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AT&T posts killer first quarter, data growth "robust"
Economic downturn and Sprint woes be damned, because AT&T's not hearin' a bit of it. The company's wireless unit -- which also happens to be the largest carrier in the country -- announced that it put up some serious numbers in the first quarter of 2008, growing revenue 18.3 percent year over year for a grand total of $11.8 billion. It tacked on 1.3 million new subscribers in the quarter, an 8.7 percent improvement in net gain over the same period in 2007, and grew ARPU by 2 percent in that time. Perhaps most eye-widening, though, is the fact that wireless data revenue grew a boggling 57.3 percent over the last year, thanks in part to the 620 million and 44 billion multimedia and text messages sent in the three-month span, respectively. Needless to say, the wireless division's looking just a little more... shall we say, "dynamic" than the wireline group at the moment, as recent job moves would indicate.[Via mocoNews]
Latest financials confirm it: Sprint and Nextel probably shouldn't have merged
Well, it looks like the aggressively priced unlimited action really didn't come a moment too soon. We're no economists here, but it doesn't take rocket science, a Ph.D., collegiate level maths, or even a fancy calculator to crunch the cold, hard numbers coming out of Sprint Nextel's fourth quarter earnings call. For starters, the number three carrier in the US reported a net loss of nearly $29.5 billion, which -- get this -- is more than the combined value of its outstanding stock. Let us reiterate for emphasis and drama value: Sprint lost more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the company is worth. Wow. If it's any consolation, the staggering figure is largely due to a $29.7 billion write-down of Nextel's value, which as the Wall Street Journal lays out, makes the 2005 merger officially a "Deal From Hell." With postpaid subscribers continuing to migrate to other carriers, there's no telling how to stop the hemorrhaging -- especially if the fresh $99 unlimited plan doesn't end up doing the trick -- but something tells us the move to Kansas isn't going to magically patch it all up.
500,000 have signed up for Age of Conan
Funcom and Eidos spun Age of Conan's high level of anticipation in the community by announcing that more than half a million people have signed up for either the game's beta test or its fan club.That's a fairly impressive number, although it doesn't necessarily predict sales. After all, beta testing is free; who knows how many people will actually drop $50 (or €40, or £30, or whatever other currency) for the box and then 15 bucks a month thereafter?Hopes must be high at Funcom, though, given the financial pressure the game's development has put on the company. Next Generation reported that Funcom's Q4 2007 losses were over three times those of Q4 2006 ($3.1 million vs. $1 million respectively) due in part to the cost of AoC's development. Don't let that add to your fears about the development status, though; the company still has $52.4 million to spare.
The Kwari model: Can RMT be taken to the next level?
I was in the bathroom the other day, reading Games for Windows (because let's be honest, where else would anybody read GfW?) and they had an article on an extremely interesting, though vaguely troubling new shooter called Kwari. Its basic premise is that players pony up a small amount of cash, the amount varying depending on the stakes of the game, and players lose or gain a portion of the pot based on their fragging prowess. Or to put it more simply, it's like online poker, but instead of cards, there are bullets. Designer Eddie Gill of Kwari Limited was hoping that in adding a financial incentive to the basic shooter model, it would result in an experience that was much more intense for the players involved. And if he took in a cut of the profits as well, what's the harm? By all accounts, Kwari utterly fails at delivering an engaging shooter experience, so whatever sociological implications the game would have had were rendered moot because of sloppiness on the developer's part. Still, this perception that online games could be tweaked to be a form of online gambling got me thinking. Is this business model just a developer supported real-money transaction (RMT) scheme, or is it even deeper down the rabbit hole of Shylock-esque shamelessness?
LG follows Nokia's earnings success
Nokia isn't the only manufacturer going the opposite direction of Motorola at the moment. LG managed to ship 23.7 million phones in the fourth quarter of 2007, a 40 percent improvement over the same period in 2006; following a trends across the industry, though, its revenue was up considerably less -- a mere 12 percent -- thanks to freefalling handset prices worldwide. The company says that a healthy portion of its success can be attributed to the good fortunes it has seen with Verizon's Venus and Voyager and with the Viewty throughout Europe. Things are looking good for 2008, too -- LG predicts that it'll ship a whopping 100 million handsets throughout the year, which if true would represent a 25 percent increase over 2007's numbers. As it stands, LG slides in with 7.1 percent of the global phone market share, slotting it fifth among the top five manufacturers (nothing new there) and about 2 percent behind number four, Sony Ericsson. Best of luck in the new year, dudes.
