Solar Market Is Hot Even If Stocks Are Not

May 12, 2010

Solar sales continue to surge in advance of Germany’s cut in its feed-in tariff. But stocks did not follow suit, as if anticipating difficult times ahead.

Several of the industry’s largest manufacturers offered insight into their businesses this week – and the news was generally favorable. Sales rose sharply over the past three months, even if profits sometimes did not.

SunPower unveiled its Oasis solar power plant in a box, along with 64 percent quarterly sales growth

Among the companies with the strongest gains was SunPower of San Jose, where quarterly revenue rose 64 percent, helped by the company acquisition of SunRay. The company said Tuesday it wasn’t able to meet demand for its products. However, earnings fell short of expectations.

“We were sold out in the first quarter,” said CEO Tom Werner. “We remain sold out in the second quarter.”

SunPower was to be outdone. Chinese solar king Suntech Power Holdings surprised investors with a quarterly revenue forecast of close to $590 million, well ahead of the $542 million analysts expected. And JA Solar Holdings, another Chinese polysilicon cell maker, topped expectations for its first quarter, with sales up 17 percent. The company foresaw more upbeat times and raised its outlook for the year.

LDK Solar and ReneSola, both of China, and Q-Cells of Germany also unveiled impressive sales increases, with previously struggling ReneSola posting quarterly sales that almost doubled.

The wave of favorable reports suggests that Germany remains a strong buyer of solar equipment in anticipation of the July cuts. Sales also were strong in the United States, France and Italy.

SunPower’s Werner predicted panel prices would fall by as much as 20 percent this year, but that demand across the world would remain steady.

SunPower on Tuesday also announced its Oasis “power plant in a box,” a prepackaged solar module assembled into large solar farms. The modules will reduce plant costs up to 25 percent and simplify construction, said Werner. Oasis is expected in the market in early 2011.

Despite the upbeat sales figures, solar stocks turned in a dull performance on Tuesday. After rallying on Monday, when Suntecb and LDK released their financial reports, many drifted lower. SunPower shares fell 4 percent after its earnings were released.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Third Monthly Gain For Chip Market Reported

July 3, 2009

Unemployment continues to be intractably high. But chips are selling.

The Semiconductor Industry Association reported Friday the third month of improving chip sales driven by a solid rebound in the Asia-Pacific market.

Monthly chip sales rose 5.4 percent

Monthly chip sales rose 5.4 percent

Global sales rose 5.4 percent in May from April to $15.6 billion, the trade group said.

Granted, business is still down 23.2 percent from a year ago. But the rise suggests a steadily improving market and lifts hopes that end-of-year activity could show seasonal strength from the holidays.

The monthly increase in Asia-Pacific sales was 6.7 percent while in the Americas it was 3.9 percent.

The true test may not come for the market until late summer when companies decide how much product to build for the Christmas holidays.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Once Resilient Video Game Market Is Slipping In The Bad Economy

February 11, 2009

The video game market has held up well in the face of the economic tide, but sales look to be sharply slowing in 2009.

Guitar Hero Metalica came to market last quarter, but the tune from the games industry could be souring

Guitar Hero Metalica came to market last quarter, but the tune from the games industry could be souring

Game purchases were up 20 percent last year as titles like Guitar Hero and Grand Theft Auto proved popular attractions, said Activision Blizzard.

This year sales growth will be less than half that (mid single digits) and more in line with the 6 percent growth of the fourth quarter, said CEO Michael Griffith.

“The video game (business) has shown resilience compared to other sectors,” Griffith said on a conference call.

But it is not immune, and it is linked closely to console and hardware sales, which should be down this year as well.

Activision said it anticipates hardware sales in 2009 of 8 million PlayStation 3s, 8 million Xbox 360s, 16 million Wiis and 21 million handhelds.

That 53 million total is lower than the well more than 60 million machines sold in 2008.

