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Netbooks party hard in 2009: shipments up 103 percent year-over-year
The whole "man, how time flies" thing feels a little played out, but we definitely just heard the Pavilion dv2 say as much to the Wind U100. Believe it or not, those two machines were just a couple of the legions that ushered us into a netbook-crazed 2009, and now DisplaySearch has the figures that prove what we've all been thinking: netbooks are the bees knees. According to their research, shipments of low-cost, miniaturized laptops shot up 103 percent year-over-year; compare that to the 5 percent uptick in the conventional laptop market, and you'll start to get a feel for the shifting trend. Potentially more amazing is the revenue analysis, which found that netbooks experienced a 72 percent rise in year-over-year revenue growth while all other mobile computers saw a loss. It's tough to say if the momentum can be stopped, but if folks have continued to buy these things despite the limited CPU options and lackluster multimedia performance, we suspect there isn't anything those angered CULV alternatives can do to stop the inevitable rise to stardom.
The9 posts 94 percent drop in Q3 revenues after losing WoW
Mother of pearl! We thought it was safe to assume that Shanghai-based MMO operator The9 would lose a chunk of its revenue after handing the license for World of Warcraft over to competing company NetEase. By "a chunk" we, of course, meant "a fraction." Not "almost all revenue," which according to the company's Q3 2009 financial report, is how much it lost year-over-year after passing off the rights to run WoW. To put it numerically, The9's revenues dropped 94 percent from the same quarter last year. A hit that big must have left a sizable dent in the ol' pocketbook -- however, we're guessing the company's board members take some small, spiteful satisfaction from the tribulations the game has brought to its new operators.
Pie Guy: A web game for the iPhone
Back when the iPhone was first announced, there was no SDK, you'll remember. Jobs said that developers could just make web apps, and that they would be good enough. Of course, he was wrong -- given what you can do with your iPhone now compared to what you could do with your iPhone then, even Steve would be happy to say that yes, there is a native app for that. But let's not toss the projects out with the development platform, so to speak. Neven Mrgan, one of the devs over at Panic, has released Pie Guy, a free and surprisingly full-featured game for the iPhone that exists only as a Javascript web app. To play it, just point your iPhone 3GS (the page says you need one of those, and while I was able to play it on my 1G, it was too clunky to enjoy) to mrgan.com/pieguy, add that page to your homescreen, and there you go. In case you haven't guessed from the pic above (or the name), the game itself is a straightforward Pac-Man clone. But what's most interesting here is the example this game sets. Think about it: a full featured, automatically updated game release, delivered straight to the iPhone without any approval required by Apple. The revenue model might need some work, but maybe we dismissed this whole "web app" idea a little too quickly. For devs looking to go around the App Store's process, maybe there's a solution here. Boy, Flash sure would help with that, wouldn't it?
Sony expects PSN to pull in 50 billion yen in FY 2009
Though yesterday's Sony investor's conference featured a concerning reference to the PSN's "new revenue stream from subscription," another slide from the presentation seems to indicate that the platform is already making money hand over fist. According to the slide (seen above), the company has set a lofty goal for the current fiscal year: It expects the PSN to bring in ¥50 billion (roughly $561 million) in revenue by the end of FY 2009. That's three times the amount of cash collected by the platform in the last fiscal year. Exactly how Sony plans to boost its revenues so drastically is outlined by other statistics on the slide. According to the company's calculations, the PSN currently has 33 million registered users, 1.4 million of which visit the PlayStation Store on a daily basis. We fall into the latter group -- but only because we can't stop window shopping for celebrities we can fling into oncoming traffic. We confess: It's one of our dirtiest, guiltiest pleasures. Source – "Media / Investor Conference - November 19th 2009" [PDF]
Sony 'looking into' subscription-based PSN services for new revenue stream
