Hasta La Gadget!

Apple‘s results for its fiscal first quarter of 2013 are in, and things are looking pretty good for the iPad family of devices. Apple managed to sell 22.9 million iPads in Q1 2013, and though it doesn’t go into specifics as to which model sold the most, it seems safe to assume that the all new iPad mini posted some excellent numbers. Just the same, the fourth-generation iPad probably had strong numbers as well, with iPad sales up from 15.4 million year-over-year and setting a record for Apple.

Those gains aren’t anything to stick your nose up at, and we imagine that increase will be something that makes investors smile. Earlier today, Apple’s shares were up in anticipation of this financial report, and with sales looking good to excellent almost across the board, those numbers might increase further. At the very least, that huge gain over the same quarter a year ago will definitely look great when it comes time for Apple to face investors.

Apple announced the iPad mini at a special event on October 23, 2012. Following the success of the iPhone 5, Apple used the event to unveil not only the iPad mini, but also the fourth-generation iPad. Pre-orders for the iPad mini came shortly after the event, with stock diminishing quickly. While we don’t know yet just how much of those 22.9 million sales the iPad mini can claim for itself, we wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that it’s a significant amount.

With a good Q1 2013 on the books, we now look forward to the rest of 2013, which is rumored to be a pretty big year for Apple. We’ll likely see the introduction of a new iPad this year, with the company rumored to be launching at least a couple new iPhone models. Be sure to read through our reviews of the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad for more details on Apple’s newest slates!

[via Apple]

Apple sells 22.9 million iPads in Q1 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Q4 2012 earnings are rolling in, folks, and Netflix is the latest to report on their quarterly progress. The movie and TV-streaming company announced today that they gained 6 million new users during Q4, bringing the total number of users over 33 million, with 27 million users in the US alone. They also announced a Q4 revenue of $945 million, with $8 million of that being all profits.

Netflix had previously expected around 26 to 27 million US streaming subscribers, so the company’s goal was easily met, and as or international users overall, this time last year saw a rise of 1.9 million users during Q4 2011, so the service is certainly gaining steam, and from what Netflix has planned for this year, we think that steam will keep up for a while.

2012 was a big year for Netflix, and 2013 looks to be even bigger. The company plans to roll out two TV shows exclusive to Netflix: House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, and an Arrested Development reboot, starring most of the original cast, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Will Arnett.

The company has also been continuously working on getting studios signed on to stream their movies and TV shows on Netflix. Just recently, they signed on Turner, Warner Bros., and even Disney. And along with the extra content that Netflix will provide starting this year, you can guarantee that their catalog will only continue to grow.

Netflix Q4 2012 earnings tout 6 million new users and $8 million in profit is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week after Google’s quarterly earnings statement for their financial Q4 2012, the company’s Senior Vice President and CFO Patrick Pichette made it clear that their still relatively new ownership of Motorola includes no less than 12 months of product pipeline put in place before they got there. This means that while Google may very well be working to push Motorola in new directions in the future, it’ll be a while before they’ve worked through the products Motorola already had prepared before they arrived. At the moment, Google has completed 120 days of ownership (or so) of Motorola – so there’s quite a bit left to go.

The investor call took place (and may still be taking place depending on when you’re reading the post you’re in now) at http://www.youtube.com/googleir, that being Google using one of its other major products, YouTube, to make the full set of announcements public. The Question and Answer portion of the day included the CEO of the company Larry Page, CFO Patrick Pichette, and Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora. The Motorola point was spoken on by Pichette.

“Just a bit of color on Motorola – We’re not in the business of losing money with Motorola. We’re 120 days into this journey – and we’ve inherited 12 to 18 months of product pipeline. With product restructuring, it does take time for new product to show up. … Be ready for a lot of fluctuation in our P and L [Profit and Loss Statements] over the next quarter.” – Pichette

We’ve heard more than one affirmation from Google on how they’ll be working with Motorola through the future, the last time being when Larry Page did an interview in which he discussed the fragile future the companies have with one another. This new bit if information reminds us that while Motorola is its own entity, Google does now own it, and they’re not going to let Motorola run itself entirely without Google’s direct influence. What that means figuratively almost matters more than what it’ll mean literally, in this case, with Motorola’s relatively solid past with hardware being what Google wants to keep through the future.

