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Samsung SDI expected to post first profit in two years
Samsung SDI has definitely been on the offensive of late, producing the world's first WVGA OLED panels for handhelds, a 3D AMOLED display and plans to crank out medium to large OLED TVs in just a year or so. Its efforts are paying off, as the firm is expected to post its first profit since dipping into (and remaining in) the red back in Q1 2005. According to Kim Dong-won, an analyst at Hyundai Securities, the outfit is forecasting a ???3.1 billion ($3.05 million) profit for Q2 2008 -- quite a bit better than the ???31 billion ($30.5 million) in losses analysts were expecting. Here's a hint for staying in the black: get a few big screen OLED HDTVs out before everyone else. Simple, right?
AT&T finally breaks the half million mark with U-verse customers
AT&T's U-verse still isn't a clear cut winner in the world of HD carriers, but it sure got a lot more attractive with the recent rollout of 2 HD / 2SD -- which enabled users to record one high-def program while watching another (or record two HD shows simultaneously). During Q2 2008, the company managed to pick up 170,000 new U-verse subscribers (versus 148,000 in Q1 2008), and since it closed 2007 with 231,000, it has more than doubled its customer base (549,000) in half a year. At its current rate, it'll be tight to make its goal of one million subscribers by the end of 2008, but it might just get there. Can't say our faith was nearly as high just six months prior.[Via HD-Report]
Home video spending still strong, $194 million spent on Blu-ray in 2008
Slumping economy? Recession? Poppycock. Based on sales of home media, America's financial engine is humming along just fine, with consumers plunking down 1.6% more on DVD / Blu-ray purchases and rentals combined than they did in the first half of 2007. Granted, some may suggest that home entertainment is seeing an increase as more lavish alternatives (going out for a movie, taking a vacation, etc.) are utilized less frequently, but whatever the case, this sector is sure benefiting. Focusing on HDM, we're hearing that $194 million has been spent on Blu-ray Disc thus far in 2008, which is up some 350% from $43 million in 1H 2007. Amazing what a format war conclusion will do for numbers, huh?[Image courtesy of Syracuse, thanks Joel]
LG Display to post huge Q2 profits, LCD sales expected to slump in coming quarters
While we just heard last month that flat-panel sales would be spearheading 2008 consumer electronics growth, a new outlook has those very sales looking bleak for the remainder of the year. The news come amidst the expectation of LG Display to post profits for Q2 that "more than [triple] thanks to strong demand for TVs and tight supplies of PC panels." According to James Kim, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, "earnings have peaked in the second quarter," and while he asserts that "demand to replace TVs with flat-screen models is still there, fewer consumers are buying large-size TVs because of the weak economy." Still, sales of smaller sets are expected to steadily climb in emerging markets as the Beijing Olympics draw near, but it remains to be seen how large an impact those markets will have.[Via WidescreenReview]
Palm claims larger share of smartphone market, has Centro to thank
What's this? Some joyous news on the Palm front? No need to Windex your spectacles -- the aforementioned handset maker has indeed managed to up its share of the smartphone market from 7.9% in the fourth quarter to 13.4% today, largely thanks to the popularity of its Centro. In general, analysts seemed quite pleased by the gains, noting that it (along with RIM) were able to take advantage of the 7.5% skid experienced by Apple during the same period. Despite the recent gains, Palm's market share is still down from 23% in Q1 a year ago, but considering the sweeping slump in cellphone sales of late, we'd say this should still go down as a victory -- however minor -- for the firm.[Via Palm InfoCenter]
Nokia outs first quarter earnings, market share slips just a bit
Can't win 'em all, we suppose. After a positively stellar fourth quarter of 2007 that saw Nokia grab a mind-boggling 40 percent of the world's mobile market share, the number one manufacturer slipped a smidge in the first quarter of this year, dropping down to 39 percent globally. That news is just one tidbit of a very interesting report that sees Nokia's year-over-year performance improve by a wide margin, while at the same time warning that the value of its mobile business is expected to decline versus 2007 thanks largely to the weak US dollar and a global economy that's been putting on the brakes as of late. Also of note is CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's comment that the company will have no "major new products" shipping in the second quarter, likely putting to rest any hopes that we'd see the N78 out before July -- unless the guy doesn't consider the N78 a major new product, which we think would be a pretty misguided belief. Nokia also notes here that it still expects to grow its market share overall in 2008 -- despite the 1 percent decline this quarter -- so any other players out there gunning at nabbing a piece of that profitable pie are going to have to keep the pressure on, it seems.
