q42013
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Barnes & Noble will revive its Nook tablet line with a new model this year
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Barnes & Noble's tablet range was on ice; while the firm did promise to work with third parties on new models, it went through all of 2013 without fresh devices. The bookseller will soon reward patient fans, however. It just revealed that there will be a new "Nook color device" early into the company's fiscal 2015, which roughly translates to this summer. However, we don't know what the new Nook slate will offer, or even who's making it. Barnes & Noble says it's still talking to multiple "world-class hardware partners" about development and distribution, so it could be a long while before we know what to expect. The company does have some breathing room to implement its Nook strategy, though. It swung to a $63.2 million net profit for its fiscal third quarter versus a $3.7 million loss a year ago, and it now has more than twice as much cash in the bank. Even though the company is making half as much revenue from its Nook business as it did at this point in 2013, it's not facing a dire financial crisis.
Life's good at Lenovo: shipping tons of tablets, making lots of money
Lenovo may be the world's biggest PC maker, but it's clearer than ever that much of the company's growth now comes from mobile. The Chinese tech giant has reported a 30 percent year-over-year jump in its calendar fourth quarter profit ($265 million) that's owed partly to massive spikes in non-PC shipments. Its smartphone deliveries grew by 47 percent to 13.9 million, and its tablet volume tripled to 3.4 million -- apparently, the Yoga Tablet has been flying off the shelves. The combined mobile units were enough to eclipse computer shipments of 15.3 million, and "PC Plus" devices (phones, TVs and tablets) represented 16 percent of its total revenue versus the 11 percent from late 2012. That's no mean feat when Lenovo just managed to rake in its highest-ever revenue, at $10.8 billion. And remember, this is all before the company finishes acquiring Motorola's phone business; its best times may still be ahead.
Redbox gets a new president plucked from the studios, former Warner exec Mark Horak
Redbox went from duking it out with Warner in 2012 over a proposed 56-day delay for rentals to cutting a deal for a shorter 28-day delay and implementing UltraViolet support in Redbox Intant, and now the relationship is getting even cozier. Parent company Outerwall announced its earnings today and that Mark Horak, president of the Americas for Warner Bros. since 2008, will be the new president of Redbox. A "leadership transition" saw former president Anne Saunders leave in December, and Outerwall CEO J. Scott Di Valerio cited Horak's experience and relationships "growing DVD, Blu-ray, video game and digital sale" as reasons he's perfect for the spot he's taking over on March 17th. Other than executive changes at Outerwall's other businesses (Coinstar and ecoATM), we're not seeing any immediate changes, and Redbox's most recent numbers seem on track, with revenue for Q4 that was slightly higher than the same period last year. The most important new business is the Redbox Instant streaming/kiosk combo effort, although it hasn't gained much traction yet against competitors like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu Plus and Netflix. The company says Redbox Instant activity increased as it launched on new platforms like Windows Phone, Xbox One and PS4, but it still didn't have any exact data to share. As far as disc rentals Redbox is focusing on Blu-ray now, since 55 percent of its rental customers have a Blu-ray player. It's already trying to upsell customers to more expensive rentals on its website and app, and plans to roll that out directly on the kiosks soon. The investor call didn't reveal much in the way of a new direction for Redbox, but we're hoping the next step is squeezing a dedicated rental return slot onto the boxes.
Time Warner reveals how much money HBO makes, and why it's not splitting from cable yet
Wondering why you still need a cable TV package to subscribe to HBO in the US? Because HBO is making truckloads of cash keeping things the way they are -- even though that might not last forever. Its parent company Time Warner (which spun off Time Warner Cable in 2009) announced financial results for the year, and for the first time in years, it included some details about HBO's business. HBO alone pulled in $1.3 billion in the last three months of 2013, and $4.9 billion for the entire year. Netflix's numbers are actually pretty close, as the streaming company posted sales of $1.18 billion for the quarter and $4.3 billion for the year, despite having fewer customers than HBO worldwide. The real difference right now is in how much money each keeps in profits after costs for things like original content (House of Cards and Game of Thrones aren't made for free) are accounted for. HBO's operating profit in Q4 is $414 million, and $1.7 billion for the year, but Netflix's Q4 profit came in at $82 million, and for its efforts it made $228 million all year. According to Variety, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said on the earnings call that HBO and Cinemax added about 2 million customers last year, while Netflix grew by 6 million, and added more than 2 million customers just in Q4. If that difference in growth is making Bewkes sweat, then he's not showing it publicly, saying "HBO is in a league of its own" and pointing to stats that show viewers with HBO and Netflix actually view more of both. The "Albanian Army" is expected to continue its European expansion in 2014 and has already sealed up exclusives for streaming content in the next few years, we'll wait and see if that changes the landscape significantly.
