AT&T has announced some pretty impressive numbers about their fourth quarter sales in 2012. The company reports that they have sold over 10 million smartphones during Q4 2012 alone. The previous record was 9.4 million smartphones sold in the same quarter in 2011, so this year’s numbers may not be a huge increase, but progress is certainly progress.
Overall, the latest results suggest AT&T smartphone sales for all of 2012 will be about 26.7 million units, slightly ahead of its previous forecast of 26 million. earlier last year. The carrier is trying to bounce back from the third quarter, when it added only 151,000 contract subscribers, compared to 1.5 million with Verizon.
AT&T averaged daily sales of more than 110,000 smartphones, which includes iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8 devices. AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said that the carrier’s subscribers “are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers.”
Verizon had good things to say about its fourth quarter as well. CEO Lowell McAdam yesterday called their Q4 2012 “historic” and mentioned that it was their best quarter ever as they added 2.1 million net subscribers. AT&T plans to report its full fourth-quarter results on January 24, and Verizon on the 22nd.
In the war for our eyeballs and wallets, Netflix has signed a deal with Warner Bros. that’ll keep the latter’s 2012-13 production slate exclusive to the streaming service. Shows like Revolution, Political Animals and 666 Park Avenue are the crown jewels of the deal — but users will also be able to view the full back-catalogues of shows like Chuck, Fringe and The West Wing. Given that Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner, which also owns Netflix-rival HBO, we’re curious what the discussions will be like the next time they’re sat around the dinner table.
HBO is determined to maintain its position as pay TV’s top dog and will break the bank to ensure it does. It’s inked a decade-long extension to a deal that gives it exclusive rights to Universal Studios movie catalogue until 2022. While neither HBO nor Universal have talked figures, Hollywood sources “in the know” think the Emmy Award-farm is paying around $200 million a year. All of these exclusive deals make us slightly nervous — after all, it looks like we’ll have to sign up with four or five different providers just for a decent selection…oh, so that’s the idea then.
On April 1, Lenovo will divide itself into different business groups: the Lenovo Business Group, and the Think Business Group. The Think Business Group will deal with the Think-brand and business aspects, while the Lenovo Business Group will deal with Lenovo products and its Mobile Internet/Digital Home Group business. The changes will include the appointment of leaders to each group.
Mobile Internet Digital Home’s Senior Vice President Liu Jun will be at the healm of the Lenovo Business Group, while the Think Business Group will be headed by Dr. Peter Hortensius. These changes won’t take effect until April 1, when the separate business groups are put in place. Lenovo Group has four market regions: North American, Chinese, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and Asian/Latin American.
Lenovo’s Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing sent out an email informing those within the company of the upcoming change. In the email, he states: “[Lenovo] is both large enough and able to devote sufficient resources to industry specialization in various fields. Therefore, we would like to once again revolutionize our organizational structure to ensure continued growth and to achieve higher goals. I am announcing a restructuring plan with the establishment of two new end-to-end business groups. The plan will come into effect on April 1.”
He then goes on to detail the purpose of each group. The Lenovo Business Group will focus on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, while the Think Business Group will be tasked with global commercial business leadership, high-end consumer brand creation, and commercial business. In addition, the TBG will also gain workstation and enterprise teams.
It what may come as a sudden surprise to some people, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has decided to step down from the helm sometime in Q1 2013, and is currently working with the board of directors to “ensure there is ample runway to manage this transition.” Richard Tom, Hulu’s senior vice president and chief technology officer, will also be stepping down.
Kilar doesn’t mention a reason for departing, but he says that his decision was “one of the toughest” that he’s ever made, and he’s “very thankful” for the entire team at Hulu. As of now, neither Kilar or Tom have solid dates for stepping down from their helms, but Kilar says that he’ll “be here as we get off to a very strong start in 2013.”
While we could speculate all day on the reasons for both Kilar and Tom stepping down from their respective roles at Hulu, you certainly blame the company’s finances as a reason. Hulu saw almost $700 million in revenue in 2012, which was quite the jump from where they were the year before, and they saw a doubling in their subscriber base in 2012 compared to 2011.
From reading Kilar’s farewell letter, you can easily tell that Hulu meant a lot to him, and we certainly can’t blame him for saying that it was one of the toughest decisions he’s ever made, but perhaps he’s moving on to better things and teaming up with his colleague, Rich Tom? Either way, the best of luck to both of them.