Whoa, hey. Slow your roll, sir. We know seeing the terms "PSN" and "subscription" in the same headline might have set off a few red flags for you, but let's look at this logically. Earlier today, Sony released the presentation report from its media and investor conference, one portion of which focused on the future profitability of its gaming platform. One element of the company's strategy is turning a larger profit on PlayStation Network -- and yes, according to the report, Sony's planning to obtain a "new revenue stream from subscription." Now, this doesn't necessarily mean the currently free online service will start charging its users at some point during this next year. It's far more likely that the line in the report was referring to new subscription-based features, such as the PSP rental service or one of SOE's upcoming MMOs. We contacted Sony about the reference to PSN subscriptions, and a representative responded, saying, "We have not made any formal announcements on a subscription based service. We're looking into a variety of options." It sounds like the company has yet to set any subscription plans in stone -- or perhaps Sony's just now gauging the community's reaction to the concept of a pay-to-play PSN. If that's the case, the comments on this post could likely provide an adequate barometer for how this news would be received. But that's just our hunch ... Source – "Media / Investor Conference - November 19th 2009" [PDF]
Nintendo profits sink on declining console sales, weak game selection
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Nintendo just announced that its interim net profit was cut by more than half to ¥69.49 billion (about $770 million), from ¥144.83 billion last year at this time -- figures that won't be helped by the cheaper Wii price tag announced at the end of September. Speaking of which, Nintendo sold only 5.75 million Wii consoles from April to September (down 43% from last year) and cut its full year sales forecast for the April 09 to March 2010 period to 20 million units, down from an expected 26 million. DS sales were also off 15% from last year and we doubt that a bigger screen on the new DSi LL model will change that dramatically.
HTC sees revenue falling due to "delays in product launches"
HTC's been on somewhat of a hot streak here lately, but word on the street has it that the aforesaid outfit may not be able to ship all of its forthcoming handsets on time. A new Wall Street Journal report on falling revenue in the HTC camp notes that an undisclosed amount of delays, a larger-than-anticipated drop in contract orders and lower-than-expected sales in China could lead to drooping income in the short term, and some analysts are pointing out that the company's average selling price per phone is sliding due to looming Android competition from the likes of Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Aside from the Touch Pro2 that'll probably never, ever land on Sprint, HTC has about a gazillion other rumored handsets on the horizon, but it's hard to know for sure which "product launches" are expected to be stalled. So, is HTC secretly retooling a smattering of its handsets in order to stay one step ahead of SE and Moto? Or are old fashioned supply chain inefficiencies to blame?
Microsoft sees first annual sales decline in its history for fiscal 2009
Microsoft's fiscal year 2009 just came to a close, and the new milestones for the company aren't too boast worthy. Year-over-year, the company saw a 3.2 percent decline in sales, its first drop in the company's history -- guess that third quarter report was a pretty good indication of things to come. Net profit, too, fell 17 percent to $14.57 billion. Looking at just the fourth quarter, sales fell 17 percent to $13.1 billion, and profits saw a pretty massive 29 percent drop, to $3.05 billion. Attributing to the decline were legal charges and severance claims from laid off employees, a referral of revenue from the Windows 7 Upgrade program, and of course overall drop in PC and server sales across the industry. So far the stock market has acted as you'd expect, and shares have dropped a notable eight percent. Despite all this gloom, let's not forget that the boys in Redmond are still pulling a profit -- and hey, cheer up Steve, you've got one helluva bright light for fiscal 2010.
Sony Ericsson posts $299 million Q2 2009 loss, PlayStation-integrated phone (probably Aino) coming Q4
The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Sony Ericsson's most recent quarter loss is not as bad as its epic $382 million tab prior, and at this point there's no talk of further en masse job cuts. That said, this new report isn't exactly sunshine, and the Q2 results show a 213 million Euro ($299 million) net loss. Product shipments were around 13.8 million, down 43 percent compared with last year. Some blame is attributed to the focus on mid-tier feature phones in lieu of a greater smartphone push -- SE says it's working to correct that direction, but its higher end devices won't hit until fourth quarter. One interesting note is that one of those late-year handhelds is said to "integrate with PlayStation," but before you get excited over the oft-rumored PSP phone, we'd venture to say it's more likely that description's referencing the Remote Play-supporting Aino. From what we can tell, there's no indication of what's in the cards to improve Q3, so we won''t exactly be surprised if the story repeats itself three months from now.