Amazon's Q4 profit more than doubles year-over-year to hit $239 million
Amazon clearly didn't have any problems generating a profit this holiday. The online retail powerhouse says that it made a tidy profit of $239 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, or more than twice as much as it managed a year earlier. That's on top of a year-over-year revenue increase, to boot -- Amazon raked in $25.59 billion during the quarter versus $21.27 billion at the tail end of 2012. The only sour note is a full-year profit of just $274 million, although that's still much better than the $39 million loss from 2012. The company hasn't said just why it did so well, although we wouldn't be surprised if the Kindle Fire HDX launch and a recently introduced Sunday delivery option played important roles.
Facebook's mobile ads now account for over half of its revenue thanks to 945 million monthly users
As expected after the Q3 numbers, mobile advertising now accounts for 53% of Facebook's revenue, thanks in large part to News Feed ads and auto-play videos. In total, the outfit earned $2.59 billion in revenue during Q4 of 2013. The company's 556 million daily active users on mobile for the month of December (a 49 percent increase year-over-year) and 945 million mobile monthly active users (up 39 percent year-over-year) easily explains the bump from those accessing the social network on the go. Those numbers are also sure to rise as Facebook preps its targeted ad network to outfit apps other than its own, a rumored Flipboard competitor and the suite of standalone applications already tipped for 2014 release. Nearly a billion monthly mobile users should begin to ease concerns after the company faltered following its IPO, too. The big news from Facebook's Q3 earnings call came from CFO David Ebersman's comment that the social network had seen daily use "among younger teens" decline. This time around we expected an update on those usage stats, but Ebersman stated that there was "no news to report" on the subject. [Image credit: Marco Paköeningrat/Flickr]
Android climbed to 79 percent of smartphone market share in 2013, but its growth has slowed
Android may have quickly reached the top of the smartphone world, but there are signs that this red-hot growth is cooling off... if only just. Strategy Analytics estimates that the platform claimed nearly 79 percent of smartphone market share in 2013. While that's both a record high and a big step up from almost 69 percent in 2012, it also represents Android's slowest annual growth rate since its birth. As the analysts note, Google is facing an increasingly saturated market; there are only so many more customers it can reach. Not that things were rosy for other mobile operating systems last year. Apple shipped more phones in 2013, but not enough to avoid a dip to 15.5 percent market share. Windows Phone grew to 3.6 percent share, although its one-point improvement over 2012 wasn't going to make Apple or Google nervous. And for smaller platforms, 2013 was downright ugly. BlackBerry, Symbian and others fell from a collective 9.1 percent in 2012 to just 2 percent. The smartphone market in 2014 is effectively a three-horse race, and it's doubtful that the rankings will change any time soon.
AT&T adds 1.2 million smartphones to its network, account for 93% of postpaid sales
AT&T had a pretty good fourth quarter by pretty much every metric you can imagine. Revenues are up, subscriptions are up and the company added 1.2 million smartphones to its network. Those massive smartphone sales show that the market is continuing to accelerate, even as it nears saturation. And those sales probably won't start to significantly drop off until AT&T finishes transitioning its customers to LTE. Currently, just over half of its smartphone customers are on the higher speed network. Smartphones account for 93 percent of AT&T's postpaid sales, and while the company added 566,000 postpaid subscribers during the quarter, prepaid customers declined by 32,000. Still, that drop is but a pittance for a company that has 110 million total customers on its wireless books. And its Next program seems to be off to a solid start as it attracted 1 million customers and accounted for 15 percent of postpaid upgrades. U-Verse also saw slow, but steady growth as it added 630,000 internet subscribers and 194,000 new TV customers. Those gains were partially offset by the business side of its wireline operations, which continues to struggle. There, revenues were down 3.4 percent over last year, but there are glimmers of hope. AT&T did manage to add 78,000 business U-Verse customers, and growth of its "advanced" business products such as VPN, cloud and hosting services outpaced the previous year.
