Samsung sparkles
http://latestsnewsforyou.blogspot.com/2013/01/samsung-sparkles.html
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Samsung Electronics this week cemented its dominance of the global smart-phone market, as strong revenue and profit gains for its most recent quarter outshone results from rival Apple. Even so, shareholders sold stock in the South Korean company after it said the strengthening won may cut operating profit by at least US$2.8 billion this year.
Samsung reported a 76% gain in quarterly profit to a record $6.6 billion and an 18.5% year-on-year jump in revenue to 56.1 trillion won (US$52 billion). Analysts estimate overall shipments of Samsung mobile phones (the company did not give details) were110 million, with 60 million smartphones, for the quarter. The mobile phone and telecoms sector accounted for 62% of the company's overall profit. The shares declined 2.48% in Seoul.
Fans and shareholders of US rival Apple were left with a darker outlook and a more bitter taste in their mouths as iPhone sales came in below expectations for the third straight quarter. Shares of the world's largest tech company dropped 12% on Thursday to $450 after a 10% slump to $463 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Analysts had forecast 50 million iPhone units sold for the December quarter. Apple said 47.8 million were sold, still enough for it to claim a record and up 29% from the same quarter the previous year. Revenue grew but profit remained flat in its first fiscal quarter of 2013, during which sales of iPhones and iPads rose. Mac computer and iPod shipments dropped.
Apple's net profit for the last quarter matched that for the first three months of 2012 at $13.07 billion amid higher manufacturing costs.
Apple's dominance in the market may be beginning to wane, argue some analysts. "It's going to call into question Apple's dominance in the space. It's still one of the strong players, the others being Samsung and Google. It's still a two-horse race, but [Google's] Android operating system, used by many mobile-phone manufacturers] continues to grow rapidly," stated one analyst.
Mac sales plummeted over 20% to 4.1 million during the quarter, reflecting the slowdown of the overall personal computer market as global PC sales fell 6.4% from the same quarter in 2011.
Apple's stock is now down 36% from its September 19 record high of just above $700 and the company has lost about $230 billion in market value. Shares for many of Apple's suppliers, including Skyworks, Cirrus Logic and Qualcomm have also tumbled.
Competition from lower-priced rival devices from Samsung and indications that the premium smart-phone market could be at saturation point in developed markets may have added to investor anxiety.
According to one, "You can't just keep rolling out iPhones and iPads and think that everybody needs a new one. There are plenty of competitors like Samsung and other legitimate competitors like them."
A number of production cutback rumors have been plaguing the company and in an unusual move Apple actually addressed them by stating "Yields might vary. Supplier performance can vary. The beginning inventory positions can vary. There's just an inordinately long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what's going on."
This statement served only to confuse the issue for company followers.
On a brighter note, iPhone sales more than doubled in China with revenue from the region totaling $7.3 billion, up 60% from the year-ago December quarter.
Google conversely saw a 6% rise in shares on Wednesday and a further 1.7% gain on Thursday as improvements in the company's core search business in the fourth quarter calmed concerns over slower growth due to a shift in advertising to mobile platforms. Google's measure of success is the cost-per-click that advertisers will pay the company to be part of its Adsense program, which puts text and display ads on millions of websites.
Cost-per-click has been in decline over the past year as advertisers were reluctant to pay the same for ads on mobile phones as they would on a full screen. This decline slowed in the last quarter indicating a shift in the pattern and possible upturn for Google's online advertising division.
The company beat expectations by reporting US$14.42 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, up 36% from the previous year, giving Google its first $50 billion year. Net income for the period was reported at $3.57 billion, up from $3.11 billion a year ago.
Microsoft's bet on a new operating system to boost end-of-year figures failed to balance the books in the company's favor. This week the software maker posted a 3.7% decline in net income to $6.38 billion for its fiscal second quarter, down from $6.62 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.7% to a record $21.46 billion
Microsoft said the boost in revenues came from pre-sales and upgrades of Windows 8. Overall, the company's Windows division experienced a 24% revenue increase in the quarter to $5.88 billion.The figures were lower than some analyst estimates and well below the 70% revenue jump that it had in the quarter after it released Windows 7 in 2009. To date, more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold.
The share dipped 2.1% in after-hours trading on Thursday to $27.63.