Motorola still in the red, no light at the end of the tunnel yet
Motorola's fourth quarter and 2007 earnings turned out to be pretty bleak indeed -- as expected, perhaps -- and according to the company, it expects a further slide through the first quarter in both sales and market share. The company pulled in about $9.65 billion through the final quarter of the year, which sounds like a nice number and all until you realize that it's an 18.2 percent decline from its sales in the fourth quarter of 2006. For the full year, the company garnered $36.6 billion, down 15 percent from 2006 on the whole. In terms of handsets, Moto pushed 40.9 million of them in the quarter -- with 53 percent sold in North America -- which it estimates is good enough for 12.4 percent market share worldwide. New CEO Greg Brown said that he believes the company is aligning its strategy the way it needs to be, but that its handset business is going to take even longer to recover than expected. How far down the charts do these guys stand to slide before they're back in the black?[Via mocoNews]
Pachter: Nintendo to make more than $14.5 billion in 2008
Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter has made a career out of predicting what's going down in the gaming industry. His latest prediction sees Nintendo upping their financial forecast for this year, where he thinks the company will bring in more than its current 2008 projections for $14.5 billion in revenue. We imagine that's around how much it costs to build a Death Star."Nintendo's recent financial performance has been spectacular and we continue to believe its FY:08 guidance is conservative," said Pachter. He continued on to say "We believe that global DS sales were likely around 12 million units during the [third] quarter, and that global Wii sales were around 7 million, placing the company on track to exceed guidance for the fiscal year,"
Qualcomm reveals MediaFLO's 2007 numbers (hint: profit-free)
Qualcomm's proxy statement filing with the SEC last week revealed some juicy tidbits regarding subsidiary MediaFLO USA's performance in fiscal year 2007, and as might be expected, the numbers aren't so hot. The mobile TV outfit's revenue isn't broken down specifically, but Qualcomm calls it out as largely accounting for its QSI (Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives) segment's poor '07 showing thanks to a $118 million year over year increase in losses. To be fair, MediaFLO launched for the first time anywhere on any carrier in 2007, and the statement blames $70 million of those losses on expenses associated with the March '07 rollout on Verizon -- but these cats have another big push coming up with AT&T, and we can't imagine that service launches are getting any cheaper these days. Hopefully the economies of scale start to kick in before too long and put 'em on the road to black ink.[Via mocoNews]
HTC denies report claiming chip shortages will limit output
Corporate denials are about as ironclad as the existence of the Nokia N97, but take this for what it's worth: HTC says "no worries" in response to rumors that Qualcomm's chipset deliveries would be coming up short next quarter. Though the firm -- known by most as the world's foremost Windows Mobile powerhouse -- admits that component supplies are tight, it says that it has secured all the stuff it needs to keep its own production humming along at full steam. For its part, Qualcomm says that it has been working closely with HTC "week by week" to keep the flow of supplies steady, and that it'll be ramping up production of its WCDMA silicon in January to better accommodate demand. So much for worries about Broadcom breathing down their neck, apparently![Thanks, Tom]
Qualcomm chipset shortfall expected to hurt HTC in the pocket
Qualcomm's a little down on its luck right now -- its legal luck, anyway -- and needless to say, we wouldn't want to be a company relying on its goods right now to be able to turn a profit of our own. That's exactly the situation HTC apparently finds itself in according to Taiwan's Commercial Times, expecting to book about 38.5 percent less revenue in the first fiscal quarter of '08 than in the fourth quarter of this year thanks to a supply of Qualcomm chipsets that falls well short of HTC's needs. HTC expects to receive about 70 percent of the CDMA and WCDMA silicon that it needs, ultimately affecting phone shipments to both the US and Europe. The only thing better than a delayed phone is a released phone that's in impossibly short supply, so this should be a fun few months coming up here.[Via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]
RIM doubles up profits, revenue
Just as forecasted, Research in Motion has delivered quite the Wall Street-pleasing results in the fiscal third-quarter. The BlackBerry maker's recently released numbers showed a staggering $370.5 million profit compared to "just" $175.2 million in the same quarter last year. Furthermore, the firm's Q3 revenue rose to $1.67 billion from $835.1 million last year. According to co-CEO Jim Balsillie, it's pretty "clear [that] BlackBerry smartphones have crossed over from being viewed as a primarily enterprise product to being marketed as a strong mainstream offering," and considering the results, it's hard to argue that point. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen enough digits in one post, it should be noted that RIM shipped out more than 3.9 million handsets and added around 1.65 million BlackBerry subscribers in Q3, also. Not too shabby, eh?
