q22015
Latest
Sprint hopes thousands of new cell sites will revive its fortunes
Sprint chief Marcelo Claure may have done a lot to clean house and keep his customers from leaving, but it's clear that there's still a lot of work left to go before people stop abandoning ship. The carrier has reported first fiscal quarter earnings that saw it add a net total of 675,000 customers, but lost 12,000 postpaid (that is, regular subscription) customers. While that's low for a provider that has suffered some dire losses as of late, it pales in comparison to the unbridled successes of T-Mobile. At least things are getting better -- Sprint says that it saw its first net postpaid additions in roughly two years during this quarter.
Xiaomi retakes the smartphone lead in China as Apple slips
It looks like Apple's time at the top of China's smartphone heap was short-lived. Researchers at Canalys estimate that local brand Xiaomi has once again become the country's smartphone market share leader, snagging 15.9 percent of shipments during the second quarter of the year. In fact, Apple is down to third place -- one of Xiaomi's fastest-growing rivals, Huawei, claimed the runner-up spot with 15.7 percent. Samsung and Vivo rounded out the top five.
TV giant Comcast actually has more internet customers now
Just in case you were wondering why Comcast is suddenly ready with TV service for people who prefer to watch over the internet, the earnings report it released today can show you why. For the first time (albeit by a narrow margin of 22.55 million to 22.3 million), the cable giant has more high speed internet customers than cable TV subscribers. As it usually does in its financial Q2, Comcast lost TV subscribers, but fewer this year (69,000) than last year (144,000), a number it credits to ongoing improvements in customer service. While the shift away from TV is a small one right now, it reminds us of a similar tipping point: when Netflix streaming overtook discs, and never looked back.
Qualcomm 'realignment' includes job cuts and a possible split
The rumors of Qualcomm planning a huge reorganization were true -- and unfortunately, that means a lot of people are about to lose their jobs. The mobile chip maker has announced a "strategic realignment" plan that will see the company slash 15 percent of its full-time jobs (the company has about 30,000 total employees) as part of a bid to cut $1.4 billion in costs. It's also considering the possibility of splitting into separate businesses. That may well happen, since a hedge fund calling for the split just got spots for two of its nominees on Qualcomm's board of directors. You'll hear about the company's direction by the end of the year.
Netflix: New season of 'OITNB' spurred a record amount of streaming
Netflix is flying high enough to need a 7-for-1 stock split, but now it's competing in a world where Showtime and HBO offer streaming video over the internet too. That makes today's earnings results (PDF) ever more important, and not surprisingly, the company focused on its push for original, exclusive content. Now up to 65 million members worldwide (42 million in the US), Netflix mentioned that the debut of Orange is the New Black S3 resulted in viewers watching a record number of hours for one day the following Sunday, the same day as HBO's Game of Thrones finale and an NBA Finals game.
Samsung's profits down again as it misreads demand for newest phones
Samsung predicts that its earnings from April-June of this year will likely be down four percent from last year, suggesting that sales of its newest flagship smartphones have failed to hit the mark. However, it will still be the company's highest quarterly profit since Q2 2015. The company's forecast is thin on details -- revenue is also down 8.4 percent from the same period last year-- but many analysts think supply shortages have stymied sales of Samsung's S6 Edge. The WSJ's sources say that the company struggled to match production to the demand of customers, who wanted the curved Galaxy S6 Edge over the original S6, initially predicting to sell four Galaxy S6 smartphones for each S6 Edge. At the same time, the company's lucrative component business, which puts parts in rival phones as well as PCs, will likely have another strong quarter, putting an equally strong spotlight on the mobile arm's struggles.