Smartphone sales may have topped 1 billion in 2013, depending on who you ask
You once had to look to the broader cellphone market to see more than a billion phones ship in one year. Well, times have changed... at least, if you ask the right analysts. IDC now estimates that smartphone shipments topped one billion for the first time in 2013. However, Strategy Analytics begs to differ -- it reckons that shipments fell just short, at 990 million. Whether or not the industry hit its symbolic milestone, the roughly 40 percent increase over 2012 data shows that the smartphone market had plenty of room to grow last year. Samsung led the pack with 31.3 percent of the the market, while Apple dipped to 15.3 percent as both Samsung and Chinese manufacturers (including Huawei and Lenovo) chipped away at its second-place position. As for what happened in the fourth quarter? Both analyst groups say that Samsung was once again the top vendor, although they note that the Korean firm's share was largely flat at 29 percent. Not that Apple fared any better, as its record-setting iPhone shipments weren't enough to prevent a slide to 18 percent share. Huawei, LG and Lenovo were the real victors -- each of them typically gained a point or more of share in the past year. IDC chalks some of this up to the rise of very low-cost smartphones, which are quickly taking over developing markets like China and India. Companies which focus on more expensive handsets, such as Apple and Samsung, have the most to lose in these areas.
Apple reports record iPhone and iPad sales with fiscal Q1 2014 results
Apple's earnings are in, and as expected the company got a nice boost in sales over the holidays. We're talking 51 million iPhones sold -- an all-time quarterly record -- up from 47.8 million during the same quarter last year. It's unclear just how the iPhone sales break down between the iPhone 5c and 5s models, as Apple didn't offer those numbers. iPad sales reached a record quarterly high as well, at 26 million up from 22.9 million during the same year-ago quarter. Profit, meanwhile, comes in at $13.1 billion, showing no change year-over-year. Mac sales are also up; with a jump to 4.8 million from 4.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Also record-setting was Cupertino's reported quarterly revenue of $57.6 billion. Apple's board of directors has also announced that shareholders will receive a $3.05 cash dividend per share early next month. If Apple took a huge hit anywhere, though, it's with iPods. Year-over-year sales are down a whopping 52 percent, with revenue down 55 percent. Those figures suggest that the more expensive iPod models took the hardest hit. That ugly stat aside, there are plenty of positive numbers this time around. As always, we'll be listening in on Apple's earnings conference call, so stay tuned.
LG shrinks losses thanks to strong TV sales, promises new flagship phone next month
LG doubled its profits in the last year -- and it's thanking an apparent boom in HDTV sales, not its mobile wares. From October to December 2013, the company made an operating profit of $220 million (238 billion won), more than doubling the operating profit from its TV range, but saw a net loss for the quarter of $59 million (64 billion won). Meanwhile, mobile (including both smartphones and the company's return to tablets) went from profit maker to loss maker in the space of a year, with an operating loss in Q4 2013 of $40 million (43 billion won). That operating loss has been partly blamed on marketing spending, with LG advertising more aggressively for flagship phones like the LG G2 and the G Flex in the last 12 months. LG's quarterly smartphone unit sales totaled 13.2 million units: more than a 50 percent increase from the same period last year. The company has also announced that it'll have a new G Pro model, the G Pro 2, to add to the flagship lineup in February -- presumably ready for when MWC 2014 kicks off in Barcelona -- although it's not specifying, well, anything about the new smartphone yet. LG also expects 2014 to be the year of OLED (although not flexible ones ), with the nascent screen tech becoming its "main growth driver" in TV and replacing LED sets in the process.
Samsung profits drop slightly, but it's still seeing increased demand for phones, tablets
Samsung has released a detailed report of its earnings for the fourth quarter, and as it predicted, its operating profit is slightly lower than last year. While 8.3 trillion won (about $7.8 billion) is nothing to sneeze at, last year Samsung notched 8.84 trillion won ($8.27 billion) in operating profit, creating concerns growth is slowing in its highly successful tablet and phone business. According to Samsung however, buyers want its phones and tablets more than ever (tablet sales doubled from last year), however marketing costs and "year-end inventory adjustments" lowered shipments and cut into profits. According to Yonhap News and Reuters an $745 million one-off special bonus payment to employees celebrating the 20th anniversary of its "New Management Initiative" also had an effect, while a stronger Korean won cut 700 billion won from profits. Details about the Galaxy Gear weren't broken out (it did get a mention on the call, as Samsung stated once again that more wearables are on the way), but we did see the first mention of OLED and Ultra HD TVs. Reflecting its CES focus on Ultra HD, Samsung says the customer base for high-res displays is increasing, with increased sales and a new manufacturing plant in operation. OLED earnings dropped an unspecified amount due to lower shipments, even though new product sales actually increased. Prices for standard LCDs continued to fall, but demand for extra large 60-inch+ HDTVs and smart TVs are both way up. We're listening in on the company's earnings call right now, we'll let you know if it drops any Galaxy S 5-sized tidbits amongst the boring money discussions.