If you remember, Both Walmart and Best Buy competed in a discount war with Apple’s iPhone 5, where both retailers offered steep discounts on the new smartphone. Best Buy dropped the price down to $150 for the 16GB entry-level model, while Walmart dropped it to just $127. However, it turns out that Best Buy took quite a hit on profits that day, and the company is accusing Walmart of misleading customers with their iPhone 5 discount ad.
Essentially, Best Buy wasn’t too happy about Walmart’s steeper discount on the iPhone 5 because they don’t think that Walmart had enough iPhone 5 units to meet demand. Therefore, Best Buy was filling the stock at a discount that Walmart doesn’t have. Best Buy has reportedly claimed it lost about $65,000 in profit on the day Walmart advertised its iPhone 5 promotion, and the store says it was forced to match Walmart’s advertised price, even though they claim Walmart didn’t have enough iPhone 5 inventory in the first place.
However, Walmart claims that it did, in fact, have sufficient stock of the iPhone 5, quoting 98% availability at its stores carrying the device. Walmart had noted as the sale launched that it was working closely with Apple on the promotion and was securing significant numbers of units, but that the sale was first-come first-serve with no rain checks being offered.
Any way you look at it, it seems Best Buy was simply just upset that Walmart was undercutting them, and they felt like they needed a reliable excuse in order to effectively complain about the price difference. $65,000 in one day may not seem like a lot, and we don’t know what Best Buy’s sales goals were for the day, but that much of a loss in a single day is huge any way you look at it.
No, the Apple-Waze deal isn’t going to happen. If you’ve been following the news lately, there was a recent rumor that Apple might acquire mapping application services provider Waze. Well, it seems that the rumor is half-true. The folks over at The Next Web are saying that both companies have indeed negotiated about a possible deal. Waze reportedly declined the offer because its investors were aiming for a much higher price, roughly nearing $1 billion. (more…)
What we’ve got here is the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook, a business-oriented notebook made to work in the Windows 8 environment with an amalgamation of hardware that’s precision-tuned to suit your in- and out-of-office needs. At first glance, this machine doesn’t strike one as the most unique piece of machinery on the planet – it’s a silver laptop, after all. But what it lacks in unique aesthetics, it more than makes up for in details that we’d consider suggesting this device to friends for on their own.
Hardware
This machine measures in at 13.3 x 9.09 x 0.75 in (33.8 x 23.1 x 1.89 cm) and works with a lovely 14-inch LED-backlit HD anti-glare 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display and is cased in mostly hard and soft plastic. While the bulk of this machine is metal, its ever-so-slightly soft along the top and the bottom while a ridge of almost rubbery soft plastic runs along the head – above the display, the area that you’ll use to pull the notebook open – very well placed. This notebook is 3.6 pounds – not the lightest Ultrabook in the universe – and is 0.74-inches thick.
Along the sides you’ve got more ports than you’re going to know what to do with, including 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.0 (charging), DisplayPort 1.1a, VGA, AC power, headphone/mic jack, RJ-45, and a single SD/MMC card slot. You’ve also got an ethernet port so you can hard-wire to the web if you’re not all about wi-fi connectivity. You’ve also got a Kensington lock slot so you can keep the machine secure if you’re at a trade show or in a particularly nefarious office setting.
Note also that HP has made a point of assuring the public that their Elite line of products is hardcore – have a peek at our HP Making of Elite Tour Roundup to see our adventures all those months ago – smashing inside!
Also important if you want to keep your machine secure is the built-in HP Fingerprint Sensor which appears on the right side of your palm rest – make sure you’re not eating too much cake before you try to get read. Up to the right above your keyboard you’ve got dedicated on/off switches for both wi-fi and sound (muting, basically), and up and to the left you’ve got your power button – heavy metal!
The model we’ve got here works with a 3rd Gen (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i5-3427U (2.80/1.80 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache, 2 cores) and has a Mobile Intel QM77 Express chipset. You’ll be able to see some standard performance results in the benchmark listing we’ve got below, but know this: this machine is performing at a 2013 level. It’s swift and powerful, more than ready to take on your standard business needs.
Software
The security and business-friendly options you’ve got on this machine are just what your manager’s been looking for, including HP’s ProtecTools suite with so many tools to keep people out of your computer that you’ll forget why they wanted to get in in the first place – pre-boot authentication and a password vault included! You’ve also got SpareKey for when you forget your own password. And of course, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) built-in.
You also get a tossing of apps that HP’s decided to add-in above what Microsoft’s Windows 7 or 8 gives you, including such gems as PowerDVD and PDF Complete. You do get Evernote right out of the box though, a good incentive to keep taking notes on your smartphone as well as your laptop. You get the option of working with Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 Home Premium, or the version of Microsoft’s OS that we’re working with here, Windows 8.
