked. The company admits that it's been forced to spend extra money on promotions for older and lower-end devices that have been filling up its warehouses due to "weak demand." This dip in trade, combined with the extra spend on publicity, is causing the company's recent, gradual profit decline to quicken: it now expects to earn around 24 percent less this quarter than it did a year ago, with underlying sales down by an estimated 8-11 percent.
Sega slashes profit forecasts by 36 percent
Sega announced an adjustment to its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, cutting its expected net income by 36.2 percent. The company adjusted its projected net income to be 30 billion yen ($293.5 million), down from its previously-reported amount, 47 billion yen ($459.8 million). Additionally, it expects its net sales to be 377 billion yen ($3.69 billion), a 22.3 percent decrease from its original projection of 485 billion yen ($4.75 billion). Sega cited a decline in its pachislot and pachinko machine business for the change in projections. The company cut its pachislot machine sales projection by 171,000 units and its pachinko machine sales projection by 304,700 units for the fiscal year. The biggest cut comes to Sega's projected operating income: a 49.3 percent slide from 73 billion yen ($714.2 million) to 37 billion yen ($362 million). Should Sega meet its new projections, it would amount to a year-on-year increase in net sales and operating income by 17.3 percent and 94 percent, respectively, but would also represent a 10.3 percent decrease in net income. [Image: Sega]
Iwata: Nintendo 'thinking about a new business structure' following weak console sales
With Nintendo having to slash its forecasts following weak Wii U sales comes the contemplation of new business strategies. While not announcing any definitive changes in the company's direction, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata admitted at a press conference today in Osaka, Japan that the company is "thinking about a new business structure," Bloomberg reports. "Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business," Iwata said. "It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone." Nintendo took its 3DS projections for the fiscal year down from 18 million to 13.5 million. However, the bigger hit came with decreased projections for its home console, taking the Wii U down from 9 million to 2.8 million for the year. "We cannot continue a business without winning," Iwata added. "We must take a skeptical approach whether we can still simply make game players, offer them in the same way as in the past for 20,000 yen or 30,000 yen, and sell titles for a couple of thousand yen each."
Nintendo slashes 2014 sales forecast for Wii U from 9 million to 2.8 million
It's not even financials season yet, but Nintendo is trying to lower expectations in advance. In a statement today, it's announced that it's reassessed unit sales for its flagship Wii U console, shaving hacking it down from 9 million for April 2013 - March 2014 to just 2.8 million -- less than a third of the original estimate. It's also less than the number of Wii Us that Nintendo sold in its launch year. That was 3.45 million, if you're counting. The revised predictions are due to disappointing hardware sales during the holiday season and that's having an understandable knock-on effect on software sales too. Nintendo now predicts that instead of selling 3.8 million titles, the numbers will be around half of that: 1.9 million, which is at least an uptick from 2013. Alas, it's still an across-the-board bad news sort of announcement, however, with forecast console sales for the original Wii and the 3DS also bumped down in the process. (Nintendo now expects to sell 13.5 million 3D handhelds, down from 18 million.) This will all hit the company's financial results, with the games maker now expecting to announce a 35 billion yen ($336 million) loss, with part of this being put down to marked down Wii U consoles, something that Nintendo didn't predict would happen back in March 2013.
Nikon hurt by falling DSLR prices, but still faring better than Canon
Nikon's finance department has been forced to revise its quarterly revenue forecast in a southerly direction due to the fact that entry-level DSLRs are selling for lower prices than it originally expected. One of the culprits is likely to be the D3200 shown above, which is currently going on Amazon for around $550 with a kit lens, or $150 below its list price. Looking to the future, the company also warns that sales of its Nikon 1 interchangeable lens cameras may shrink in 2014 due to "weak market conditions," despite the splash made by its recent ruggedized ILC, the Nikon AW1. The news isn't all bad, mind you, as the anticipated drops only add up to a few percentage points and Nikon says it's on course to make the same net profit it had previously projected -- a mostly stable outlook that struggling rival Canon can only dream of.
