Verizon, though it refuses to divulge sales numbers for Motorola’s new Droid handset, says it has been “very pleased” with demand for the device so far. And no wonder: According to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, Verizon is on track to sell 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009.
Worldwide chip sales have slipped deep into the mud over the past year and they’ll continue to do so until year’s end. But they’ll begin to improve after that.
2009 semiconductor sales are down from 2008 by nearly record amounts, but they’re improving. That’s the latest word from the Semiconductor Industry Association, which said today that global chip sales rose in September from the previous month–the seventh straight month of gains.
No doubt about it now, the Wii’s appeal is beginning to wane. Reporting first-half earnings this morning, Nintendo said it sold just 5.75 million of its flagship gaming consoles, a massive decline from the 10 million sold during the same period last year. As a result, Nintendo’s operating profit fell 52 percent to 64 billion yen, missing the company’s own forecast of 100 billion yen, as well as estimates of analysts, who were expecting 90 billion.
“We always said 2009 would be a tough year.” SAP CEO Léo Apotheker made that remark during the company’s third-quarter earnings call today and, sadly, SAP’s worse-than-expected performance and reduced forecast for the year would seem to bear him out.
Oracle’s pending acquisition of Sun will undoubtedly be the subject of much discussion this afternoon when the database behemoth reports fiscal first-quarter earnings after the market close. Indeed, there’s quite a bit of jawing about it already, particularly about Oracle’s continued commitment to the deal in light of the ugly decline in Sun’s revenues and profitability since it was announced in April.
Apple’s latest 52-week high is well on its way to becoming a 52-week low. In a research note to investors this week, Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company lifted his price target on Apple to $235, from $200, largely on the merits of the iPhone and the iTunes App Store.
Intel is a bellwether for the tech sector; as goes Intel, so goes the industry. So, if the company raises its third-quarter revenue forecast because of stronger-than-expected demand for its microprocessors and chipsets, as it did today, then the industry may truly be stabilizing.
Looks like News Corp. was a little too optimistic when the company told investors in May that it expected a decline of around 30 percent in fiscal-year-adjusted operating income. Reporting earnings this afternoon, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and this Web site instead posted a decline of 32.5 percent.
More bad news from Sony. This morning the electronics giant posted its second straight quarterly loss and reiterated its forecast for another year of red ink. Clearly, Sony must do more than just slash jobs and suppliers if it ever hopes to regain its position in the market.
IBM had a very good second quarter, all things considered. The company reported earnings that trounced analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year earnings forecast. Earnings were $2.32 per share, up from $1.97 per share in the same period last year, and well above the $2.02 per share the Street was looking for.
The first half of 2009 has been brutal time for the IT sector. With consumers hesitant to buy and enterprise slashing IT budgets, world-wide information technology spending this year will decline six percent. That’s the word from Gartner, which back in March was claiming the decline would be just 3.8 percent.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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