Activision said its sees its own revenue down for the year and first quarter. Annual non-GAAP sales should come to $4.7 billion compared with $5 billion in 2008.

First quarter non-GAAP sales will be $550 million, below last year’s. The company last $72 million in the fourth quarter.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Cell Phone Chip Market In For Multi-Year Slowing

February 9, 2009

Last year, the sales of semiconductors used to make cell phones rose a relatively buoyant 6.2 percent to $44.5 billion.

The next five years may only wish for such riches.

Cell-phone semiconductor revenue will creep up 3.3 percent each year for the next five years, says In-Stat. That’s because the handset growth rate is plummeting.

In-Stat does not provide a specific growth outlook for chip sales this year in a release issued Monday.

But it says the present downturn is more widespread and deeper than the industry has witness before. It adds that this year is the first without any major new feature added to phones. Last year the new feature was mobile TV.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Economic Downturn Worsened In January, Cisco Says

February 4, 2009

The economic malaise that spread from U.S. to the rest of the world continued to worsen in January, Cisco Systems said Wednesday. And there is no end in sight.

Network equipment maker Cisco reported its fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday with a relatively benign sales decline of 7.5 percent. However, orders for new gear worsened through January and the deteriorating pace of business is likely to continue in the third quarter.

One of the most difficult times in my career, says John Chambers

One of the most difficult times in my career, says John Chambers

Monthly orders were down 9 percent in November, 11 percent in December and a more severe 20 percent in January, the Silicon Valley company said.

“It continues to be one of the most difficult times in my career” when it comes to forecasting business, said CEO John Chambers,

Cisco said second-quarter sales in its largest business, switching, were down 11 percent, and in its second largest business, routers, fell 23 percent. Even some less established markets were soft. Unified communications product revenue slumped 5 percent and home networking was down 11 percent.

Only a few markets expanded. Security products rose 2 percent and video systems, including set-top boxes, increased 18 percent.

With no sign of a rebound, Cisco forecast sales would plummet a worse than expected 15 percent to 20 percent in the third quarter.

“The length of the downturn is still in question,” said Chambers. “The majority of our customers are guessing 2010 while a smaller group is (looking) to late 2009.”

Chambers said long term Cisco is confident in its 12 percent to 17 percent growth projections, as long as the economy returns to more typical growth rates.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

UK Threatens To Displace Japan As The Second Largest Gaming Market

February 2, 2009

Video games sales in 2008 rose 11 percent in the world’s three largest markets as strong growth in the United States and United Kingdom offset a slump in Japan.

The performance discrepancy was so great that sales in the U.K. (which are measured by units and which have doubled since 2003) last year overtook those in Japan for the first time, according to a Top Global Markets report. The report is put together by the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain.

“Although (the U.K. is) still behind on revenue, the gap has narrowed considerably and it will be interesting to see how things develop during 2009,” said Dorian Bloch, business group director at GfK Chart-Track.

Game sales in the three combined markets rose to 410 million units, with 15 percent growth in the U.S., 26 percent growth in the U.K. and a decline of 13 percent in Japan.

Japan’s decline came as sales of Sony’s PlayStation 2 tumbled 46 percent. However, several key titles that could improve sales are coming in 2009, including Nintendo DS’ Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito and the console games Monster Hunter 3 and Final Fantasy XIII.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Semiconductor Sales Tumbled 22% In December

February 2, 2009

The global economic pullback continued to claw the semiconductor market in December when sales fell 22 percent amid a dramatic drop in business across the industry.

The quarter is typically among the strongest of the year, so the decline was all the more telling. Computer and other manufacturers sharply slowed production and reduced inventories, slowing the demand for chips and other componenets.

The weak quarter pushed sales for all of 2008 to $248.6 billion, up just 2.8 percent from 2007, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

The trade group said it saw soft demand from makers of cars, computers, cell phones, and corporate technology products.