If you do choose Windows 8, you’ll need some time to get used to the gestures you’ll be needing to make your own in order to get friendly with your everyday average apps. If you’ve got no touchscreen (this device does not have one, mind you), you’ll be dragging two fingers to the right or the left to navigate your Live Tiles. If you don’t know what that means, we suggest you pick this machine up with Windows 7, without a doubt.
The display on this machine is decent, but not spectacular. The same can be said about the speaker system. HP didn’t put as much effort into this machine’s entertainment abilities as it has with some of its more eye and ear-pleasing machines like the HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook. This Folio machine is, on the other hand, one of the more well-put-together business-minded machines we’ve seen through the past 12 months.
System – LENOVO 344422U
Manufacturer
Lenovo
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Motherboard
LENOVO 344422U
Processor
Intel Core i7-3667U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
2.00 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
4.00 MB
Memory
3.73 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
LENOVO G6ET22WW (1.01 )
Have a peek below at our standard benchmark test results for this machine and remember that it’s not an entertainment machine, and certainly isn’t made for gaming. Instead you’ve got a bit of a worker her made for a worker, inside and out.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook Folio 9470m
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
3538
5029
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
6639
Memory
Memory performance
4933
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
4812
Battery Life / Options
On the bottom of this machine you’ve got both a docking connector and a secondary battery connector. HP doesn’t mess around when it comes to a strong accessories ecosystem and will certainly have your back when you look to expand with extra long-life-loving batteries and/or if you want to dock this beast up at your house when you get home from the cube. That said, the battery life on this machine is rated by HP for “up to 9 hours and 30 minutes” with its HP Long Life 4-cell (52 WHr) Li-Ion unit, and we’ve seen it bringing on easily 5-6 hours of up-time while using it for medium-to-heavy lifting on an average day.
Lifting, in this case, consists of editing enough video and photos for a full day of work on SlashGear, browsing massive amounts of content on the web, and items as simple as editing text documents (plus lots, lots more, of course). If you’re all about document editing and basic reading, you’ll have no trouble reaching up further for the beastly time HP suggests.
Wrap-up
With the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook you’re getting one of the nicest business-minded computers on the market today. Priced at $1,349.00 USD straight from HP, you’re going to get what you paid for. This is a machine you’re going to be able to use for years to come, and with the hardware this Ultrabook comes with right out of the box, it’s unlikely you’ll need to update your innards any time soon.
According to Greencrest Capital, Twitter may begin preparing for a public debut this year, and might even start the offer in 2014. Greencrest Capital, a firm that studies soon-to-be IPO businesses, says that Twitter’s plans are quite obvious due to the company’s recent management hirings – ex-Zynga employee Mike Gupta as the new CFO, Newsvine founder Mike Davidson joining as vice president of design, and Ali Rowghani moving from chief financial officer to chief operating officer. That’s not all. (more…)
[CES 2013] Here is the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, a line of laptops that Samsung intends to present next week at CES 2013. The Samsung Series 7 is aimed at the professional market, an area where Samsung says it has expended in 2012 (according to David Song, Senior Vice President of IT & Mobile Communications at Samsung Electronics) and that it wants to accelerate in 2013.
The first Samsung Series 7 laptop for 2013 is the Samsung Chronos 770Z5E, a 15.6″ laptop with a full HD (1920×1080) 10-point multi-touch display. The specifications make it a dream 15.6″ Windows 8 laptop. In terms of industrial design, Samsung has chosen a full-aluminum body to increase the durability (a key decision factor for enterprises), but this has an influence of the weight which tops 5.18lbs which is not the lightest in the 15.4″ segment, but which remains competitive in the 15.4 touch-screen segment.
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No, the Apple-Waze deal isn’t going to happen. If you’ve been following the news lately, there was a recent rumor that 
According to Greencrest Capital, Twitter may begin preparing for a public debut this year, and might even start the offer in 2014. Greencrest Capital, a firm that studies soon-to-be IPO businesses, says that Twitter’s plans are quite obvious due to the company’s recent management hirings – ex-Zynga employee Mike Gupta as the new CFO, Newsvine founder Mike Davidson joining as vice president of design, and Ali Rowghani moving from chief financial officer to chief operating officer. That’s not all. 
[CES 2013] Here is the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, a line of laptops that Samsung intends to present next week at CES 2013. The Samsung Series 7 is aimed at the professional market, an area where Samsung says it has expended in 2012 (according to David Song, Senior Vice President of IT & Mobile Communications at Samsung Electronics) and that it wants to accelerate in 2013.