You’ll see Google influencing the way Motorola phones present Android within the year, one way or another. We’ve already seen several Motorola device delivered in 2012 with a display-only front, these only having been delivered after Google’s purchase was made public. When Google get the opportunity to take Motorola smartphones and tablets in a direction that’s entirely Android friendly insofar as they act as the perfect pure-Android device, that’s when the magic happens. Cross your fingers for the 12 month end of the 12 to 18-month pipeline mentioned by Pichette – Nexus on the way!

Google CFO: “12 to 18 months of product pipeline” with Motorola is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today Intel reported their fiscal fourth quarter results for 2012, noting a full year revenue of $53.3 billion and a fourth quarter revenue of $13.5 billion USD. These amounts are down 1.2% (for the year total) and 3% (for the quarter) year-over-year – certainly encouraging in a year where PC sales weren’t exactly booming. Intel also reported operating income of $14.6 billion USD for the year and $3.2 billion operating income over the fourth quarter.

This report of the quarter flows, as Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO noted, “largely as expected” as the company “continued to execute through a challenging environment.” Otellini reminded investors today that Intel entered the mobile market with hardware for tablets and smartphones and “worked with partners to reinvent the PC.” This is referring to the wave of touch-friendly machines working with Intel processors that’ve been revealed as Windows 8 came to fruition.

Full year statistics continued with Intel’s PC Client Group’s revenue set at $34.3 billion USD, down 3 percent year-over-year. The company’s Data Center Group’s revenue hit $10.7 billion, up 6 percent year-over-year, while their “Other Intel architecture group” had revenue of $4.4 billion, this down 13 percent compared to the year before. As far as the quarter went, PC Client Group, Data Center Group, Other Intel architecture group had revenue of $8.5 billion, $2.8 billion, and $1.0 billion respectively in their fiscal Q4 2012.

In Intel’s fiscal Q4 they report they’ve had R&D plus MG&A spending ending up at $4.6 billion, this specifically noted as being rather close to their projected amount of $4.5 billion. Intel is reporting that they expect revenue to grow in 2013 over the full year by a “low single-digit percentage”, while R&D plus MG&A spending is expected to land at $18.9 billion, plus or minus $200 million.

Intel also expects that they’ll have a revenue of $12.7 billion (plus or minus $500 million) in their fiscal first quarter 2013 report, with a gross margin percentage of approximately 58 percent. Intel also expects that they’ll have a net loss of approximately $50 million USD in their fiscal Q1 2013 due specifically to the impact of equity investments and interest (and “other”). What a wild and most-excellent earning party this is going to be!

[via Intel]

Intel Q4 2012 earnings down but still massive at $13.3 billion in revenue is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week Barnes & Noble has made the call on their financial second quarter, citing increased spending on their Nook division to keep pace with Amazon.com and Apple. The company made it clear that as the Nook accounts for 8.5 percent of their total revenue, it wasn’t going away any time soon – meanwhile same-store in-store book sales dropped over Black Friday weekend – imagine that! Barnes & Noble also reported that quarterly sales of its high-margin digital periodicals and books went up significantly.

Chief Executive William Lynch let it be known that his forecast for the fiscal year stands – he believes that the Nook segment of the company’s loss will narrow without a doubt. It’s not out of the question as just half way through the fiscal year the business is in, loss had increased just 6.1 percent to $108.1 million – much narrower than it could have been.

Meanwhile the new Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets were launched right after the company’s second fiscal quarter – that being the one ending on October 27th of 2012. The real battle, then, is now for Barnes & Noble’s tablet warriors to take out the iPad mini as well as the Kindle Fire HD 7 and 8.9. They’re certainly making strides in Target and Wal-Mart stores, it seems, as the company reported sales doubling from last year over Thanksgiving weekend.

This was helped at least a little bit by the fact that Target and Walmart no longer sell Kindle tablets of any kind. Lynch noted that Barnes & Noble continues to rule a 25-30 percent share of the e-books market in the USA, while net quarterly income was positive at $2.2 million – this much, much better than last year’s results at this time which were a loss of $6.6 million.

[via Reuters]

Barnes and Noble Q2 earnings show digital content grind is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.