SouthPeak sees revenue surge on 'post-holiday demand'
Hey, SouthPeak, we're in a recession, didn't you hear? The publisher again pocketed an impressive wad of cash, reporting $13.5 million in revenue during its fiscal third quarter, up more than $2 million over the same time the previous year. According to Gamasutra, the company cited "post-holiday consumer demand" and recent releases like Big Bang Mini and X-Blades as key factors in the outfit's financial buoyancy.With 711,000 units of software flying out the door during the quarter, it's no wonder the company is making plans for the future. The report notes that SouthPeak has more than 60 games in the works, with over $14 million currently invested in development of new titles and IP. Perhaps we can finally quit pointing and laughing as the publisher of Gamecock cast-offs Legendary and Velvet Assassin rolls up to the bank. Clearly some gamers' spirits are more resilient than others.
Funcom's Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue
Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan: Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 '08 (the introduction of free trials helped here) A solid and stable customer base for the quarter Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 '08 report are also keeping to their development schedules -- the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 '09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.
Virgin Mobile post earnings, gets a boost from new unlimited offering
Sound familiar? Ultra-cheap unlimited plans are doing well (in some cases, too well) for everyone that's offering them these days, and it seems that Virgin is no exception to the rule. Following the April 15 launch of its $49.99 unlimited plan, the company announced during its earnings call this week that it's seen a five-times-over boost in unlimited plan adds (yeah, bargain pricing will do that), which dovetails nicely with the MVNO's claim earlier in the year that the crappy economy really set it up for big wins in '09. Notably, the quarter saw income rise 301 percent year-over-year to $19.1 million while operating revenues rose 2 percent to $337.3 million, so things are looking up for these guys just months after financials were looking weak -- so strong, in fact, that they've revised their full year cash flow and earnings upwards. Does this mean we get new Helio gear soon? [Via mocoNews]
MLB is about to make a million dollars off an iPhone app
Lots of developers are saying that they can't sell their apps at $9.99 in the App Store, but Major League Baseball is apparently the exception -- the $9.99 At Bat app is not only gaining accolades from users, but it's selling like nachos at the ballpark, too: with 130,000 copies sold so far this year, MLB is about to break a million dollars in revenue, even after Apple takes its cut. Pretty impressive for a pricey app. Of course, that's chump change when you consider exactly what MLB is dealing with -- the app integrates the Gameday Audio service, which sells for $14.99 on its own, and baseball's television and video content makes much, much more than a million dollars. The iPhone revenue, big as it is, is just a drop in the bucket for MLB, really. But nevertheless, the MLB app stands out as proof that, even if you have to include exclusive live audio content from major sporting events around the country, it is possible to make an app that people will happily pay $9.99 for. Stands to reason that if developers can make their app at least as functional and useful as At Bat, they too can make a million dollars.
Mac shipments lowest they've been in 1.5 years
Apple reported amazing earnings in its conference call last week, but SwitchtoaMac.com says not so fast -- while it's true that there was a lot of sun shining in Apple's report, there is one small shadow that they obviously didn't mention: their shipments of new Macs have started to drop off for the first time in 5.5 years. And they're the lowest they've been in a year and a half.A problem? Not a terrible one, but as you can see from the chart over there, there is a definite downturn in new Mac shipments. That might actually be good news for Apple, though -- with the economy doing a nice downturn lately, less inventory might shore up sales a bit, and keep their budgets in line with estimations. Of course it would also mean fewer Mac sales (and despite the recent popularity of the iPhone and the iPod, Macs still make up the majority of Apple's revenue), but if customers aren't there, that's better than having warehouses full of computers paid for but not actually sold.It's definitely not a sign that the company is going down in flames (in fact, all evidence says exactly the opposite), but it may be a sign that Apple's amazing growth is slowing down a bit.Thanks, Larry T!
Samsung is back in the money, but a whole lot less than last year
Hot on the heels of Apple announcing it's officially ripping this recession a new one and making more money than ever (hooray!), Samsung has released its financials for the first quarter and things are a little more, erm, glum. (Boo?) The company has at least partially recovered from its first ever loss in the fourth quarter of last year, making a tidy $459 million so far in 2009. That's the good news. The bad news, however, is that $459 million is 72 percent less than the company pocketed in the same quarter in 2008. But, profit is profit, and a 36 percent increase in revenue from the company's cellphone division is also promising -- especially given Nokia's recent bad news. Must be thanks to all those Omnia fanboys and girls.