The Crew projected to sell over 2.5 million, Watch Dogs forecast unchanged
Ubisoft expects the The Crew to sell more than 2.5 million units, while Watch Dogs is still projected to exceed the 6.2 million first-year sales of the first Assassin's Creed. In an investors' conference call, CFO Alain Martinez said Ubisoft is "still in line" with its Watch Dogs projections despite the publisher delaying the formerly next-gen launch title to spring 2014. In the case of The Crew, pushed back to mid-2014 at least, Martinez noted a "more limited potential" compared to Watch Dogs because it's a racer. "We generally have spoken to about over two-and-a-half million units" said Martinez. "We'll see where we go and we believe that we have a nice potential for the future." Ubisoft Reflections' open-world multiplayer racer was previously slated to arrive on Xbox One, PS4, and PC in the first calendar quarter of 2014 (January to March 2014). In Ubisoft's press release regarding both the Watch Dogs and The Crew delays, co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot stated, "In a context of growing successes for mega-blockbusters, the additional time given to the development of our titles will allow them to fulfill their huge ambitions and thus offer players even more exceptional experiences." When pressed on the Watch Dogs delay during the conference call, Guillemot said that Ubisoft was playtesting the game until the last minute before making the decision: "What we saw in the playtests is that we were very close to the quality we wanted but not exactly at the level, and we saw that with more time we could give it a far bigger potential. So we think it's the best way to take care of this brand, is to make sure it has everything ... it can supply to the customers who are expecting it."
Yahoo's redesigned Weather app reaches Android
Yahoo showed that forecasts could be beautiful when it launched a redesigned Yahoo Weather app for iOS users in April; now, it's bringing those good looks to Android users. The updated Yahoo Weather client includes virtually the same stylized interface and location-sensitive Flickr photo backdrops as the iOS version. The improved functionality carries over as well, including longer-term forecasts and more detailed condition reporting, although Android users also get a new lock screen widget as a bonus. If your existing weather software is just a tad too boring, you can get Yahoo's new app today through Google Play.
Beautiful Weather for Mac is beautiful, but limited
Weather apps must be among the most plentiful categories of software for iOS and the Mac. Every week or so, I see some new ones. It was inevitable that the very nice-looking Yahoo Weather app for iOS would catch developers' attention, so now we have Beautiful Weather for the Mac, a US$1.99 app available through the Apple app store. The app uses a similar design language to the Yahoo app, and it picks some images from Flickr to match the location you are getting the forecast for. The app gives you the current temperature, the predicted high and low, the windspeed and the chance of showers. On the right side of the screen is an hour-by-hour forecast that looks ahead 12 hours. You can specifiy up to 12 cities for display, and if you have a trackpad, you can swipe between them. %Gallery-192430% The app is OK as far as it goes, but it has some weaknesses. There is no humidity display, no sunrise or sunset time, no forecast (!) for tomorrow or any other future day and no radar display. That seems weak for a weather app that costs money. The app does give an option to display your main city in the menu bar, but clicking on that does not bring up the app, unlike some other weather apps. The hourly forecast is nice, but if there is anything bright behind it, like an image of clouds, you can't read the numbers or see the icons. I talked to the developer about these issues, and he said the missing features would be added soon. If you are looking for something a bit more complete, I would draw your attention to Mac apps like Clear Day ($3.99), Weather Dock ($1.99) or Living Weather ($2.99). If you'd like a menu bar-based weather app that is free, grab Meteorologist, which is an open-source app. It's mostly reliable, although sometimes it doesn't update correctly. Beautiful Weather has promise, and looks nice due to the photos that keep updating, but it needs more information and features for a paid app. Beautiful Weather requires Mac OS 10.7 or later, and a 64-bit processor.