Netflix ends 2013 with 44 million subscribers, will keep experimenting with pricing
Netflix had a big year in 2013 with award-winning original content, new features and millions of new customers. Now, the company's fourth quarter report reveals it wrapped up last year with over 44 million customers worldwide. Interestingly, an entire section of the letter to investors is related to the recent appeals court ruling that struck down key parts of net neutrality. CEO Reed Hastings doesn't appear overly worried however, and says the most likely case is that ISPs "will avoid this consumer unfriendly path of discrimination," like extra fees or tiers for access to streaming video. If they do go that route however, the company will protest on its own behalf, and encourage customers to join in. In the US Netflix now counts over 33 million customers, and it predicts that by the end of the current quarter, it will be over 35 million, with 48 million total worldwide. Another segment deals with its recent pricing tests, which Netflix says it hopes to boil down to "three simple options to fit everyone's taste." That said, it's not ruling out pricing changes for new members, but promises (in bold type) "existing members would get generous grandfathering of their existing plans and prices." We'll see if bold type is enough to quell the customer unrest that happened the last time Netflix shifted around its plans. Speaking of those old plans, Netflix still maintains 6.9 million DVD subscribers, and plans to advertise the direct link to its disc business with dvd.netflix.com branding. Unlike its last address, Netflix also found time to shout to the competition, referencing Hulu's 3 CEOs in the last year and impressive growth, recent moves by Verizon -- it bought Intel's OnCue IPTV platform, a content delivery network and a streaming software firm -- the rise of Aereo and Sony's IPTV plans. Strong words from the company that's diving into 4K to maintain the perception that it's a leader in streaming -- Hastings and the rest of the team will take questions live on YouTube in a few minutes, check after the break for more details.
Intel's revenue and profit stay flat in Q4 as PC sales level off
Intel may have just validated concerns that the PC market was relatively weak in the fourth quarter. The company has reported a net profit for the period of $2.6 billion based on revenue of $13.8 billion, which is only slightly better than its performance last year; it's also a drop from what we saw in the summer. The company believes that Q4 showed "signs of stabilization" for the PC business, although the numbers also hint that a recovery isn't coming any time soon. While the firm's Data Center and Other Intel Architecture groups did boost their revenue year-over-year by 8 and 9 percent, respectively, its PC Client division was flat. In other words, any extra cash came largely from embedded chips (including mobile) and servers, not regular desktops and laptops. The Q4 results have also given Intel a chance to look back at its results for all of 2013, and they too suggest that the PC market hasn't been kind to the processor giant. The Data Center group was the only one to boost its revenue during the year; the PC group saw its revenue drop 4 percent, while the Other Intel group dipped 7 percent. It's not entirely surprising, then, that Intel is shifting its focus from traditional PCs to wearables and other forms of ultra-mobile computing, where it's more likely to see long-term growth.
Samsung estimates that its operating profit dropped to $7.8 billion in Q4
Samsung may have had a record-setting summer, but it wasn't able to repeat that achievement in the fall. The Korean tech giant estimates that its operating profit dropped to about 8.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion) in the fourth quarter, or lower than both the 8.84 trillion won ($8.3 billion) from one year ago and the 10.16 trillion won ($9.6 billion) from Q3. Samsung didn't say what triggered the dip, but the forecast isn't helping concerns that the company's red-hot growth in smartphones may be cooling down. It's not exactly crisis time at Samsung -- the company generates more operating profit in a quarter than many of its mobile rivals do in total revenue. Still, we suspect that it's happy to be launching a slew of new gadgets that could make up for the underwhelming earnings.
HTC boosted by Beats sale but notches second consecutive operating loss
HTC just posted another operating loss of NT$1.56 billion ($52 million), but managed a small net profit of NT$310 million ($10.3 million) selling its remaining shares of Beats. Though the Taiwanese company trimmed last quarter's operating loss of NT$2.97 billion ($101 million), total revenue actually fell a touch to NT$42.9 billion ($1.6 billion). That marks the ninth consecutive quarterly drop in sales, according to Bloomberg, despite the recent addition of the HTC One Max to the lineup. Unfortunately, the company's also been dealing with sales bans and patent setbacks, which are not helping the declining interest in its handsets. The alleged successor to its much loved but not much sold HTC One should be arriving soon, and at this point it looks like a crucial release.