Apple's $18 billion stash
Where's all that cash that Apple made from the iPhone and all those iPods, Macs, and iTunes downloads last year going? Why, right into Apple's mattress. According to the Financial Times, Apple currently has $18 billion sitting on their balance sheet, doing nothing much at all. And they're OK with that -- Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer recently said in the Q1 conference call that they like having that "flexibility." And after all, you never know when you might need to drop $18 billion on something important.All that money doing nothing isn't so great for Apple's investors though, some of whom apparently want a piece of the pie. They might like to see dividends, stock buybacks, or even actual spending come out of that on Apple's part (later in the piece, I'm surprised to see that Apple only spends 3% of their sales on R&D, while Microsoft spends 14%). But no -- Apple is flush with cash from all their big sales numbers, and they want to apparently stay that way.[Via Ars]
Microsoft trumpets record second quarter results
It seems as if Nokia's not the only mega-corp on the block with good news to proclaim to Wall Street today, as the giant from Redmond is proudly announcing record second quarter results and pinpointing "robust holiday sales and enterprise demand drive" as the culprit. In the three months ending December 31, 2007, Microsoft pulled in some $16.37 billion in revenue and $6.48 billion in operating income, which translated to 30-percent and 87-percent growth in each area, respectively. The outfit also took the chance to mention that sales of Windows Vista had surpassed 100 million licenses, and Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division, even noted that it was "looking forward to the release of its first service pack later this quarter." You and just under 100 million others, we'd surmise.
Nokia grabs 40% of global handset market, nets $2.6 billion in Q4
Although it does sound as if the much protested plant closing in Bochum, Germany will indeed leave around 2,300 workers sans a job, the street was still loving what Nokia had to talk about today. In its latest earnings report, the firm announced that it raked in €15.7 billion ($22.76 billion) in revenues and €1.8 billion ($2.6 billion) in net profit from October to December 2007. Furthermore, the firm managed to move a record 133.5 million handsets in the aforementioned period, which is up some 27-percent from Q4 a year earlier. That sales surge enabled the handset maker to grab hold of 40-percent of the global cellphone market, and apparently, bigwigs at the company aren't expecting things to plateau in 2008. Needless to say, things are pretty spirited in Helsinki right about now, so feel free to tag the links below for even more jaw-dropping figures.Read - Nokia 4Q profits up 44 percent, market share reaches 40 per centRead - Nokia's Q4 2007 report
World of Warcraft still growing -- 9.3 million served
Gamasutra reports that Vivendi, the parent company of Blizzard, has seen its Q3 2007 sales go up 19% over the last quarter. Vivendi credits this growth partially to the Chinese release of The Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft, which occurred in Q3. The company revealed that World of Warcraft now has 9.3 million subscribers -- 300,000 more than the the number reported last quarter.That means that WoW has grown by the size of one and a half EVE Onlines or two whole City of Heroeses in just a few months. Or put another way, the population of World of Warcraft is now greater than the population of Sweden. We think it's safe to say that World of Warcraft will be the dominant title in the industry for a while longer.
