q42017
Latest
Fitbit plans a 'family' of smartwatches in 2018
Fitbit knows it can't lean on activity trackers forever, and it's going to shake things up in 2018. As part of a call discussing its latest earnings, the company said it would produce a "family" of smartwatches this year -- it's not just going to hope a single model like the Ionic will be enough. Details are unsurprisingly thin (this wasn't an announcement), but the aim is to produce smartwatches with "more mass appeal" while taking advantage of its core strengths in health and fitness. Don't be surprised if that translates to more aggressive pricing.
China's smartphone market shrinks for the first time in 9 years
For a while, it seemed like the Chinese smartphone market was an infinite growth machine. Companies would have rough patches, but the overall field would always be on the up and up. Well, those days are over. IDC estimates that Chinese smartphone shipments declined 4.9 percent in 2017 -- the first drop since 2009. The analyst firm pinned it primarily on "minor upgrades" to Chinese phones that weren't enough to spur a wave of new buyers. We'd add that the market is maturing. Much of the rapid growth from past years was sparked by a burgeoning Chinese middle class buying its first smartphones. Many of the people who could afford smartphones have them, and they aren't always in a rush to upgrade.
Apple sold the most smartphones over the holidays
Smartphone sales were so slow during the holiday season of 2017, that Apple overtook Samsung to capture the first place in the market, according to IDC and Strategy Analytics. This, despite the fact that iPhone sales dropped during the holidays -- down 1.3 percent from the same period the year before -- and that the iPhone X hasn't been doing as well as Cupertino hoped for. Smartphone manufacturers apparently only shipped 403.5 million units during the holidays last year compared to 430.7 million units in 2016. Samsung, which usually sits at the top of the list, shipped 74.1 million phones in the last few months of 2017, down 4.4 percent from the year before.
Samsung sets record Q4 profits ahead of Galaxy S9 launch
Samsung's head honcho was found guilty of bribery last year and its vice-chairman stepped down due to "unprecedented crisis," but that didn't affect the Korean conglomerate's cashflow at all. In fact, the company did very well in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the year as a whole: it posted a $14 billion operating profit for the quarter and $50 billion for 2017, thanks mostly to its strong chip and display business. That dwarfs its $8 billion operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2016, though that year's earnings were admittedly tainted by the Note 7 fiasco.
LG's latest financials explain its shift in mobile strategy
Earlier this month, LG said that it would row back on its smartphone ambitions by abandoning an annual cycle of smartphone launches. Rather than releasing a flagship just because Samsung did, LG would only pump out a handset when it felt that it should. The report speculated that the move was in anticipation of more bad news for LG Mobile when its fourth-quarter financials were published. Now that the figures are out, it's clear that LG's patience for the division has worn thin, since it managed to lose $204.8 million in just three months.
Netflix added 8.3 million customers in Q4, its biggest growth ever
While Netflix is facing more competition than ever, its growth isn't slowing. The company just announced its four quarter earnings results, and revealed that worldwide it added 8.3 million customers, "the highest quarter in our history and up 18 percent vs. last year's record 7.05 million." While the Will Smith-starring movie Bright wasn't a hit with critics, the company seems happy, saying that it's one of the most viewed titles ever and drove a "notable" lift in customer acquisition. As a result, Netflix is planning to invest more in original films, as well as international content to follow its first German original series, Dark. The company counts over 110 million paying subscribers worldwide, with 52 million of them in the US. The letter suggests it will continue on as planned, investing more money in original content as mentioned above, encompassing second seasons of The Punisher and Mindhunter, and overall deals like the ones it reached with OITNB/Glow creator Jenji Kohan. The letter did not mention Kevin Spacey or Danny Masterson by name, however it did note that "We took a $39m non-cash charge in Q4 for unreleased content we've decided not to move forward with," without specifying what it referred to. We'll have to wait until 6 PM ET to see the video of its earnings call to find out if there's any comment on those situations, or Mo'nique's recent call for a boycott. Update: The video earnings call is live, and it provided a few quotes on some things we were wondering about. Regarding that cash charge, exec Ted Sarandos referred to it as "related to the societal reset around sexual harassment." Source told Deadline and the Financial Times that the charge related to Kevin Spacey's departure, covering both House of Cards and the Gore Vidal biopic it had planned to release this year. CEO Reed Hastings said of Bright that many of the critics are English speaking or in the US, and "disconnected from mass appeal" worldwide. According to Sarandos, both the movie and season two of Stranger Things matched Netflix's adoption almost perfectly around the globe, showing how content can travel. Finally, they didn't appear to be afraid of Disney's upcoming contender, with or without Fox content. "I'll be a subscriber," said Hastings.
Surface, LinkedIn, and cloud revenue are bright spots for Microsoft
Good news for Microsoft: Its Surface revenues have rebounded from last quarter's slump, when sales fell 26 percent over the previous year. For the fourth quarter, Microsoft reports that Surface sales only fell 2 percent year-over-year. Sure, decreases aren't generally good, but in this case it's a sign that sales have actually picked back up. It's not a huge surprise why: Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro in June. Even though they arrived during the tail-end of the quarter, they likely added a bit to the company's ledger. Overall, Microsoft reported revenues of $23.3 billion for the fourth quarter, a 13 percent increase over last year, and it also doubled its profits, reaching $6.5 billion.
