financials

• Android
• Tech Industry
• LG
• smartphones
• earnings

LG profit rose 66% in Q1 but mobile business not yet improving

Cam Bunton Apr 11 2016 - 4:01 am PT

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LG has said that it expects to announce its best financial results in nearly two years when it unveils its final earnings results for Q1 2016. Thanks to the drop in television panel prices and strong appliance sales, LG will see a 66% year-on-year rise in profits. Its mobile division, however, is struggling to make money.

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• Android
• Samsung
• smartphones
• tablets
• earnings

Samsung issues Q4 2015 guidance, profit up 15% year-on-year

Cam Bunton Jan 8 2016 - 2:50 am PT

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Samsung has issued its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2015, and things look to be heading in the right direction, albeit slowly. Samsung estimates that its profit for the quarter reached 6.1 trillion Korean Won, or roughly $5.1 billion US Dollars. That was based on estimated sales worth 53.0 trillion Korean Won ($44B USD).

While other Android smartphone makers are struggling to make any progress financially, Samsung’s Q4 estimates (if accurate) will see them beat last year’s final quarter profits by 0.8 trillion Korean Won, or approximately $666 million USD. That’s an increase of 15% year-on-year.

If anything, it shows that Samsung’s 2015 focus on creating fewer, but higher quality handsets is working. A big part of that focus was moving away from the plastic flagships of the past to make solid, glass and metal handsets with market-leading specifications.

Rather unusually, however, Samsung did see a quarter-on-quarter drop from Q3 2015, in which it made 7.4 trillion Korean Won. Holiday sales are usually stronger than any other quarter for most tech companies, so Samsung may be a little worried to see the 18% drop from Q3 even if Q4 was an improvement on the same quarter in 2014. One explanation, of course, is that Samsung released its last high-end flagship smartphone right in the middle of Q3, while many other competitors waited until October/November.

As 2016 rolls in, the competitive landscape is only going to get tougher for Samsung. Companies like Huawei and Xiaomi are expected to renew their focus on markets where Samsung is normally very strong. And, if Huawei’s 2015 performance is anything to go by, Samsung should definitely be keeping an eye over its shoulder.

• Android
• Motorola
• smartphones
• Lenovo
• earnings

Lenovo suffers Q2 loss, no thanks to smartphone sales and Motorola acquisition

Cam Bunton Nov 12 2015 - 5:50 am PT

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Despite a 16% year-on-year growth of revenue to $12.2 billion, Lenovo has just announced its first quarterly loss in six years. In its fiscal Q2 earnings results, the manufacturer blames both the competitive nature of the smartphone market and the restructure following its finalized Motorola acquisition for its losses.

Before tax, Lenovo lost around $324 million on unsold smartphone inventory and $599 million to “restructuring costs”.

The official HKFRS losses were driven by the realignment plans Lenovo disclosed during its Q1 results, including worldwide expense reduction actions across all businesses, the integration of the System x Business, the organization and brand alignment of Motorola and the Lenovo Mobile Business Group and clearance of smartphone inventory.

It’s not entirely bad news for Lenovo though. The addition of the Motorola brand has meant the company saw a year-on-year sales increase of 104% of in its Mobile Business Group. It sold $2.7 billion worth of smartphones, Android tablets and TVs. $1.4 billion of those were Motorola sales. Most of this growth is down to sales outside of China. Across the first two quarters of its financial year, 70 percent of its mobile products were purchased outside Chinese borders. This time last year, that figure was just 19 percent.

Unlike the rest of the tablet industry, Lenovo’s sales actually grew, selling 18.8 million units, up 11 percent from last year.

Despite making a loss last quarter, Lenovo is convinced that the mobile division will return to money making ways after the next couple of quarters. With the rise of competitive and affordable products from other brands, it’ll be a tough challenge. But, with the likes of the Moto G, Moto X and new DROIDs in its lineup, the company certainly has the hardware to compete. What’s more, it just opened its very first boutique retail store in Chicago to help boost high street presence.

• Google
• Mobvoi
• financials
• investments
• stake

Google takes minor stake in Mobvoi, a Chinese artificial intelligence company

Cam Bunton Oct 20 2015 - 8:49 am PT

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Google’s focus on building its presence the Chinese market shows no sign of letting up. Mobvoi, a Chinese company which develops advanced, natural voice detection and AI-based technology, announced this morning that Google has taken a minority stake in the company. Although the exact amount Google invested wasn’t disclosed, Mobvoi will retain a controlling stake…
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• Android
• Sony Xperia Z3
• Sony
• earnings
• Xperia

Sony posts strong quarterly financial results, despite faltering mobile division

Cam Bunton Jul 30 2015 - 3:53 am PT

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Sony just posted its latest quarterly results for 2015. The company’s net profit rose to ¥82.4 billion (roughly $664 USD), way above what any analysts expected. Sadly for Xperia fans however, this was all despite its smartphone sales, not because of them.

Sony’s strongest performing category was the PS4 division which saw a 12.1% increase in sales to ¥288.6 billion ($2.3 billion USD) after selling three million PS4 units, and increasing software and peripheral sales. Its other strong performer was the camera sensor division. Sony sells its mobile camera sensors to a number of companies, including Apple, Motorola and Samsung among many, many others. From camera sensor sales alone, Sony pulled in ¥237.9 billion ($2 billion USD).

What if I told you a decade ago that Sony's claim to fame would one day be cameras http://t.co/9AzVjUHhFf pic.twitter.com/1gndOg6GNr

— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) June 10, 2015

Sales across the company however are almost flat year-on-year, mostly thanks to the faltering smartphone sales. Sony’s mobile division saw sales drop 16.3%, but this isn’t entirely surprising. The once-popular manufacturer has openly stated that it will focus on a smaller group of handsets with healthy margins. Although this leads to less revenue in the short run, profit margins should increase in the long term, if the company balances the marketing strategies suitably.

Sales decreased 16.3% year-on-year (an 18% decrease on a constant currency basis) to 280.5 billion yen (2,299 million U.S. dollars). This decrease was due to a significant decrease in smartphone unit sales resulting from a strategic decision not to pursue scale in order to improve profitability

Sony also saw declines in its Sony Pictures’ sales and its home entertainment (TV and AV gear) division. They saw decreases of 11.9% and 13.8% respectively.

• Google
• Google Corporate
• earnings
• financials

Google stock set to open at record high following strong earnings

Cam Bunton Jul 17 2015 - 6:00 am PT

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We’re just minutes until the the market opens for the day and Google has already started on a high. Following its strong Q2 financials (announced yesterday), GOOG has shot up in after-hours trading and is up around 13% on yesterday. Last night it announced revenue of $17.7 billion — up 11% YoY — and net income of $3.93 billion.

Seems Wall Street is happy with the results from Q2 leading to a surge in trading after hours, pushing its stock price up past $650. If pre-market numbers are any indication, once the market opens for trading, GOOG should be at its highest point ever. Before now, it’s previous high was set in February last year when it reached $607.

Ruth Porat, Google’s new CFO stated:

“Our strong Q2 results reflect continued growth across the breadth of our products, most notably core search, where mobile stood out, as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising. We are focused every day on developing big new opportunities across a wide range of businesses. We will do so with great care regarding resource allocation.”

With Google’s steady rise on the stock market, it’s hard to see the company failing any time soon. Let’s hope there are many more strong quarters in store.