q32018
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Smartwatch shipments grow 67 percent in Q3 thanks to Apple and Fitbit
The smartwatch market doesn't show any signs of slowing down, and it might have just hit a major milestone in the process. Strategy Analytics estimates that smartwatch shipments grew a whopping 67 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018, with 10 million devices heading out the door. The frontrunner won't surprise you -- Apple is believed to have shipped 4.5 million watches (nearly a million more than last year) thanks to the debut of its overhauled Series 4. Fitbit proved to be the real upstart, through, jumping from zero to 1.5 million thanks mostly to the Versa.
Fitbit finally returns to profit thanks to the Versa
Fitbit was hoping it would return to profit after many months of losses, and it turns out that faith was well-placed. The wearable maker earned a net profit of $10 million for the third quarter of 2018, beating both its $2.8 million loss from a year earlier and the stiff 54.2 million loss from this spring. And it's not shy about why it went from red ink to black -- Fitbit mostly owes the recovery to smartwatches, and the Versa in particular.
Samsung will bolster its mobile business with foldable and 5G phones
Samsung has posted a 17.57 trillion Korean won (US$15.45 billion) operating profit for Q3 2018 like it expected, setting a record high for the Korean corporation. As has been the case over the past years, its chip business is the company's top earner. It made 13.65 trillion won (US$12 billion) in operating profit for the quarter from a 24.77 trillion won (US$22 billion) consolidated revenue. Samsung's mobile division also posted a 24.77 trillion (US$22 billion) consolidated revenue, but its Q3 profit was a measly 2.2 trillion won ($1.9 billion won) due to decreased sales of mid- to low-end products and increased marketing costs.
Alphabet keeps raking in cash despite anti-competition, privacy concerns
We're up to our necks in earnings this week, and Google's parent Alphabet is among the latest to drop its quarterly financials. According to the company's release, Alphabet raked in a total of $33.7 billion in total revenue over the past three months, up 21 percent from its position this time last year. That's some decent growth, to be sure, but perhaps not decent enough for Wall Street — analysts expected earnings closer to $34 billion on the nose, and Google's stock dipped noticeably in after-hours trading in the moments after the earnings release. Let's take a closer look.
Twitter is more profitable despite losing 9 million 'users'
Twitter has announced that it made a profit for the fourth successive quarter, capping a year of profitability. In its most recent release, the company said that it pulled in $758 million in revenue and turned a net profit of $106 million. Since the start of 2018, Twitter has seen profit figures grow from $61 million in Q1, through $100 million in Q2.
Musk: Model Y prototype approved to go into production
On Tesla's earnings call after announcing its first quarterly profit, CEO Elon Musk chatted about the company's upcoming products. While claiming it has "the most exciting product roadmap of any company on Earth," Musk mentioned the Model Y crossover EV we've only seen hints of so far, and said "I recently approved the prototype to go into production."
Tesla turns a profit in Q3 despite Musk
Tesla released its Q3 earnings at the close of trading on Wednesday and, despite a number of recent (and very public) gaffes from its CEO, the company managed to have an excellent financial quarter.
Netflix expects to hit 146 million subscribers in Q4
Three months ago, Netflix failed to meet its own prediction for worldwide subscriber growth, so there are a lot of eyes on today's results. Since then it's announced that CFO David Wells is leaving, snapped up property in LA, announced a new production studio in Albuquerque and continued a torrid pace of releasing original content. For the third quarter its subscriber additions were well above its internal prediction, with worldwide growth of 6.96 million compared to the projected 5 million. Now it predicts it will grow by another 9.4 million customers in Q4, with most of the new subscribers coming from outside the US. In its earnings letter (PDF), executives referenced the projections by saying that starting next year, they will only provide guidance on the number of paid memberships without including free trials, which are harder to predict. Then in 2020 it will stop reporting the numbers on free trials altogether.
Lenovo retakes the top spot in PC shipments
Happy days are here again for Lenovo, though not for most of the PC industry. The Chinese tech firm has reclaimed the top spot for PC shipments in both Gartner and IDC market share estimates for the third quarter of the year, pushing past HP to scoop up roughly 24 percent of the market. The analyst groups chalked up the growth to both the addition of Fujitsu, better business PC sales and a smarter North American strategy. For most others, though, the season was a mixed bag.
Samsung projects record high profit for Q3 2018
Samsung had a less-than-stellar second quarter after the Galaxy S9 failed to keep its profit growth on pace, but the third quarter marks a return to form for the Korean tech giant. In fact, it expects to post record profits for Q3 2018. In its guidance report, the company said it estimates its consolidated operating profit to reach 17.5 trillion Korean won (US$15.5 billion) and its consolidated sales to reach 65 trillion won (US$57.5 billion). That's around 20 percent more than the 14.53 trillion Korean won profit it posted for the second quarter and could be a record high for the corporation.
