• January 23, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

One of the big surprises in Apple’s holiday quarter was the weak iPhone volume — iPhone sales came in at slightly below 48 million, missing the consensus expectation of 50-52 million units. But an even bigger surprise was where Apple’s (AAPL) sales growth softened the most: in the U.S. and the surrounding region. In the autumn quarter, the Americas region still delivered robust 44% annualized sales growth even as growth in Asia-Pacific and Europe cooled down to 15% and 8%, respectively. For the Christmas quarter, many expected further European weakness and American strength. Instead, revenue growth in North and South America fell all the way to  15%, while Asia and Europe maintained 10-11% growth rate. Various sales surveys, including Kantar Worldpanel,

• January 23, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

After two consecutive misses to wrap up fiscal 2012 and an unprecedented dive in the company’s share price, all eyes were on the future as Apple (AAPL) reported its first-quarter results for fiscal 2013. Analysts’ expectations have fallen over the past few weeks as investor sentiment soured, but consensus estimates of $13.34 in profit per share on $54.58 billion in sales would still give Apple the second most profitable quarter of all time among tech companies. The results are now in, and Apple beat estimates with earnings of $13.81 per share on $54.51 billion in revenue. Apple’s 13.1 billion FQ1 profit represents the most profitable quarter in tech company history, narrowly edging out its own $13.06 billion record set in the same

• January 23, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

Research In Motion (RIMM) is hitting the market hard with its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform. The company is courting carriers, wooing businesses, and it’s getting ready to do everything it can to convince the sizable BlackBerry installed base that the benefits of upgrading to a new BlackBerry 10 phone outweigh the costs. According to a new report, however, every move RIM makes with BlackBerry 10 may be pushing the company one step closer to a sale. “There have been signs all along that BB10 was a gambit intended to facilitate a sale of RIM,” Benzinga Insights’ Sam Mattera wrote in an article contributed to Forbes. He notes that RIM’s stock has rallied on the notion that BlackBerry 10 will revitalize RIM,

• January 23, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

Verizon (VZ) posted a pretty impressive holiday quarter (one-time charges aside) with a good outlook on Tuesday, and the company’s share price rose as a result. There were also plenty of interesting takeaways from the carrier’s earnings call, but The New York Times’ Brian X. Chen zeroed in on one item of particular interest. Verizon launched new “Share Everything” plans last summer that make smartphone data more expensive for many users. The best thing about these plans for investors — and, not coincidentally, the worst thing about the plans for subscribers — is that Verizon is now making more money off of smartphone data as costs associated with transmitted that data are falling. As Chen noted, Verizon’s average monthly revenue

• January 23, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

Research In Motion (RIMM) shares are up more than 164% over the past six months as hype surrounding the struggling vendor’s next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphone platform peaks. While the increased anticipation may lead to success in the early days for RIM’s new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry X10 smartphones, the company has a much steeper mountain to climb if it hopes to compete in the cutthroat smartphone market. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue is trying to keep a level head amid the buzz, and he paints a realistic picture of RIM’s prospects in 2013. In a note to investors on Wednesday, Sue raised his price target on RIM shares to $19, up from $11, with a Sector Perform rating. He sees plenty

• January 22, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

UBS is the latest in a long line of me-too firms to trim its outlook on Apple (AAPL) as investor sentiment continues to sour. In a note to clients picked up by Forbes on Tuesday, UBS analyst Steve Milunovich cut his estimates for fiscal 2013 and 2014 after a survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that consumers are opting for cheaper iPhone models (iPhone 4S and iPhone 4) and iPhone 5 handsets with less storage. If the survey is accurate, both scenarios obviously could have big implications for Apple’s margins. Milunovich now sees Apple’s earnings coming in at $44.68 per share in fiscal 2013, down from $47, and $52.80 per share in fiscal 2014, down from his earlier estimate of $55.85. UBS cut

• January 22, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

Google (GOOG) on Tuesday reported a 2012 fourth-quarter profit of $10.65 per share on $14.42 billion in consolidated revenue. Analysts were expecting EPS to come in at $10.54 on $12.27 billion in sales, so these earnings figures represent a solid quarter for Google to close out 2012. “We ended 2012 with a strong quarter,” said Google CEO Larry Page, CEO. “Revenues were up 36% year-on-year, and 8% quarter-on-quarter. And we hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year — not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half. In today’s multi-screen world we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefit.” Google shares jumped by more than 3% in after hours trading following

• January 22, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

After three and a half years of AT&T (T) exclusivity, the iPhone finally debuted at Verizon (VZ) in February 2011. What happened to Verizon Wireless profitability during the two years of Apple (AAPL) partnership bliss? The results do not exactly dazzle. During the fourth quarter of 2010, the last quarter when Verizon had to somehow make do without the iPhone, the EBITDA earnings margin of Verizon Wireless was 47.5%. During the fourth quarter of 2012, that margin was 41.4%. That’s a decline of 610 basis points, an enormous gap in the carrier business. Selling, General and Administrative expenses ballooned to $5.9 billion last quarter from $4.6 billion over two years. Cost of services and sales exploded to $7.3 billion from $4.8 billion

• January 22, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

Microsoft (MSFT) may participate in the rumored buyout of Dell. The company is said to be in talks to invest between $1 and $3 billion with Silver Lake Partners and Michael Dell in an effort to take the struggling computer company private, David Faber of CNBC reported. The investment would be a “mezzanine financing most likely taking the form of a preferred of some kind” and not an equity stake in the company. Silver Lake Partners is said to be interested in buying Dell at $13 or $14 a share, valuing the company between $22 billion and $25 billion. Faber’s report was later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal.

• January 22, 2013
• JE Syndicated
• Ameilius

There’s no shortage of criticism of Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer’s leadership style and now one former executive has decided to speak up and take his former boss to task. In an interview with Reuters, former Windows sales senior vice president Joachim Kempin described Ballmer as a suffocating presence who is always looking to eliminate perceived threats to his reign as Microsoft’s chief executive. “When you work that directly with Ballmer and Ballmer believes ‘maybe this guy could someday take over from me’, my God, you will have less air to breathe, that’s what it comes down to,” Kempin told Reuters. “It was Steve’s way or the highway.” Kempin also described a series of missed opportunities in which Microsoft would talk about the