Earnings

Google posts Q4 results, comments on iOS apps, better batteries, impact-resistant phones

Google has just posted its fourth quarter earnings for the calendar year 2012. The Internet giant raked in $14.42 billion in consolidated revenue (versus estimates of $12.3 billion), up 36 percent annually and eight percent sequentially. Excluding traffic acquisition costs and Motorola Home, quarterly revenue was $11.34 billion, up from $8.13 billion. The firm earned 54 percent of the revenue outside of the United States, or $6.9 billion.

Quarterly net income came in at $2.9 billion, a 6.7 percent increase (non-GAAP profit was $3.57 billion, up from $3.13 billion a year before). The company surpassed analysts' expectations on EPS, which was $10.65 on a non-GAAP basis versus the $10.54 consensus. So, even though revenue climbed substantially, profit was only up slightly.

Of note, Google's Motorola subsidiary (excluding the home biz) lost "only" 353 million, or 23 percent of the unit's quarterly revenue. Better batteries and impact-resistant design could be in the works for Motorola handsets. A live stream of the earnings call is included right after the break alongside other tidbits related to Apple, Maps, Nexus devices and more...

Analyst says Apple sold 52 million iPhones last quarter

Apple's quarterly earnings call is coming up next Wednesday, where the company will reveal its iPhone sales and other figures from the holiday quarter. And given its recent stock drop due to iPhone demand concerns, all of Wall Street will be watching.

Essentially, if the Cupertino company wants to stop the bleeding, it needs to report big numbers for last quarter. And according to KGI Securities' well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it will. He thinks Apple sold 52 million iPhones and 23 million iPads...

Apple to announce Q1 earnings for 2013 on January 23

With all of the talk of Apple losing its dominance, and its stock price taking a $200 bath towards the end of last year, the Cupertino company needed a big holiday quarter to quiet its critics. Outside figures look good, but we won't know for sure until Apple says something.

Fortunately, we won't have to wait much longer for it to break the silence. The iPad-maker has updated its Investor Relations page this afternoon to note that it will announce its earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2013 (4th calendar of 2012) on Wednesday, January 23...

T-Mobile confirms nearly half a million customers lost in Q3 over iPhone 5 launch

The nation's fourth-largest carrier continues to experience the side-effects of remaining the sole major U.S. telco without Apple's popular iPhone. The company this morning reported third-quarter earnings and the results are depressing. It lost 492,000 contract customers, down from the 557,000 loss in the June quarter but also up over the year-ago quarter when it reported loss of 389,000 contracts.

As a result, revenue for the quarter shrank to $4.9 billion, a 6.4 percent decline, while service revenue experienced an 8.7 percent drop...

Foxconn’s profits rise sharply on new Apple product launches

Shares of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer that assembles Apple's iPhone, iPad and a number of products for other big names in tech, posted its third-quarter earnings yesterday. The results are stronger than expected and attributed to high demand for the iPhone 5, warm iPad mini reception and the incoming new iMac, which arrives in November and is already predicted to be in short supply.

On the other hand, investors are also concerned over Apple's long-term growth prospect and Foxconn becoming too dependent on the Cupertino, California designer of shiny gadgets...

Amazon reports first loss in nine years, cites iPad mini in release

The people with the smile on the box had no reason to smile when their company, the online retail giant Amazon, yesterday posted third-quarter results today, reporting its first loss in nine years. Even as revenue increased by 27 percent annually, Amazon lost $274 million during the third quarter on net sales of $13.8 billion, up from $10.9 billion a year earlier.

In the year-ago quarter, Amazon reported a net profit of $63 million. Total operating expenses increased from $10.8 billion to $13.8 billion. Amazon attributed the loss to its investment in online deal site LivingSocial.

It's also understandable that a low-margin, high-volume nature of Amazon's content and books businesses affects earnings. The company is also vulnerable to exchange rates, online shopping growth and fluctuations in consumer spending. And in announcing its first-ever loss, Amazon even took jabs at Apple's iPad in - wait for it - the official press release...

Samsung dazzles with record Q3 earnings, profits rising faster than Apple’s

Samsung Electronics, the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and the world's largest technology company by revenues since 2009, reported earnings for the September quarter and the results are staggering. Year-on-year profit rose 91 percent as the company brought home $5.9 billion in net profit on $47.6 billion in sales, a 26 percent increase.

Operating profit margin also climbed to 18.8 percent. Much of the spoils came from Galaxy devices, especially smartphones where Samsung in the third quarter reigned supreme, grabbing twice Apple's market share. Apple yesterday reported $8.2 billion in net profit on $36 billion revenues.

While Samsung has a long way to go to match Apple's profitability, it's been growing at a faster clip: Apple's net profit in the September quarter grew 25 percent versus 91 percent for Samsung. No matter how you look at it, Samsung Electronics, which has headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, is evidently on fire. Does it stand a shot at beating Apple on profitability down the road?

Some hobby: Apple sold 1.3M Apple TVs last quarter

While going over its sales figures for the quarter yesterday, Apple once again neglected to mention the Apple TV. In fact, it wasn't even until an analyst asked a question about it, that Tim Cook spoke of the product.

This should kind of give you an idea of how Apple views the $99 set top box. It's obviously not near as important as say the iPhone or, any of its other iOS devices. But that doesn't mean that it's not selling well...

Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer defend iPad mini pricing

You had to know this was coming: during the Q&A portion of Apple's conference call yesterday, analysts grilled Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer about the higher-than-expected pricing on the iPad mini.

As you would expect, the two defended the tablet's $329 price tag, stating that they didn't want to build a small, cheap tablet. "iPad mini is a fantastic product; it's not a compromise like the other 7-inch tablets."

15 interesting points from today’s earnings call

Apple just announced its financial results for Q4 2012, and is now finishing up its earnings call. As promised, we’ve put together a list of some of the more interesting bits from the call to pass on to you.

Among that list, is the fact that Apple added $4 billion to its growing cash pile last quarter, bringing its cash total to more than $121 billion. It also sold a stout 44 million iOS devices during that time...

Apple’s Q4 earnings report: 26.9M iPhones and 14M iPads sold, $36B in revenue

As promised, Apple has released its quarterly earnings report this afternoon. This is the company's third calendar quarter for 2012, and fourth fiscal quarter, and is the last one before the big holiday season.

For the period, Apple has reported $36 billion in revenue and $8.2 billion in net profit by selling 26.9 million iPhones, 14 million iPads, 4.9 million Macs, and 5.3 million iPods. More details after the break...

Sprint activates 1.5M iPhones in Q3, same as in June quarter

Carrier Sprint, the nation's third-largest, today posted results for the fiscal 2012 third quarter ended September 30. The company reported activating 1.5 million iPhones throughout the quarter, mirroring the iPhone activation numbers from the June quarter.

Sprint continues to be under pressure, reporting a net loss of $767 million, nearly half of the $1.38 billion net loss from the June quarter. Some 40 percent of iPhone activations were new customers, or 900,000 people. Sprint also surpassed one million LTE smartphones sold prior to the launch of iPhone 5...