Hasta La Gadget!

We’re firmly of the belief that SSDs are our future and Samsung would seem to agree. The Korean electronics giant has just announced that it’s selling its hard disk drive-manufacturing arm to Seagate Technology for a neat $1.375 billion in equal measures of cash and stocks. As a result, Samsung Electronics will own approximately 9.6 percent of Seagate and get to nominate one new member to join Seagate’s Board of Directors, while the two companies have further agreed to deepen their strategic relationship with related cross-licensing and supply stipulations. Samsung will provision Seagate’s solid state drives with NAND flash memory, whereas Seagate will furnish Samsung’s PCs and consumer electronics products with hard disk storage. The deal is expected to complete in full by year’s end and you can read all about it in Seagate’s press release after the break.

[Thanks, Pavel]

Continue reading Samsung sells HDD division to Seagate for $1.375 billion

Samsung sells HDD division to Seagate for $1.375 billion originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh Flip, how far you’ve come. And, of course, how far you’ve fallen. Once a spunky upstart with oddly shaped camcorders, you got snapped up by Cisco in Spring of 2009 for a hefty $590 million in stock. Now, according to Pocket-lint, you (and your moustaches) are done for. Cisco CEO John Chambers says the brand is being dispatched as the company refocuses, done in by the proliferation of high-definition sensors into smartphones and PMPs and the like. We had been waiting for the company’s next products (if you’ll recall, a WiFi-enabled Mino HD hit the FCC just a few months back), but at this point, it looks like those hopes and dreams will remain unfulfilled. We’re awaiting comment from the company, and will update as it flies in.

Update: Looks like the “exit of some consumer operations” will lead to 550 employees being left out of work. If you’ll recall, the outfit reported in February that sales of consumer products sank 15 percent, while profits slipped 18 percent as margins slid for a fourth consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, Umi will be integrated into the company’s TelePresence product line and operate through an enterprise and service provider go-to-market model. In other words, Skype just ate Umi’s lunch.

Continue reading Cisco killing Flip line of camcorders, axing 550 employees in restructuring effort

Cisco killing Flip line of camcorders, axing 550 employees in restructuring effort originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Research in Motion just kicked out its year-end and Q4 earnings for fiscal 2011, and while things look fairly rosy for now, shares of the company have sunk around ten percent in after-hours trading. Why? Because even the greatest performance in the world can’t ward off skeptical investors who are keyed in on guidance. The outfit reported expected revenues of around $5.2 billion and $5.6 billion, with earnings ranging from $1.47 billion to $1.55 per share. Sounds lovely, but not when you consider that analysts had expected those figures to be closer to $1.65 per share. That said, RIM did manage to ship 52.3 million BlackBerry smartphones, representing a 43 percent uptick over fiscal 2010. Furthermore, fiscal 2011 revenue shot up 33 percent over fiscal 2010 (landing at $19.9 billion), and we were given a confirmed ship date of April 19th for PlayBook. If you’re looking for a breakdown in revenue for the quarter, you’ll be interested in knowing that 81 percent was attributed to devices, 16 percent to service and just three percent to “software and other revenue.”

Based on what we’ve gathered from the earnings call, RIM understands that it’ll be selling more lower-end devices going forward (during what it continually referred to as “a transitional period”), and it’s expecting stronger revenue to come from software and services based around QNX. In fact, QNX (known as BlackBerry Table OS on the PlayBook) was pinpointed as being an OS for future “superphones,” and while we heard a brief mention of the impending BlackBerry OS 6.1 release, it’s fairly evident which platform the outfit is salivating over. If all goes well, we’re told to expect some sort of RIM superphone in 2012, and while our instincts are telling us that just has to refer to a phone with a 4.3-inch display, no specifics whatsoever were given beyond the moniker.

When referring specifically to the PlayBook, it was confirmed that WiMAX, LTE and HSPA+ versions were en route, and when asked about incoming 4G products, we were told that while no specific products could be spoken to (and that “no promises” could be made), there’s a “super intense 4G effort” ongoing within the company. We also heard that BlackBerry OS 6.1 would be a “major upgrade,” and even though no deets flowed from this call, we were assured that this “substantial” overhaul — which will launch at some point this spring — would be teased at BlackBerry World.

RIM earnings show strong revenue and growth, but weak guidance for the months ahead originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, isn’t this just something. It only took Sprint a matter of hours (on a Sunday evening, no less) to push out a detailed list of gripes concerning the proposed AT&T / T-Mobile USA tie-up, but Verizon Wireless won’t even be wasting its time. According to an interview with Reuters ahead of CTIA, VZW CEO Daniel Mead confessed that his company wouldn’t be lobbying the FCC or any other entity to stop the inevitable, noting that “anything can go through if you make enough concessions.” That’s a pretty bold quote in and of itself, but of course, this is coming from the man who made an awful lot of those so-called concessions in order to pick up Alltel a few years ago. Continuing on, he blasted out this gem: “We’re not interested in Sprint. We don’t need them.” In other words, there’s nary a chance in Hades that America’s current largest wireless carrier will be making a bid to keep it that way by shelling out for The Now Network. Why? Quite simply, he’d rather focus on being the most profitable US carrier rather than the largest. Not exactly what you’d expect coming from Verizon Wireless’ CEO, but hey — if he’s down for the competition, we’re down with watching from the sidelines.

Verizon Wireless CEO ‘not interested’ in buying Sprint, won’t waste time opposing T-Mobile / AT&T merger originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Altec Lansing does it, as does Harman Kardon. Oh, and lest we forget about Beats. We’re talking about companies that have gone the extra mile (and paid a certain price) to get their speakers into the shells of laptops, and now the fine folks at Alienware are grabbing a top-tier name of their own: Klipsch. Despite being snapped up by Audiovox a few months ago, the outfit’s powering ahead with an apparent plan for expansion. Today, Alienware’s launching its first-ever Klipsch-equipped laptop, the 3D-enabled M17x. Not only will buyers find Intel’s newest Sandy Bridge CPUs, a 1080p 3D panel, custom lighting controls and an HDMI input, but they’ll also be gifted with a set of Klipsch drivers and MaxxAudio 3 software from Waves. Hard to say if the partnership will soon bleed over to even more of Alienware’s machines, but all logical signs are pointing to “yes.” As for this guy? It’ll ship this month starting at $1,499.

Continue reading Klipsch speakers coming to Alienware’s 3D-enabled M17x gaming laptop

Klipsch speakers coming to Alienware’s 3D-enabled M17x gaming laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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