Forecast is a great little weather web app
There are so many weather apps. They tend to fall into two groups. Way too much information for me, or fluffy little icons that are pretty and just don't have enough of the information I want. A friend suggested I take a peek at Forecast, a free web app from the people who make a very serious weather app called Dark Sky. Just hit the "Forecast" hyperlink above and you are there. Forecast is simple on the surface. It grabs your location, and presents a simple screen with the weather info you're most likely to want. It gives you forecast information conversationally, like "Partly cloudy for the hour" or "Sprinkling off-and-on until next Tuesday." As you explore the screen, you'll find even more, such as animated weather maps that not only show you the past, but also future weather predictions. You can get a local map, a regional map or a global picture. If you click on a day, you'll get hourly temperature predictions along with sky cover. Of course there is wind speed, humidity, sunset and sunrise times, but it is all presented in an uncluttered fashion. You can swipe to go forward and back, and new data appears with a downward finger swipe. So even though it is a web app, it interacts with the user just like any dedicated app. %Gallery-184235% If you want to give it a permanent space on your iOS device you can add it to the home screen and it creates a pretty icon. If you want it on a Mac, just save the URL in your browser. Forecast displayed a small ad when I tested it, but it was unobtrusive and not a distraction. I have seen and used a lot of weather apps. The Forecast web app is getting a prominent place on my iPhone and iPad. I think if you try it you will like it. You can read a bit more about the app and its creation on the Dark Sky blog.
Weather Channel for Android gets tablet optimization, precise weather warnings
The Weather Channel has dwelt mostly on its iOS apps as of late, but don't worry -- it's lavishing attention on forecast-minded Android users today. As of version 4.0, the Android app is optimized for tablets and gives a better heads-up for the conditions ahead from your Nexus 7. Other tweaks are more for feature parity, including precisely-timed warnings for significant weather changes, faster radar maps and higher-detail forecasts. Favorites also help with Android-specific widgets. Should you need to know more about the rain or snow than a Google Now card can deliver, the Weather Channel revamp is ready at the source.
iSuppli: Samsung forecasted to unseat Nokia for top ranking in 2012 global phone shipments
Between the years of 1998 and 2011, Nokia consistently took the first-place prize for global unit shipments, outpacing both Samsung and Apple. This year, however, iSuppli projects that the Finnish firm will slip to the second position, representing 24 percent of device shipments, compared to 29 percent for Samsung and just 10 percent for Apple. It looks like further adoption of smartphones is to blame for the shift (feature phones and basic handsets represent a large portion of Nokia's sales), and based on expectations for the future, demand for full-featured devices is only expected to rise, potentially enabling Samsung to maintain its new top slot for many years to come. This year, Samsung is expected to dominate the smartphone market as well, with 28 percent of total shipments in that category, compared to 20 percent for Apple and just 5 percent each for Nokia, HTC and RIM. Hit up our source link for the full breakdown.
AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know if it's dry outside the Metro
So you're finally getting that Surface tablet (or a Windows 8 PC of choice) and have decided that a basic weather app just won't do it justice. AccuWeather agrees with you -- after months of supporting the Windows 8 preview editions, it's formally launching a weather app that takes advantage of Microsoft's completed Metro Windows 8 interface in all its widescreen glory. The title both provides near-obsessive detail about the climate as well as the requisite live tile for an at-a-glance check. You also won't have to resort to the web to find out if it's raining in your neighborhood: a Bing Maps radar overlay shows if it's safe to leave the umbrella at home. The app is free to download, which makes it entirely too easy to check the weather through Windows instead of the window.
Nintendo cuts annual profit forecast by 70%, first-half loss of $351 million
Nintendo slashed its annual net profit outlook by 70 percent, following first-half losses of approximately $351 million, 40 percent greater than expected. Ahead of the Wii U launch, the Japanese company now expects net profits of ¥6 billion ($75.2 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31 2013, compared to initial forecasts of ¥20 billion ($251 million).In those initial forecasts Nintendo predicted losses of ¥20 billion for the six-month period ending September 30, but today revealed a significantly greater figure of almost ¥28 billion ($351 million). The company cited weaker than expected overseas sales of 3DS hardware and software, along with increased yen appreciation.Nintendo also revealed the 3DS shifted 5 million units across the six months, taking the console to over 22 million worldwide sales to date. The company now expects 17.5 million sales for the 3DS by the end of the fiscal year, down 1 million from initial projections.Nintendo of course expects the Wii U to takes figures back into the black in six months time, with the company now predicting 5.5 million units sold worldwide by March 2013.