Sony Ericsson posts epic quarterly loss, adds another round of job cuts
Some good news, please, Sony Ericsson? Anything? Perhaps a surprise Idou ship date? You desperately need something to counter this dismal quarterly report you just dropped on a bad news-saturated public, showing a net loss of €293 million (about $382 million) in the three-month period ending March 31 -- more than €100 million more than the amount you shed in the quarter prior. Despite reassurances to the contrary, we suspect that neither Sony nor Ericsson are prepared to tolerate red ink out of their joint venture forever, and it doesn't help that you've put Android on the back burner indefinitely. What's more, we thought your staff might be able to exhale now that the "cost saving program" to curtail spending by €300 million by cutting 2,000 jobs is complete, but you've coupled the bleak report with the announcement of an additional 2,000 cuts. Your shipped units are off a staggering 35 percent year over year, to boot; maybe the "good" news -- and we're really reaching here -- is that your European rivals are sharing in your pain right about now. Chins up, guys, and get some quality product out of the labs.
Gameloft says: Recession? What recession?
As the dwindling economy has most companies checking their coffers for cobwebs, developer-publisher Gameloft is sipping mojitos and enjoying a refreshing 15 percent uptake in its revenue over the previous year. In 2008, the company boasted revenue of 110.3 million euros, or $149.6 million, with profits likewise surging up 15 percent to $4.4 million during the fiscal year.Console releases were responsible for just 7 percent of Gameloft's results, though with the company set to deal Uno onto every platform imaginable this may soon change. For now, however, it's mobile games that are responsible for the lion's share of Gameloft's newfound wealth, making up 93 percent of the company's sales as even the unemployed refuse to give up their casual shovelware fix.
CCP president points to the EVE community as their reason for success
These are tough economic times for everyone, but not all companies are experiencing a downturn. CCP, the developers of EVE Online, are finding success while many other companies are striving for larger subscriber numbers.Gamasutra had the chance to catch up with CCP North American president Mike Tinney and interview him on CCP's success. Of note in the interivew is how much empasis Tinney places on supporting the community of players and working within a game's revenue stream, rather than overloading a game with big budget features to keep a dwindling population."There's a lot of strategies out there, and there's so many ingredients in the recipe of a successful MMO any one of them can throw the whole thing off," Tinney said to Gamasutra. "But I think the community is one of the most important ingredients."If you wish to read the full interview, check it out over at Gamasutra.
The Cut Scene: Xbox Live generates at least 5 times the revenue of PSN
Xbots, arm up! You've just received a new salvo of ammo for your ongoing crusade against those Sony Cronies: Xbox Live has generated a lot more money than PSN, according to The Cut Scene's math. (Of course, dear Xbox Fanboy, let us remind you that this victory comes at the expense of your wallet.) Variety did some quick estimations based on Sony's recent 20 million registrations announcement and Microsoft's reported earnings from Xbox Live. PSN has generated $180 million for Sony, whereas Xbox Live has made Microsoft a tidy sum in excess of $1 billion. PSN, which includes both PS3 and PSP users, has been active for 40 percent of Xbox Live's current lifespan, however, Sony's service has only managed to generate 20 percent as much revenue. Of course, PSN is free, so registrations don't generate any revenue for Sony, unlike Xbox Live, which costs $50 per year for a premium, Gold subscription. It's not known how much of Xbox Live's total revenue is attributed to Gold subscribers' annual fees.
Vodafone reports 14 percent rise in revenue
Things may not be entirely awesome for most operators these days, but at least Vodafone's making some cash in this cash-strapped market. According to its most recent quarterly results, the outfit has notched a 14 percent increase in revenue, which was helped by the weak pound and exceptional sales in India. More specifically, it realized sales of £10.47 billion ($14.9 billion) compared to £9.16 billion ($13.06 billion) a year prior. Also of note, Voda was thanking data revenue profusely, as said category rose over 25 percent on an organic basis. Nevertheless, the good news prompted it to raise its expectations for the next quarter, which ain't happening too often these days. All the minutiae is parked in the read link.
