Q12017
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Snap has struggled to gain users since going public
Three months ago, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. filed for its initial public offering, a milestone move for the now six-year-old ephemeral messaging app. In that report, it revealed some key information about its business: 158 million people use its product everyday and it had over $500 million in losses on $400 million in revenue in 2016. Well, it's now time for the company's first ever earnings report as a public company and, uh, it doesn't look too pretty.
The Apple Watch outsold every other wearable last quarter
Apple might not be selling as many iPhones as it would like, but it sounds like its Watches have been doing quite well. According to Strategy Analytics, it shipped 3.5 million wearables in the first quarter of 2017, 59 percent higher than the 2.2 million devices it did in the same period last year. Cupertino captured 16 percent of the global marketshare and stole the wearables crown from Fitbit, which had a much less stellar quarter. Fitbit only shipped 2.9 million devices in Q1, 36 percent less than the 4.5 million units it moved in the first quarter of 2016. Even Xiaomi sold more devices, putting the beleaguered wearables-maker in third place.
Tesla says it's still on track to build the Model 3 in July
As customers holding pre-orders wait for the Model 3 to arrive, Tesla says everything is proceeding according to plan. In today's Q1 earning report (PDF), the company announced it's still on track to start production in July, and will be able to build up to 5,000 of the cars per week this year, with plans to scale production up to 10,000 per week next year. To service all those EVs (plus the ones already on the road, some of which will soon start to outlive their manufacturer warranties), it's massively expanding that department.
Samsung's chip business kept things looking up to start 2017
Samsung's Q1 2017 earnings are in, showing the company's highest quarterly profit since Q3 2013. That's despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall, and a markdown in the price of its Galaxy Note 7, apparently because the company's chip business (making memory, processors and camera sensors for phones) is booming. As a company, it brought home the $8.75 billion in operating profit expected, and looks forward to better results next quarter, since it will include sales of the new Galaxy S8 phones.
Netflix users have streamed half a billion hours of Adam Sandler
That should explain why Netflix keeps throwing money at him.
Netflix expects to sign up its 100 millionth subscriber this weekend
Netflix's earnings report is out (PDF), and the nearly-worldwide video streaming company has seen its subscriber count creep up to 98.75 million (two years ago, it was at 59 million). To close the letter to investors, execs said they expect to cross the 100 million customer barrier this weekend, as they reorganized their data to deemphasize subscriber count in favor of revenue growth and operating margins. The company also reported that Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 is its most-viewed comedy special ever.
The PC's 5-year slump might be coming to an end
For the past several years, the PC market has largely told the same dismal story: shipments are down, mobile is taking over the world, and there's no relief in sight. However, there's a glimmer of hope... depending on who you ask, anyway. IDC estimates that PC shipments increased by 0.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, marking the first such growth in 5 years. Reportedly, that's due to both better-than-expected shipments in multiple regions as well as strong commercial Chromebook sales in the US (think schools and businesses). It's cheerful news for the industry if accurate -- with that said, Gartner's researchers might just temper your enthusiasm.
Samsung expects to post record operating profit for Q1 2017
Samsung expects to post stellar earnings for the first quarter of 2017 despite its head honcho's scandal in Korea and the lack of a new flagship phone for the period. The company believes its consolidated operating profit will reach approximately 9.9 trillion Korean won ($8.75 billion) for January to March this year. That's significantly larger than its 6.68 trillion won ($5.9 billion) profit for the same period last year and bigger still than its 9.2 trillion won ($7.8 billion) profit for the fourth quarter of 2016.
