Q12011
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Lenovo nearly doubles net profits in Q1 earnings report, not so certain about 'mainstream' Ultrabooks by end of year
Lenovo's enjoying a bright and sunny Thursday in Hong Kong today, where the company has just unveiled a Q1 2011 / 2012 earnings report that's full of rosy news. According to the report, Lenovo's revenues jumped to $5.92 billion during the fiscal quarter, representing a 15 percent increase over last year's figures, while net profits nearly doubled to $108 million (compared to $54.9 million last year). Global PC sales, meanwhile, nudged upward 23 percent -- even at a time when most other manufacturers are seeing relatively sluggish growth. During an earnings conference call this morning, COO Rory Read provided a little insight into his company's approach to the growing Ultrabook sector, while hinting at future price reductions. Speaking to reporters, Reed assured that Lenovo would "invest in innovation to be a leader" in the Ultrabook market, adding that prices for its MacBook Air competitors may reach "mainstream" (sub-$1,000) levels by 2012: "I wouldn't say by the end of the year necessarily but...that's definitely going to happen." Head past the break for Lenovo's financial summary, along with the full PR. [Original photo by Cory Grenier]
Nearly half a million customers left T-Mobile in Q1 2011
Not even promises of a new Sidekick can keep T-Mobile from hemorrhaging customers, it seems, as the company reported significant losses in its Q1 statement for 2011. According to official Q1 financials, 471,000 contract customers either failed to re-up, or outright canceled their contracts. Stacked against a shortcoming growth of just 372,000 prepaid customers (including MVNO customers for sub-carriers), T-Mobile suffered a net loss of 99,000 users, a 29-percent increase in losses over the same period for the previous year. Ouch. The firm chalked its loss to increased "competitive pressures," which lends credence to AT&T's insistence that Sprint and Verizon are such fierce opponents that it has to acquire T-Mobile for the magenta-tinted carrier to stay in the game. You can judge the profits and pitfalls for yourself -- just hit the source link for the full financials.
IDC: smartphone market grows 80 percent year-on-year, Samsung shipments rise 350 percent
Smartphones are getting kind of popular nowadays, in case you hadn't noticed. The latest figures from IDC show a 79.7 percent expansion of the global smartphone market between this time last year and today, which has resulted in 99.6 million such devices being shipped in Q1 of 2011. That growth has mostly been driven by Samsung, which has more than quadrupled its output to 10.8 million shipments in the quarter, and HTC, whose growth has been almost as impressive. The other big gainer is Apple, with 10 million more iPhones shipped, but the truth is that all the top five vendors are showing double-digit growth. In spite of Nokia losing a big chunk of market share and RIM being demoted from second to third in the ranking, both of those old guard manufacturers improved on their quarterly totals. IDC puts this strength in demand down to the relatively unsaturated smartphone marketplace, and believes there's "ample room for several suppliers to comfortably co-exist," before ominously adding, "at least for the short term." And after the short term, our break-dancing robot overlords take over. Update: IDC has also released data for Western Europe that shows Nokia has lost the top spot both in terms of smartphones, to Apple, and in terms of overall mobile phone shipments, to Samsung.
Sprint reports Q1 2011 results, adds 1.1 million subscribers
It's financials time and the word hasn't always been rosy for Sprint of late, but this time the company has some good news to share. In this, the first quarter of 2011, Sprint added 1.1 million total subscribers, 846,000 of those were prepaid, the other 310,000 postpaid. Churn was down too, 4.36 for prepaid and 1.81 percent for postpaid, lowest in five years for the former and lowest ever for the latter. Operating income was $259 million on $8.3 billion in revenue, which is up three percent from this time last year, but factor in taxes, lunar landing rights, and all the other fun stuff and the company posted a net loss of $439 million. CEO Dan Hesse called this "slow but steady progress," and the addition of subscribers "a tough streak to keep going as the bar keeps getting higher." A tough streak indeed, but the launch of phones like the Nexus S 4G might just help keep it alive for another quarter.
Panasonic will layoff 17,000 workers globally (updated)
No matter how you slice it, 17,000 is a big number, especially when its seventeen thousand humans looking for jobs. The layoffs represent a four-percent reduction of Panasonic's 380,000 global workforce due to restructuring efforts, according to Nikkei. They are expected to begin this year and will mainly impact employees outside of Japan. Update: Post updated to reflect the actual number of job cuts, not the 40,000 originally quoted by Nikkei or the 35,000 quoted by the AFP. The cuts will come over two years. The news comes as Panasonic reported a ¥40.7 billion ($499 million) loss for quarter, largely on account of a ¥61 billion ($748 million) restructuring cost. Panny says that its bottom line was also affected by a strong Yen, stiff competition in television sales, and the recent earthquake and tsunami.
