The U.S. government broadband stimulus program couldn’t have come along at a better time. Leichtman Research Group said Monday that the country’s 19 largest cable and telephone providers added a net 634,000 broadband subscribers during the second quarter of 2009. That’s 29 percent fewer than were added in the same period a year ago and the lowest number of net additions of any quarter in the last eight years.
Though it was eagerly anticipated by the industry and Sirius subscribers, the satellite radio provider never expected that much from its new iPhone app. During a call with analysts Thursday, CEO Mel Karmazin said the app was intended more as a means of tempering subscriber churn than a means of driving new subscriptions.
This week has been a good one for Sirius XM Radio. The company’s shares spiked, rising about 20 percent to 54 cents on news of the government’s expanded “Cash for Clunkers” program and the positive impact it should have on new car sales and, by extension, new Sirius subscriptions. That analysts had been predicting a second-quarter loss for the satellite radio company, along with the loss of thousands of subscribers, did little to temper enthusiasm.
No surprise, this: The econalypse continues to weigh heavily on online ad spending. Worldwide spending on Internet advertising declined by five percent in the second quarter of this year, slipping to $13.9 billion from $14.7 billion, according to research firm IDC.
Looks like the semiconductor industry has finally found a bottom from which to scramble upward. In the second quarter, chip sales registered their fourth consecutive monthly increase, the Semiconductor Industry Association said today, suggesting that we may be seeing the beginning of a gradual recovery in the industry. Though worldwide chip sales fell 20 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, they rose 17 percent from the first quarter.
Good thing Palm withdrew investor Roger McNamee’s your-next-iPhone-will-be-a-Pre claim because there obviously wasn’t much truth to it. If there was, well, there would have been a massive rush on Pres nationwide this past month. And that clearly didn’t happen.
Looking over Motorola’s latest earnings, it’s hard to imagine that the company once claimed more than a fifth of global handset sales. Reporting a surprise second-quarter profit of a single cent per share this morning, Motorola said it shipped 14.8 million phones last quarter–down nearly 50 percent year-over-year.
The Palm Pre has proven a far better curative for the handset maker than for Sprint, its exclusive carrier. Certainly, the Pre doesn’t appear to have done much to reverse Sprint’s decline. Reporting second-quarter earnings this morning, Sprint posted a loss of $384 million, or 13 cents a share as customers defected to rival carriers.
The econalypse has done great things for Netflix, sending recession-addled customers running to embrace its way-cheaper-than-cable DVD-by-mail and streaming-movie service. The online DVD-rental pioneer posted earnings that beat Wall Street estimates and announced that its subscriber base has grown to 10.6 million.
Reporting better-than-expected second-quarter earnings this morning, AT&T said it activated 2.4 million iPhone accounts–35 percent of them for new customers.
If eBay shares were to be listed among the company’s other auctions, buyer feedback would more likely be negative than not. Hurt by the souring economy and increased competition, eBay reported its third consecutive earnings decline Wednesday.
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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