Quarter -- Engadget Mobile

quarter posts

Nokia posts $834 million quarterly loss, smartphone share down to 35%

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 15th 2009 @ 8:12AM

Nokia just posted a net loss of 559 million euro (834 million dollars) for the third quarter -- its first quarterly loss in a decade according to the AFP. The loss comes after a reported 20% drop in sales and 1.17 billion euros in write-downs, mostly for impairment charges on Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia also said that its smartphone market share dropped to 35% versus 41% in the previous quarter. With fierce competition from Apple and RIM, and Palm just launching its Pre into Nokia's European stronghold, well, it's a good thing Nokia's branching out into untapped markets like single-core Atom-based netbooks.

Read -- Smartphone slip
Read -- First loss in a decade
Read -- Nokia Q3 statement

Sony Ericsson posts $299 million Q2 2009 loss, PlayStation-integrated phone (probably Aino) coming Q4

by Ross Miller posted Jul 16th 2009 @ 1:09PM

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.

Sony Ericsson posts epic quarterly loss, adds another round of job cuts

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 18th 2009 @ 8:44AM

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.

AT&T reports fourth quarter earnings, things looking less rosy

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 28th 2009 @ 2:02PM

Verizon managed to pull off an impressive 15 percent growth in revenue in the fourth quarter of the year thanks in large part to its wireless unit, but its closest rival -- AT&T -- didn't manage to come across the same good fortune. Contrasting to its strong Q3, reported earnings per share fell 10 cents in Q4 versus the year prior, making for a nearly 20 percent drop; on the upside, full-year EPS still rose from $1.97 to $2.16 on the strength of 2008's first three quarters. The last three months of the year saw some 1.9 million iPhone 3G activations, 40 percent of which were new to the carrier -- not bad -- and data revenues consider to shoot through the roof, rising another 51.2 percent. Might as well invest the revenue you do have into beefing up that data network now that you've got everyone hooked on it, eh, guys?

Nokia's net income slips 30%, sales and market share slide too

by Darren Murph posted Oct 17th 2008 @ 9:29AM

Man, what a difference a year makes. Almost 12 months ago to the day, the suits in Espoo were celebrating with extreme joviality after seeing profits soar a whopping 85% to $2.2 billion. Today, those same folks (plus / minus a few) are hanging their heads along with just about every other mega-corp on the planet. As credit tightens and the economy slows around the globe, people have apparently decided that another shiny new Nokia probably shouldn't be numero uno on the priority list. To that end, Nokia saw its net income sink 30% to around $1.47 billion while sales slipped 5% and market share fell ever-so-slightly to 38% (from 40% in January). Granted, it's not like Nokia didn't warn us that this was coming, but we're sure that doesn't make things any easier to swallow for shareholders. At least the gift giving season is just around the bend, right? Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

[Via mocoNews]

Softbank's operating profit climbs 8.1%, isn't good enough

by Darren Murph posted Aug 6th 2008 @ 11:12PM

Seen exclusively, an 8.1% rise in operating profit is pretty remarkable. But when you consider that rival NTT DoCoMo just posted a 41% boost in profits... well, you get the point. Unsurprisingly, Softbank was able to increase its profits by reducing the amount of subsidies it applied to phones -- which obviously led to fewer new handset sales overall -- but analysts were still perturbed by the amount of discounts it did hand over. Reportedly, the street was expecting operating profits to top ¥86.1 billion ($805.7 million), but the outfit wound up missing the mark by a cool billion yen ($9.36 million). As for the iPhone 3G influence? Gotta wait 'til next quarter, bub.

[Via mocoNews]

Motorola manages minuscule profit, clings to bronze medal

by Darren Murph posted Aug 2nd 2008 @ 10:03AM

It has been a solid tick since Motorola had a quarterly earnings report that it didn't just send over via the paper airplane method and run for the hills, but the most recent one was actually worth cracking a smile over. After moving more mobiles in North America than it expected too, shares shot up 13% and bullish analysts began to think that the worst was over. Chief Executive Greg Brown noted that Moto will be "adding substantially to its product portfolio" here in the near future, which will hopefully enable it to get a stronger grasp on the number 3 handset maker ranking. During the most recent quarter, the outfit shipped 28.1 million phones to just barely maintain its market share lead over LG, though it remains to be seen if it can keep this up. No pressure Moto, no pressure at all.