WeatherBug Elite for iPhone adds real time lightning sensors
As I see it there are two kinds of weather programs. There are the 'pretty' weather apps with beautiful animations and graphics that are somewhat short on in-depth data, and there are the apps that dive very deeply into data like precipitation totals and trends. Then there are a lot of in-between apps that try to blend both approaches. Put WeatherBug Elite (US$1.99) in the 'plenty of information' category. It packs just about everything you would want to know about the weather into a few compact screens, and touching portions of those screens often brings up even more data. The newest incarnation of WeatherBug Elite adds My Storm Tracker Alerts, which are updates on the proximity of lightning, and it gives you a threat index based on your GPS derived location. The app also provides Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTAs) which monitors high winds, hail, tornadoes and large volume rain rates. The app features live cams in your area, so you can actually see the weather, and of course there are radar plots and extended forecasts. You can add several locations to monitor for weather, or you can drop a pin on a map to get current weather at that position. As you travel, the app will provide weather for where you are using the iPhone GPS, so you don't have to enter that information. Weather alerts can be shared on Facebook. This app is about as complete as a weather app can be. It is for iPhone only, but there is a separate version for the iPad which we have reviewed favorably in the past. There is also a free version of WeatherBug for the iPhone, but it is not as feature rich and is ad supported. WeatherBug Elite requires iOS 4.2 or greater. %Gallery-163530%
Google adds browser-based weather feature to tablets with temperature, wind and precipitation
You may have noticed Google's forecast feature on your HTML5-capable smartphone browser -- simply typing "weather" into the search field brings up a basic real-time temperature tool, complete with hourly and five-day forecasts for your current location. That feature has been around in one form or another since the beginning of last year, but as of this week, it's made its way to tablets, too. Web weather is entirely browser based, and you can bring it up in just the same way as on a smartphone -- confirm that your GPS is enabled, then head to Google.com and type "weather" -- you'll be rewarded with a 10-day forecast, complete with temp, precipitation, humidity and wind speed readouts. The tool is interactive, so while you may only be able to view a few days of weather at once, you can simply slide along the timeline to see more. The same applies to the hourly forecast as well. There's nothing to download or subscribe to for this one, and it's available right now at Google.com. James Trew contributed to this report.
Nintendo expects to double 3DS sales by this time next year
Call it ambitious (if you're feeling nice), or potentially bananas (if you're feeling realistic), but no matter what you call it, Nintendo's clearly not joking around with its hardware sales forecast. The company let loose a variety of predictions for the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2013) this week, which predicts movement of 18.5 million 3DS units into consumers' backpacks and purses worldwide.That's not a huge increase from the console's first fiscal year (April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012), which saw 17.13 million 3DS units sold. And with big hitters like New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Crossing on the way, it seems likely that Nintendo will surpass those numbers and get to "adjust" their forecast upwards come investor call time. "Ooops, we made way more money than we expected," Nintendo head Satoru Iwata might tell investors, with a coy smile. "Please forget about last year's major financial issues." At least that's how we picture these things going.
HTC predicts 55 percent revenue jump, could hint at strong One sales
HTC's results for Q1 2012 were a long way short of spectacular, but they came too early to see any impact from sales of its latest wares -- particularly the flagship One X and the ambitious mid-range One S. According to Reuters, the Taiwanese manufacturer now predicts that its revenue will leap by 55 percent in Q2, compared to that bad last quarter. That kind of growth equates to around $3.56 billion, which isn't so impressive when you compare it to the same quarter last year, when turnover broke records and was around 20 percent higher, but it's still an encouraging sign that this company could reap what it sowed at MWC.