HTC breaks its own sales and profit records, keeps riding the smartphone wave to success
Another quarter, another spectacular set of financial results for HTC. The once-small Taiwanese phone maker reports its net income for the first quarter of 2011 nearly tripled earnings in the same period of 2010, now totaling an impressive $513 million. Overall quarterly revenue was in the vicinity of $3.6 billion and the causes cited were, rather predictably, demand for Android smartphones and higher-speed internet connectivity (as provided by the likes of the EVO 4G and Thunderbolt). Guess now we know why the stock markets are loving HTC so much -- the company just can't stop growing! [Thanks, Karan]
Analyst: Apple sold 1.1 million MacBook Airs in 2010
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities predicts that Apple sold an impressive 1.1 million MacBook Air units in the last few months of 2010. Kuo originally predicted sales of 700,000 units but bumped up his estimate after receiving new information from Asian supply chain sources. The second generation MacBook Air debuted in October 2010 in 11- and 13-inch models and is reportedly selling at a brisk rate. This boom in sales is casually evidenced by the growing number of MacBook Air models spotted in the wild. Its slim and sexy form factor, coupled with favorable reviews have only bolstered the popularity of this model. Apple has not released sales figures for the MacBook Air, but its Q1 2011 financial earnings report confirmed the Cupertino company sold 2.9 million notebooks during the 2010 holiday shopping season. This sales number includes MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. If Kuo's 1.1 million estimate is accurate, then over 40 percent of Apple notebook sales came from the MacBook Air. Kuo is not the only analyst to take note of the MacBook Air. Shortly after launch, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar suggested the popularity of the MacBook Air may cannibalize iPad sales. We recently took our own look at the question of the MacBook Air versus iPad and came to the conclusion that the two devices target different audiences. The question is not whether the MacBook Air is superior to the iPad, but which device is best suited to your needs.
Apple on iPad competition: Windows is 'big and heavy,' next-gen Android tablets are still vapor
Apple's COO (and current Steve Jobs stand-in) Tim Cook thinks "there's not much" competition to the company's iPad tablet. When queried about Apple's view on what the rest of the market offers, Cook was brutally candid in describing Windows-driven machines as generally being big, heavy and expensive, while current generations of Android-based slates are in his opinion merely "scaled-up smartphones." While we agree that Windows 7 isn't a terribly touch-friendly affair, we don't know that Cook's comments on Android are quite so pertinent now that Google's tablet-savvy Honeycomb iteration has been unveiled. Then again, he has something to say about the next generation of Android tablets as well, noting that the ones announced at CES lack pricing and release schedules, leading him to conclude that "today they're vapor." Ouch. As a parting shot, Tim took a moment to reaffirm Apple's belief that its integrated approach will always trump the fragmented nature of Android and its plurality of app stores. Hear his comments in full after the break.
Apple turns in record Q1: $6b profit on $26.7b revenue, 16.2m iPhones sold
Apple's announcement of Steve Jobs' medical leave just one day before releasing its Q1 financial results struck us as well-planned yesterday, and here we are: if Cupertino's record $6 billion profit on a record $26.7 billion in revenue isn't enough to turn that frown -- and stock slide -- upside down, well, nothing else will. iPhone 4 sales were predictably strong through the holidays, clocking in at a record 16.2m units, or up 86 percent from last year, while Mac sales went up 23 percent to a record 4.13m and iPod sales were stronger than expected at 19.45m, a seven percent decline. As for the iPad, Apple's tablet had its second straight dominant quarter, with record sales of 7.33 million -- some 3 million more than the Mac. Apple's financial call with new acting CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer is scheduled to start at 5PM EST -- check after the break for our usual liveblog while you're listening live on Apple's site.
BlackBerry PlayBook will ship in March, assuming inertial momentum
RIM dropped an intriguing hint about a likely release date for the BlackBerry PlayBook during its Q3 earnings call this week -- namely, that the company expects the first revenue from the dual-core tablet to arrive in the first quarter of the company's fiscal year. "There are no PlayBook revenues included in our Q4 guidance, and we expect the first revenue impact from PlayBook will be in RIM's first quarter," a RIM spokeswoman said, adding that the PlayBook is still slated to ship in the first quarter of the calendar year. If that still sounds like financial gibberish, let us clarify a tad -- RIM's first fiscal quarter doesn't start till March, which happens to be when the first calendar quarter ends. Oh, RIM can certainly revise its guidance to shareholders and launch the BlackBerry PlayBook earlier or later if that's what execs deem fit, but if both of RIM's statements remain true, then March is when the PlayBook will ship. Isn't logic wonderful?
Lenovo sees $54.9 million net profit in Q1 earnings, hits double digits in global market share
Look out, world -- Lenovo's on a serious tear, and it doesn't look to be stopping anytime soon. In the company's latest earnings report, it proudly announced its first-ever double digital market share of 10.2 percent. As if that milestone wasn't enough to make upper management grin, the outfit also nailed down just under $55 million in net income (a pre-tax income of $75 million) on sales of $5.1 billion. This quarter also marks the third in a row that it has been the fastest growing of the top five PC makers, and the fifth consecutive quarter that it outgrew the industry. Specifically, the outfit's PC shipments increased some 48.1 percent year-over-year, and consolidated sales for its fiscal Q1 saw an insane 49.6 percent uptick from last year. As of now, things are looking mighty rosy for Lenovo, and it just seems logical for the company to revive the Skylight in celebration. Who's with us?
RIM sells 100 millionth BlackBerry, hints at two more devices in the near future
Say what you will about BlackBerrys -- although with the Bold 9800 slider and OS 6, things might be looking up -- Research in Motion is still doing strong in the pocketbooks. The company just released its first fiscal quarter 2011 results with revenue growth of 24 percent year-over-year, and here's the rounded-number kicker: its 11.2 million shipments of smartphones this quarter has raised total shipments to over 100 million BlackBerrys. Quite a feat, but enough chit chat about the past -- what does the future hold? In a conference call pertaining to the fiscal results, RIM alluded to two new devices shipping soon, with one for the summer and one closer to fall. We'd bet a pretty penny one of them is the aforementioned slider, but as for the second? Guess we'll just wait and see.