[Via RCRWireless]

China Mobile soars past the 600 million subscriber mark, refuses to slow down

by Darren Murph posted Jul 31st 2008 @ 7:02PM

Just last April, we heard that China Mobile had acquired more subscribers than the entire population of the United States of America. 15 months later, it has doubled up on that figure. Yep, China Mobile has just broken the 600 million subscriber mark as the country as a whole added 53.5 million new wireless users from January to June. Consequently, fixed-line customers fell by 9.3 million to 356 million during the same window of time. So, what's the over / under on months before the carrier breaks the big 1 billion?

[Via IntoMobile]

NTT DoCoMo posts 41% profit increase on reduced handset subsidies

by Darren Murph posted Jul 30th 2008 @ 10:59PM

Go 'head with your bad self, NTT DoCoMo. Party on down 'til six in the morning, because you just posted a quarterly profit increase of 41%. What's to thank for such a remarkable boost? According to a Bloomberg report, the outfit's decision to "reduce handset subsidies to customers" enabled it to bring in more cash despite the fact that sales fell 1.1% in the same quarter. President Ryuji Yamada proclaimed that the "acceptance of the monthly handset payment plan by our users helped bolster profits in the quarter," and he also highlighted a "considerable decline in the cancellation ratio." Still, some analysts are uncertain if the telecom company can maintain the growth, with Deutsche Bank AG's Kenji Nishimura stating that the "increase in profit was merely caused by the change in the accounting." Snap DoCoMo, are you just going to take that?

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of Flickr]

Verizon has its own data success story in Q2 earnings

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 29th 2008 @ 2:04PM

AT&T isn't having all the fun when it comes to subscribers' newfound love for data. Verizon has published the nitty gritty details of its second quarter earnings this week, revealing that data ARPU is up some 31.3 percent year over year -- undoubtedly a reflection on devices like the Glyde and XV6900 that are making email and quick visits to Engadget Mobile during morning meetings not just possible, but usably so. What's more, net adds totaled 1.5 million in the quarter, besting AT&T's 1.3 million -- not to say it needs to, considering the Alltel acquisition will end up giving 'em more than enough ammo to propel back into the number one spot, assuming that it ends up getting approved.

[Via mocoNews]

Palm's 10-K filing reveals smaller acquisitions, reads like a mystery novel

by Darren Murph posted Jul 28th 2008 @ 7:27AM

So Palm, what exactly have you been up to lately? Besides pumping out that tired, ho hum 800w, of course. The snoopers over at monoNews went and dug through your latest 10-K filing, and it seems as if that noteworthy Elevation Partners deal wasn't the only agreement you were wrapped up in during the past little while. As a matter of fact, we're seeing that during February of 2007, you "acquired the assets of two sole proprietorships [at a cost of $19.2 million] focused on mobile computing and media devices, one a developer of user interface environments and the other a developer of email software applications." Oh, and in October of last year, you "acquired substantially all of the assets [for $500,000] of a corporation focused on developing solutions to enhance the performance of web applications." Curiously, you nonchalantly failed to mention any names, but it's pretty clear that those new pick-ups weren't utilized in the last 16 months or so.

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of DayLife]

Palm claims larger share of smartphone market, has Centro to thank

by Darren Murph posted Jun 2nd 2008 @ 4:20PM

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

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 17th 2008 @ 4:41PM

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.

Nokia grabs 40% of global handset market, nets $2.6 billion in Q4

by Darren Murph posted Jan 24th 2008 @ 6:36PM

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 cent
Read - Nokia's Q4 2007 report

RIM reports revenue up 66 percent over last year

by Sean Cooper posted Apr 12th 2007 @ 12:26PM

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?