China Mobile in talks with Apple over iPhone
Bringing the iPhone to Europe was big, but potentially bigger for Apple is the Chinese market, which probably explains why China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is in talks with the company over its much publicized handset. Mr. Jianzhou admitted in a speech at the GSM Association's Mobile Asia Congress that he doesn't like the revenue sharing agreements that Apple has managed to wrangle: you and every other mobile executive worldwide, Wang! But who knows, maybe the fact that China Mobile has 349.66 million subscribers will be enough for Apple to make one two very big exceptions and do a more traditional deal. Whatever happens, the Chinese market is likely to throw some curveballs at Apple's usual pitch.
EA's Q3 revenues led by Xbox 360
Stemming from a recent SEC filing and financial report, EA's third quarter software revenues -- broken down by platform -- reveal that the Xbox 360 proved to be the most rewarding during the three months ending September 30th. A Gamasutra report ranks the revenue for the period, which saw the releases of Boogie, Madden '08 and Skate, as following: Xbox 360: $218 million (an increase of $52 million over the same period last year) PlayStation 2: $73 million (a drop of $196 million compared to the previous year) Wii: $59 million DS: $47 million (up by $33 million) PSP: $21 million (down by $43 million) PlayStation 3: $17 million Does CEO John Riccitiello still think the publisher backed the "wrong horse" by initially focusing on the PS3 and Xbox 360? Judging by third quarter revenues, it seems said horse was actually two buffoons in a poorly constructed costume -- except the one controlling the front two legs could actually make out where he was going. Driven by superb Madden '08 sales in October, the Xbox 360 yielded roughly the same amount as every other platform combined. Wii software revenue shows promise for the system's third-party developers, quite unlike the PlayStation 3's $17 million. With lackluster hardware sales and unimpressive software revenues from one of the world's largest publishers laying quite the rocky road, it's no wonder Sony has to talk supporters out of jumping ship.(Wait a minute. Did we just put a ship on the road? We've got to stop mixing our metaphors like that.)
Report: Online console games bring in more revenue
It seems like just yesterday when online functionality was a new, exotic feature that was far from required for most games. Now, it seems, online functionality is practically a must if a publisher wants to squeeze as much money as possible from a release. Reuters is reporting on a new study by research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research that shows, so far in this generation, console games that allow online play bring in nearly twice as much revenue as games that don't.This isn't that surprising, considering mega-sellers like Madden, Gears of War, and Resistance are weighing on the online side. Would these same exact games make half the money without an online component? It's hard to say, but it's definitely a possibility, and one that should worry online-shy Nintendo. According to the study, only two percent of Wii games included an online component as of June 1, compared to 23 percent of PS3 games and a whopping 77 percent of Xbox 360 titles. That could translate to a lot of early revenue left on the table for the big N. Look, just make the Super Smash Bros. Brawl's online functionality relatively painless and all will be forgiven, all right?
Sprint sees 54M customers, 40 percent spike in data revenue
Sprint's recent second quarter financial results showed an interesting mix of numbers: income dropped by 90 percent, wireless data revenue jumped by 40 percent and the carrier broke the 54 million-customer mark. Dropping from a $291 million profit in the year-ago quarter to a $19 million profit is, well, pretty huge. But, at least Sprint saw its average revenue per sub sit above $60 for its latest quarter, with $9.75 attributable to data revenue. Everyone break out some EV-DO data sessions in salute of this if you please. On a lighter note, Sprint CEO Gary Foresee said the iPhone "blip" has not significantly affected number ports to AT&T, although the level is up "slightly" from before the iPhone launch.[via mocoNews]
Gameloft sales up 50% so far this year
Mobile games publisher Gameloft announced they posted €45.9 million ($62.9 million) in sales during the first half of their fiscal year. According to Gameloft, this is a 50% increase from last year, which means they are well on their way to hitting their €95 million ($130.3 million) objective when the games industry goes into overdrive sales for the end of Q3 and the Q4 holiday season.The sales come from standard issue back titles and, in the same way Activision pulled ahead in the first half of this year, Gameloft saw significant revenue from movie/TV licensed games like Shrek the Third, Desperate Housewives and Lost. Yes hardcore gamers, you may curse the heavens for that if you wish.