HUA HIN, Thailand - Samsung Electronics this week cemented its dominance of the global smart-phone market, as strong revenue and profit gains for its most recent quarter outshone results from rival Apple. Even so, shareholders sold stock in the South Korean company after it said the strengthening won may cut operating profit by at least US$2.8 billion this year.
Samsung reported a 76% gain in quarterly profit to a record $6.6 billion and an 18.5% year-on-year jump in revenue to 56.1 trillion won (US$52 billion). Analysts estimate overall shipments of Samsung mobile phones (the company did not give details) were110 million, with 60 million smartphones, for the quarter. The mobile phone and telecoms sector accounted for 62% of the company's overall profit. The shares declined 2.48% in Seoul.
Fans and shareholders of US rival Apple were left with a darker outlook and a more bitter taste in their mouths as iPhone sales came in below expectations for the third straight quarter. Shares of the world's largest tech company dropped 12% on Thursday to $450 after a 10% slump to $463 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Analysts had forecast 50 million iPhone units sold for the December quarter. Apple said 47.8 million were sold, still enough for it to claim a record and up 29% from the same quarter the previous year. Revenue grew but profit remained flat in its first fiscal quarter of 2013, during which sales of iPhones and iPads rose. Mac computer and iPod shipments dropped.
Apple's net profit for the last quarter matched that for the first three months of 2012 at $13.07 billion amid higher manufacturing costs.
Apple's dominance in the market may be beginning to wane, argue some analysts. "It's going to call into question Apple's dominance in the space. It's still one of the strong players, the others being Samsung and Google. It's still a two-horse race, but [Google's] Android operating system, used by many mobile-phone manufacturers] continues to grow rapidly," stated one analyst.
Mac sales plummeted over 20% to 4.1 million during the quarter, reflecting the slowdown of the overall personal computer market as global PC sales fell 6.4% from the same quarter in 2011.
Apple's stock is now down 36% from its September 19 record high of just above $700 and the company has lost about $230 billion in market value. Shares for many of Apple's suppliers, including Skyworks, Cirrus Logic and Qualcomm have also tumbled.
Competition from lower-priced rival devices from Samsung and indications that the premium smart-phone market could be at saturation point in developed markets may have added to investor anxiety.
According to one, "You can't just keep rolling out iPhones and iPads and think that everybody needs a new one. There are plenty of competitors like Samsung and other legitimate competitors like them."
A number of production cutback rumors have been plaguing the company and in an unusual move Apple actually addressed them by stating "Yields might vary. Supplier performance can vary. The beginning inventory positions can vary. There's just an inordinately long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what's going on."
This statement served only to confuse the issue for company followers.
On a brighter note, iPhone sales more than doubled in China with revenue from the region totaling $7.3 billion, up 60% from the year-ago December quarter.
Google conversely saw a 6% rise in shares on Wednesday and a further 1.7% gain on Thursday as improvements in the company's core search business in the fourth quarter calmed concerns over slower growth due to a shift in advertising to mobile platforms. Google's measure of success is the cost-per-click that advertisers will pay the company to be part of its Adsense program, which puts text and display ads on millions of websites.
Cost-per-click has been in decline over the past year as advertisers were reluctant to pay the same for ads on mobile phones as they would on a full screen. This decline slowed in the last quarter indicating a shift in the pattern and possible upturn for Google's online advertising division.
The company beat expectations by reporting US$14.42 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, up 36% from the previous year, giving Google its first $50 billion year. Net income for the period was reported at $3.57 billion, up from $3.11 billion a year ago.
Microsoft's bet on a new operating system to boost end-of-year figures failed to balance the books in the company's favor. This week the software maker posted a 3.7% decline in net income to $6.38 billion for its fiscal second quarter, down from $6.62 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.7% to a record $21.46 billion
Microsoft said the boost in revenues came from pre-sales and upgrades of Windows 8. Overall, the company's Windows division experienced a 24% revenue increase in the quarter to $5.88 billion.The figures were lower than some analyst estimates and well below the 70% revenue jump that it had in the quarter after it released Windows 7 in 2009. To date, more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold.
The share dipped 2.1% in after-hours trading on Thursday to $27.63.
Source atimes.com