Ubisoft reports quarterly sales up 25%, delays four
As is normal this time of year, companies have begun shuffling papers in the mad scramble to report their quarterly earnings to shareholders and the world at large. The latest to do so is Ubisoft, which today announced that it has been making money hand-over-fist lately with total second quarter sales of $172.89 million, a hair over a 25 percent increase from the same time last year. Much of this success was laid at the feet of such releases as GRAW 2, as well as Jam Sessions, Blazing Angels 2, and movie tie-in Surf's Up. Strong sales of back catalog titles also helped to contribute to the company's financial prosperity, while officials note that some 75 percent of Ubi's sales during the first half of the year came from games for the newer crop of consoles, compared to just 40 percent last year. If we had to venture a guess, this might mean that the firm could begin to inch away from the safety net of the PS2 in order to devote more effort toward projects aimed at the so-called next-gen platforms in the coming months and into the new year. Ubi also expects third quarter sales to climb a modest 6 percent to around $449.24 million.However, all this money seems to have caused the company to rethink its upcoming release schedule, and as such it has chosen to "postpone" the release of four unannounced titles until to sometime next year. Additionally, Gamasutra reports that the earlier announced Wii exclusive Nitrobike from Excitebike 64 devs Left Field has also been pushed out from this holiday's release window into a more nebulous someday.Still, it's hard to get too broken up about this given that the rest of the delayed projects remain unknown. Ubi still has a good deal of confirmed releases on the horizon, with highlights including the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed and Haze, as well as Beowulf and the sequel to Rayman Raving Rabbids. If Ubisoft has its way, it will be swimming in its money bin by the close of the current fiscal year, with total yearly sales of €825 million ($1.17 billion) anticipated by the firm.[Via press release]
RIM reports revenue up 66 percent over last year
RIM, -- previously known as NTP's patent punching bag -- seems to have clawed its way out of the misery that was last year and is showing some signs of a pleasant recovery. The Canadian messaging monster is reporting preliminary earnings in the 4rth quarter of $930.4 million, up 66% from the same quarter last year -- though we suspect that the $612.5 million payout to NTP is reflected here. Year totals are equally impressive with sales of $3 billion, which is up a booming 47 percent. Aside from the financial mumbo jumbo, what really caught our eyes is the addition of 1.02 million new subscribers (in this quarter alone) giving RIM a fat total of 8 million happy messaging enthusiasts. In the spirit of keeping things moving on the Blackberry front, what we really need to see now is some WiFi goodness in a handset, mmmkay RIM?
Motorola gives bleak outlook, plays musical chairs with execs
Okay, look, we seriously don't support laughing at Moto's misfortunes, and that's the truth -- but they just made it too easy here. Above is a screen shot of AP's brief about the sitch as it appeared for us on Yahoo! News. How better to compliment a MOTOSTRY than with a MOTOADVT, right? The ad here is encouraging us to get our news right on our V3xx, even if said news has to do with Motorola's bleak outlook for fiscal '07, apparently. Come on, if you don't get a good belly laugh out of that, you need to check your pulse... so yeah, anyway, the post-RAZR hangover continues at Moto, with CFO David Devonshire "retiring" to make way for Thomas Meredeth effective April Fools' Day. Profit forecasts are also continuing to follow their downward trend, with the first quarter now expected to rake in revenues of $9.2 to 9.3 billion, down from the $10.4 to 10.6 billion quoted just two short months ago. CEO Zander himself blames much of the shortfall on competitors' price pressures in the low-end segment; personally, we blame the shortfall on the fact that we still don't have a frickin' MOTORIZR Z8 in our hands, but what do we know?
Sony profits up in financial first quarter
After losing money in the same period a year ago, Sony outperformed analysts expectations in the April-June period and profited $276 million US. LCD sales of their BRAVIA line were up "five-fold" from last year, as their partnership with Samsung netted more than $29 million by itself. According to CFO Nobuyuki Oneda TVs were still in the red as a whole but were the largest contributing factor to their growth. Even including expected costs associated with launching the Playstation 3 this fall (Blu-ray format, the BDP-S1 and other non-Playstation products went notably unmentioned in the articles and internal documents we read ), they revised their operating profits forecast by 30% for the financial year ending next March.After a string of bad news, reviews and delays Sony may be ready to get back on a winning track and their big products for the holiday are still waiting in the wings.Read - Sony Returns to Profit in Fiscal 1Q - APRead - Sony Game Sales Down 30% - Next GenerationRead - Sony swings to Q1 profit, recovery on track - ReutersRead - Q1 FY2006 Sony Group Earnings Announcement - Sony