Amazon touts 'millions' of new Prime members, 1,382 new robot workers as it pulls in $17 billion in revenue
Amazon's known for not offering many specific details about its device sales or customers in its earnings reports, and this quarter's is no exception. The company did note, however, that it added "millions" of Prime users during the quarter, a number that's no doubt only set to grow further now that it's finally raised its free shipping threshold to $35. Beyond that, the company announced that its net sales increased 24% year-over-year to 17.09 billion, but it's still not making a profit, reporting a net loss of $41 million for the quarter. In one detail you don't often see in an earnings report, Amazon also boasted that it's deployed 1,382 Kiva robots in three of its fulfillment centers during the quarter (it bought the company last year), adding another degree of automation to its shipping process. That pales in comparison to the number of new human employees its brought on, though -- Amazon says it has begun hiring and training 70,000 new employees to work in those centers in advance of the holiday season. You can find the rest of the company's numbers at the source link below.
Apple to announce Q4 earnings on October 28
We'll learn the exact impact the sale of the iPhone 5s and 5c will have on Apple, as the company will be announcing its fourth quarter earnings on October 28. This period covers July through September, which includes the first 10 days that the latest iPhone was on sale. Apple will hold its earnings call at 2 PM PT/ 5 PM ET. In its Q3 results in July, Apple made US$35.3 billion, turning a profit of $6.9 billion. The company sold 31.2 million iPhones, 14.6 million iPads and 3.8 million Macs in Q3.
Barnes and Noble posts $119 million loss in Q4 2013, will partner with third party on future Nook tablets
Barnes and Noble has not had an easy go of it. The brick-and-mortar stalwart has seen its revenues and profits steeply decline as we've entered the age of the e-book. In fact, profits haven't just shrunk; they've disappeared. During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, the company suffered a net loss of $118.6 million, down significantly from the already poor showing it posted in 2012 when it lost $56.9 million in Q4. For the year, that put Barnes and Noble's losses at $154.8 million -- more than double what it lost in 2012. Revenues have dropped both at retail outlets and its Nook digital business by $105 million and $56 million, respectively year-over-year. For its e-reader and ebook arm, that represents a 34 percent drop from Q4 2012. The bad news there is that device sales have declined dramatically and, while content sales were up for the year, in the fourth quarter they fell by 8.9 percent. Barnes and Noble attributes the year-over-year fall in sales to be attributed to the lack of blockbuster titles. In Q4 2012 revenues were boosted by juggernauts like Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games. Going forward Barnes and Noble wants to significantly cut its losses on the struggling Nook business. To do that the company will be partnering with an as yet unnamed third party to manufacture and co-brand its tablet line. The Nook line of e-readers will continue to be designed and built in-house, but the retailer will be looking beyond its Manhattan office walls for help with the flailing Nook HD line. Existing products will be supported for the foreseeable future, however, so don't go tossing your Robert Brunner-designed slate in the trash just yet. If you'd like more detail, check out the PR after the break.
Dell reports Q4 2013 earnings: $14.3 billion in revenue as profits plummet 31 percent year-over-year
Dell hasn't had good news to share during its quarterly earnings reports in quite sometime. And on the eve of it going private, things don't appear to be on the verge of changing. The fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2013 saw the company rake in revenues totaling $14.3 billion, which is up slightly from Q3, but down 11 percent from the same period last year. The story gets even worse when looking at profit. A net income of $530 million represented a 31 percent drop year-over-year. Again, not nearly as bad as last quarter, but still a stunningly steep drop off for a manufacturer that was once at the pinnacle of the industry. The crash is particularly stunning when you look at the consumer division, which was once Dell's bread-and-butter. Revenue there was down 24 percent year-over-year and operating income has dropped by a staggering 87 percent. In fact, almost every division within Dell has seen its revenue and income drop, with the exception of servers and networking, which enjoyed an 18 percent growth from Q4 of 2012, pulling in just over $2.6 billion. As we've said before, though, the few enterprise-related bright spots are likely not enough to hold off the company's continued slide. Lets just hope that loan from Microsoft is put to good use. Check out the full financial monty after the break.
