March 4, 2009
On the heels of a 4.6 fourth-quarter decline in cellular handset sales, the market remains unstable and unlikely to recover until 2010.
Mobile phones have traditionally been popular gifts to slide under the Christmas tree. But market in the final three months of 2008 was the worst ever recorded, says Gartner, looking at sequential quarter-to-quarter sales patterns.
The research firm says it doesn’t expect demand to firm again until 2010.
In the fourth quarter, mobile carriers and retailers sold 314.7 million handsets and reduced inventory as they went to prevent being caught with too many products.
Distributors continue to keep very low inventories and by the second quarter will have to restock, Gartner says. “This will help sell-in volumes,” said Research Director Caroline Milanesi. “This will not mark the start of a market recovery.”
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Posted by Mark Boslet
February 12, 2009
Consumer spending at online retail merchants fell 3 percent in the fourth quarter – the first decline on record for the Internet market place.
The dismal quarter came after a steady slide in online e-commerce through most of 2008, though the year showed a 6 percent gain, said comScore. The third quarter, for instance, also experienced a 6 percent rise in spending.
ComScore said it was first quarterly decline since it began tracking the market in 2001.
The top growing category for the full year was video games, consoles and accessories followed by home, garden and furniture.
Sports and fitness was third with tickets making up the final category with double-digit growth.
3 Comments | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: ComScore, Fourth Quarter, Online Spending, Retail E-Commerce | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
February 9, 2009
The unsustainable DRAM memory chip market trudged through the fourth quarter with prices falling a sharper than expected 38 percent and shipments unchanged with the third quarter.
In other words, the typically strong fourth quarter turned into a bust. Even normally resilient market share leader Samsung lost share and posted a loss, said iSuppli.
Oversupply of this chip used in computers is likely to continue those losses into the first quarter.
The big winners of the quarter were Micron Technology, which gained share as its revenue decline was the smallest among major players, and Hynix, which also increased its share. Elpida lost share.
DRAM suppliers have been selling below cost since the fourth quarter of 2007, iSuppli said. That may not change soon. Total operating losses in the fourth quarter were $2.6 billion, more than for all of 2007.
The research firm cut its 2009 forecast. It now projects sales will fall 15 percent this year to $20 billion. Average selling price per megabyte will fall 31 percent.
1 Comment | chips, news | Tagged: DRAM Memory Chips, Elpida, Forecast, Fourth Quarter, hynix, isuppli, Losses, micron, Samsung | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
February 6, 2009
Search advertising fell 8 percent in the fourth quarter with small companies, automobile makers, travel businesses and financial firms sharply cutting spending.
Advertisers cut their budgets in October and November in response to the accelerating downturn and then increased them modestly in December, said Efficient Frontier.
The quarterly decline is the first on record.
Google and Yahoo’s share of the ad spending edged higher while Microsoft saw its search advertising market share slip.
At the end of the quarter, Google had 70.7 percent of the market, Yahoo 19.7 percent and Microsoft 4.2 percent, Efficient Frontier said.
Financial advertisers cut their spending by 16 percent, automotive companies by 30 percent, and travel and entertainment firms by 26 percent. Retailers spent more.
Businesses spending less than $50,000 a month on search advertising cut their spending more substantially than large firms.
Search ad spending was stable through most of 2008, but fell in the fourth quarter, says Efficient Frontier
Leave a Comment » | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: Fourth Quarter, Google, Microsoft, Search Advertising, yahoo | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
February 5, 2009
Spending on search advertising rose 11 percent across the United Kingdom during the fourth quarter as marketers shifted their ad budgets to search for the Christmas period.
The report suggests that search ad spending remains fairly healthy despite the sour economy in England and Europe.
During the period, Google gained significant advertising market share from Yahoo while Microsoft’s share fell slightly.
According to Efficient Frontier, Google’s share of the UK market climbed to 88.2 percent from 82.6 percent aided by a 291 percent boost in its AdSense business, where Google ads are shown on partner Web sites.
Yahoo’s market share fell to 8.4 percent from 13.9 percent, down 40 percent, Efficient Frontier said. Microsoft’s share held steady at 3.4 percent, down from 3.6 percent in the third quarter.
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Posted by Mark Boslet
January 30, 2009
Intel gained market share on rival Advanced Micro Devices in a quarter where the sales of personal computer processors fell 18 percent and server chip tumbled an astonishing 25 percent.
The chip giant exited the fourth quarter with 82.1 percent of the market for x86 microprocessors, up from 81.2 percent in the third quarter, said Mercury Research.
AMD’s share fell to 17 percent from 17.7.
Mercury Research projected late Thursday that first quarter sales will be down 15 percent, much worse than the seasonal average of a 7.4 percent decline.
That comes on the heels of an overall 18 percent market decline in from the third to the fourth quarters of 2008. For all of 2008, the market was up 13.3 percent, Mercury Research said.
Without Intel’s sales of its new low-cost Atom processor and strong sales of the netbooks that run it, market shares for the fourth quarter would have been largely unchanged.
Leave a Comment » | chips, news | Tagged: Advanced Micro Devices, Computer Chip, Fourth Quarter, Intel, Market Share, x86 Microprocessors | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
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.
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.
3 Comments | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: Amazon, Consumer, Fourth Quarter, Holiday Sales, Kindle, Retail | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
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.
1 Comment | chips, news | Tagged: Advanced Micro Devices, Fourth Quarter, Graphics Chips, Intel, Jon Peddie Research, nvidia | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
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
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.
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Posted by Mark Boslet
January 28, 2009
Sybase reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday that added to the evidence that software is navigating the downturn better than hardware and computers.
The company said sales increased 3 percent to $305 million and new license revenue for its database software rose 38 percent. Overall license revenue was up 8 percent.
Database licenses grew 38% in the fourth quarter, John Chen said
Net income came to $47 million.
Sybase joins companies such as IBM, VMware and Oracle (so far, at least) that have reported growth or relative stability in software sales.
Sybase CEO John Chen attributed the success to the company’s investments in its “unwired enterprise” strategy. The market is responding well to Sybase’s mobility and analytics technologies, he said in a statement.
Leave a Comment » | computers, hardware, news, software | Tagged: Downturn, Fourth Quarter, hardware, ibm, Oracle, software, Sybase, vmware | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet
