Amazon Is Bright Spot In Otherwise Dark Consumer Holiday Landscape

January 29, 2009

Amazon capitalized on the shift to online shopping this holiday period to grow sales a startling 18 percent.

The company offered little insight into the market trends on a conference call with analysts. But market-monitor firms found that consumers both in the U.S. and abroad turned online this year for deals and convenience.

Amazons Kindle electronic reader saw strong demand

Amazon's Kindle electronic reader saw strong demand

Amazon was a big beneficiary. The online merchant said sales were $6.7 billion with slightly better growth in overseas markets than in North America.

Net income also was strong, up 9 percent, but the company’s gross margin suffered as it discounted products and offered free shipping to attract buyers.

The gross margin showed a greater than expected decline in the quarter and pricing was a factor, Amazon executives said on the conference call.

Surprisingly, the company said it anticipates its strong sales pace to continue. Amazon projected sales growth of as much as 19 percent in the first quarter – though a projection is offers ranges as low as 9 percent growth. Operating income could grow from 6 percent to 37 percent.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said sales of electronic book reader, Kindle, were stronger than expected in the period, but he didn’t offer details. Amazon now has 230,000 e-books for sale, up 45,000 in the quarter.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Tear Down Of The Storm Shows It Cost $202 To Build

January 29, 2009

The new Blackberry Storm costs Research in Motion $202.89 to build, according to an iSuppli tear down of the phone.

The Storm represents a win for Qualcomm

The Storm represents a win for Qualcomm

The phone is the first from RIM with a touch-screen display and sells for $249.99 with a $50 rebate from Verizon, illustrating how wireless carriers subsidize handsets.

The Storm, for the most part, matches up with Apple’s iPhone 3G. Its touch-screen is made possible with a $15.50 capacitive touch-screen overlay from Synaptics, iSuppli said Thursday.

Yet, “RIM has added a special differentiating feature from the iPhone: the ‘clickable’ screen. The one thing that existing touchscreens lack is the feedback mechanism users get from a conventional keyboard that clicks when a key is depressed, letting you know quickly that your choice has been registered,” said Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst.

However, it doesn’t have multi-touch technology.

“The Storm uses a simple physical button under the primary touch-screen to serve to provide haptic feedback,” says Senior Analyst Tina Teng. “This allows one physical key press at a time, meaning there is no double-tapping capability with the Storm.”

The phone represents a big win for Qualcomm. RIM uses a $34.82 Qualcomm baseband processor for the first time. RIM has used Marvel chips in the past.

Also in the handset are an $11.50, 8 GB MicroSD memory card from SanDisk and a $7.50 8 GB multi-level cell memory chip package from Samsung Electronics.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Tech Economy Layoffs At 176,595

January 29, 2009

Add in Kodak’s 4,500 job cuts and the Wired Layoff Tracker showed as of Thursday that 176, 595 workers have been lost to the economic downturn.

And there are some not included on this site, such as Symantec’s silent cuts disclosed on a conference call last night.

The question is whether the federal government’s stimulus package will help and whether the Republican’s will ever see the urgency to passing it.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Graphics Chip Shipments Dive In The Fourth Quarter

January 29, 2009

Following the personal computer market into the dumpster, the shipments of graphics chip dove in the fourth quarter by 28 percent.

For the first time since 2000, shipments fell from the third to the fourth quarters, said Jon Peddie Research.

The research firm said 72.35 million graphics chips were shipped during the period compared with 100.5 million a year ago.

All vendors were hit by the market’s slid. Nvidia’s shipments fell 34 percent while Intel’s tumbled 21 percent and Advanced Micro Devices’ dropped 24 percent. Nevertheless, Nvidia regained lost share, ending the quarter with 31 percent of the market compared with Intel’s 48 percent and AMD’s 19 percent.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Gore Gives Senate A Lesson On Global Warming

January 29, 2009

Former vice president and climate crusader Al Gore appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and recommended a carbon cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

The roller coaster is headed toward a crash, Al Gore said

The roller coaster is headed toward a crash, Al Gore said

The creator of the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” said that even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, temperatures would rise 2.5 to 7.5 degrees by 2100, with catastrophic consequences.

He showed how the Arctic’s permanent ice sheet has melted during the summer in recent decades. As it disappears, more of the sun’s rays are absorbed by the ocean, heating the planet all the more.

Gore said the challenge in Washington is to find a way to combat climate warming while boosting the economy and ending the war in Iraq.

“It is increasingly obvious this roller coaster is headed toward a crash and we are in the front car,” he said, urging the adoption of renewable energy sources.