Memory chips continued to see the steepest price declines, as they had through most of 2008.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Netbook Sales Expected To Take Off

January 26, 2009

Netbooks proved the 2008 phenomenon in an otherwise unexciting computer market – the only bright spot when sales tanked toward the end of the year.

Sahipments of these inexpensive, lightweight and more energy-efficient laptops designed for wireless Web communications came to about 11 million for last year.

Sales estimated to triple this year

Sales estimated to triple this year

They appear ready to take off in 2009, perhaps finally cannibalizing sales of traditional notebooks, as some in the industry have feared but so far denied.

ABI Research estimates shipments of netbooks could come to nearly 35 million in 2009 and rise to 139 million by 2013.

“The advent of low-cost, power stingy x86 (processors, such as Intel’s Atom) and ARM processors were the technical keys,” says ABI.

“In recent years, the industry still expected smartphones to be more than they turned out to be, and most recently, MIDs (mobile Internet devices) were thought to be the next big mobile devices segment,” says Practice Director Kevin Burden.

What the techies overlooked was the compelling nature of price.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

IBM Says Sales Of Intel-Based Servers Are Tanking In Downturn

January 21, 2009

IBM’s fourth-quarter revenue of  $27 billion benefited from the steady sales of software and services – not the shipments of inexpensive Intel-based servers that have out selling more expensive hardware for years.

Overall Big Blue’s sales for the final quarter of 2008 were down 6 percent. But software sales were up 3 percent and Global Services fell 4 percent while hardware plummeted 20 percent.

Customers want to consolidate and virtualize workloads on larger servers, not x86 machines, IBM says

Customers want to consolidate and virtualize workloads on larger servers, not x86 machines, IBM says

At the heart of the decline: x86 servers.

The company’s latest System z mainframes held their own – sales were down just 6 percent. But System x servers sales plummeted 32 percent, reflecting a significant slowdown in the x86 market.

“This reflects a significant slowdown in the x86 market as customers are virtualizing and consolidation workloads onto more efficient platforms such as Power (IBM’s high-end chip) and mainframe,” said CFO Mark Loughridge. “So as you look at these results, you can see that the industry standard hardware is clearly more susceptible to an economic downturn.”

Storage products also fell 20 percent.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Adobe Retools Strategy For Lasting Downturn; Analysts Fear Revenue Will Fall In 2009

December 16, 2008

Adobe Systems said Tuesday the global downturn cut sharply into fourth-quarter sales of its latest graphic-design software and that it was preparing for a difficult year ahead.

Sales of the recently launched Creative Suite 4 bundle of products, including the popular Photoshop and Illustrator, were 20 percent lower than for the previous Creative Suite 3.

Adobe to spark demand for Creative Suite 4, says Shantanu Narayen

Adobe to spark demand for Creative Suite 4, says Shantanu Narayen

Looking ahead, “given the economic climate, we believe Creative Suite 4 adoption in the short term will be muted,” CEO Shantanu Narayen said on a conference call with analysts.

As a result, the company said it was taking austerity measures to focus resources and cut costs. It also affirmed that first-quarter revenue could be down 7 percent or more, giving rise to fears among analysts that sales for fiscal year could be lower, too.

The downturn is “more global than we saw in the 2001 and 2002 time frame,” Narayen said. Adobe did not provide an annual forecast.

The company’s strategic priorities for navigating the downturn include:

*Promoting Flash as the preferred multimedia software for the Web;
*Investing in its flagship Creative Suite and Acrobat software;
*Highlighting its fast growing LiveCycle, Connect Pro and Scene7 products;
*Remaining consistently profitable; and
*Cutting expenses for travel, salaries and contractors.

The weakness in Creative Suite revenue was largely tied to shrink-wrapped, or retail, sales and not license sales to companies, said Narayen. The company will work to spark in-store demand, he said.

Adobe’s fourth-quarter report was consistent with a financial warning the company issued early this month lowering sales targets and unveiling a cost-cutting program with about 600 layoffs, or 6 percent of the workforce.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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