Windows Safari bugs and exploits "popping up like hotcakes"
Safari has been available on Windows for less than 24 hours, and already the hacker community is apparently tearing it to shreds. The Errata Security blog has been keeping track of a few announcements across the web, including a fully disclosed 0-day exploit that Thor Larholm apparently found yesterday within two hours of the software's release (and says more are "popping up like hotcakes"). And just to be clear on the use of 0-day exploit: it means Larholm found a way to execute any piece of code on a Windows box when Safari visits a properly crafted site to successfully exploit a vulnerability on the day the vulnerability was found. What will this mean for Safari's reputation and traction in the Windows market? I'm not really sure yet. There are any number of reasons behind Apple's decision to develop Safari for Windows, and even though a healthy pool of tech-savvy users are already tinkering with it (for better and for worse), the real results will be seen once it reaches much more of the mainstream market. One of the primary reasons (besides making it easy for Windows-based web developers to write web apps for the iPhone, of course) for SafariWin, as some are calling it, is because that tiny little search box in the upper right of a browser has become quite a revenue generator if the browser does decently in the market. When users search through that box, the browser manufacturer makes some money off the resulting ads that are displayed along with that search. Firefox reportedly made around $50-75 million last year for Mozilla because of that little search box (not bad for an open source product, eh?). You don't have to be Internet Explorer to bring home at least some bacon for your company; heck, I would bet that Opera is still in business largely due to their search box as well.But none of these reasons will mean anything, and Safari won't generate nearly as much revenue for Apple, if it doesn't gain at least a respectable share of Windows users who are actually firing up Safari to search, browse the web, view and click on ads. But If Safari keeps getting torn apart like this within 24 hours of a release, it could gain a terrible reputation before it ever hits the radar of a crucial portion of the general public. In this new web browsing and computing world where security is everything when you talk about a browser, Safari needs to plug these exploit holes ASAP if it plans to get any farther than the fleeting front page of digg.
Reggie extols the wonders of the DS
Just in case you didn't know, the DS owns the Japanese market. At today's Nintendo Media Summit, Reggie Fils-Aime dropped a major bomb: so far in 2007, half of all games sold in Japan have been for the DS. Yes, that was half. It may be time to move beyond the "it prints money" joke. We're not sure that really communicates this level of success. Also, the numbers of people over the age of 30 who are buying the DS are up -- if you look at DS adopters over 35, the statistics are huge: the numbers are up 212%. Looking at that, it's easy to guess why we're seeing more and more of what we jokingly refer to as "non-games" rolling out for the DS. A lot of these new gamers aren't as interested in traditional fare, and as the market expands, the type of games has to expand as well. Satoru Iwata had good reason to come down hard on NoA for not getting the U.S. market on the Brain Age train; everywhere else, the game continues to walk off shelves at alarming rates. Reggie said they're seeing "significant market change" in the U.S., and we can only hope that means that, as the gaming market expands, so will gaming advertising. It's time DS commercials broke out of their Saturday morning slots and started marketing to the new gaming class: adults who like shooting zombies just as much as they like studying languages.
Reggie on the Wii effect at the Nintendo Media Summit
This morning, at the Nintendo Media Summit, NoA President and resident badass Reggie Fils-Aime had some interesting statistics on the Nintendo juggernaut. While a lot of it may not be the best news for the hardcore gaming contingent, the massive revenue increases indicate that the wider potential market may well be what powers the industry in the coming years. One particularly telling statement backed up the figures: "We don't consider Sony and Microsoft as our only competitors. We're competing with other leisure time entertainment. If people stay at home and play Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win."It's not all gloom and doom for the hardest of the hard, however. Reggie had some interesting things to say about this summer's highly anticipated Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It "will reinvent the control scheme for a first person shooter. It's the closest you can get to PC control in a [console] game." A lot of people hoped Red Steel would pull that off for the Wii at launch, but leave it to Nintendo to really show us what the Wiimote and nunchuk combo can do for the FPS.Reggie also added that the DS continues to print money, just in case none of us knew.
President Iwata, economics, and fun with automatic translation
Japanese publicatiion Toyo Keizai recently sat down with President Iwata for five questions about the economics of selling consoles what print money (hand over the proverbial fist, even). Since we're stuck puzzling out squiggles Kanji and scratching our heads over the auto-translation, only to discover that there isn't much meat to the interview at all, we thought we'd bring it to you exactly as we read it:Toyo Keizai: The DS sure prints money, yeah?Iwata: Damn yeah it does.TK: But that's just Japan. How's the overseas market?Iwata: The overseas market also produces fat stacks of cash, only in different colors and shapes.TK: You guys are really expanding the market, eh?Iwata: We had to -- everyone already owned seven DS Lites. TK: So how about that Wii?Iwata: It also seems to be printing money. We're very pleased, and also, rich. TK: Is the hit of DS and Wii probably to mean what?Iwata: Very to recently, the game was thought that the child it is something which the young man enjoys. The woman, not to mention, to forge how no one where the old people touch to the game machine imagined and, the brain, the expectation which the person whom you think that English study can become the game software, is not.Oh, uh ... sorry, we were too busy giggling at the Google translation. This is the interesting part of the interview, but we've heard this song before: Nintendo is working to expand the gaming industry beyond the artificial boundaries we've set when it comes to determining just what a game is, and who the audience should be. And we approve; in fact, bring more of it over here! Give us the language trainers and games we can play with Grandma, as well as more traditional 'hardcore' gaming fare.