Here is a clip from his appearance.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Who Knew? Top Searches On You Tube Seek Songs, Bands And Music Info

January 29, 2009

You Tube has become a major search destination on the Web for music-related topics such as bands, songs and artists.

Fred was among the top December searches on You Tube

Fred was among the top December searches on You Tube

Music-related searches dominate the site, said Hitwise in a first-time study of search on Google’s popular video vault.

Following music were queries for Internet personalities, a category Hitwise labeled miscellaneous and television searches.

However, search interest on the site was concentrated. The top 50 search terms accounted for 20 percent of the site’s total search volume in December.

The top search during the month was for rapper Lil Wayne, followed by Twilight, Beyonce, Single Ladies, Souja Bay, Chris Brown and Fred. Hot!

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Symantec Plans Online Backup For Netbooks, Appears To Write Down Veritas Merger

January 29, 2009

Symantec reported a solid third quarter on Wednesday but fell to a loss on a huge charge that appeared related to its 2005 acquisition of Veritas.

A moment of financial truth?

A moment of financial truth?

The security software company said it wrote $7 billion off its balance sheet as an impairment to goodwill. It declined to say on a conference call whether the impairment was due to a particular acquisition and said only that it related to enterprise products – which was Veritas’ focus.

Symantec purchased Veritas for $13 billion.

For the quarter, the company said revenue fell 0.9 percent despite the tough economy and that, without the charge, its profits would have increased 20 percent. Revenue was ahead of company expectations.

The Silicon Valley software maker also released that it plans an online backup product for fast-growing netbooks. The stand-alone Norton backup product will enable netbook users to store information, such as photos and music, online.

Already Symantec has been working to get a free trial of its existing software on netbooks from companies such as Asus, said Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem.

During the quarter, Symantec kept a tight lid on costs, shedding 950 jobs even while adding 811 employees from acquisitions.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cash-Strapped Toshiba Sends Sandisk $890 Million Lifeline

January 29, 2009

Amid projecting its biggest losses in the company’s history – since it started reporting earnings in 1949 – due to a sharp decline of its semiconductor business, Toshiba is going to provide Sandisk with much needed cash.

The two companies announced today that the Milpitas, Calif.-company will transfer more than 20 percent of the joint venture’s Flash-memory capacity as well as some equipments to Toshiba in exchange of about $890 million, of that about $300 million in cash.

In investing even more in its money loosing chip business, Toshiba anticipates a market upturn by October driven by demand for Flash-memory in cell phones, PCs and other consumer electronics devices.

By acquiring Sandisk’s production capacity already in place, Toshiba will be able to ramp up Flash-memory production faster and at a much lower cost than if it had to build new factories.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Kodak Sees Bright Outlook Despite Appalling Results

January 29, 2009

Amid the recession, consumers left Kodak digital cameras on retail shelves.

“The second half of 2008 will go down in history as one of the most challenging periods we have seen in decades,” Kodak’s chief executive, Antonio Perez, said in a statement.

This morning the camera and film company reported a net loss of $137 million for its fourth quarter ending in December, on sales of $2.43 billion, a 24% drop from a year ago.

Kodak is mainly a digital company

For the full-year 2008, Kodak posted revenues of $9.4 billion, a 9% decline from 2007 and a preliminary profit of $54 million.

Full-year digital revenues totaled $6.422 billion, a 4% decline from 2007, and traditional revenues totaled $2.987 billion, an 18% decline.

“Kodak is currently performing assessments of goodwill and long-lived assets, consequently 2008 results are preliminary pending the outcome of those assessments,” the company said.

The East coast company also plans to cut 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, or 14 percent to 18 percent of its work force.

According to reports, Kodak said it expects revenues to rise 5 percent a year through 2011, driven by a 10 percent to 12 percent annual rise in digital sales, while operating profit will more than triple to $1 billion!

Having missed its last forecast, it’s hard to see why Kodak will not miss this overly excessive outlook!

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Dell To Take Big Fourth-Quarter Charge Cutting Estimated Profits By More Than One Third

January 28, 2009

Dell said Wednesday it will take $280 million of expenses against fourth-quarter earnings that it expects to announce on Feb. 26.

Michael Dell plans big charge for cost cutting and stock options

Michael Dell plans big charge for cost cutting and stock options

The computer maker said the charge will amount to 11 cents a share, more than a third of the 31 cents a share of profits analysts expect the company to report for the three-month period ending in January.

The decline will create a more difficult backdrop for what is likely to be a difficult quarter for the company given the recent decline in computer sales.

In a press release, Dell said $135 million of the charge comes as the company cuts jobs and streamlines its manufacturing and distribution network.

The remaining $145 million is attributed to stock-based compensation for options already awarded to executives.

1 Comment | computers, news | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

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