This week, Bloomberg sparked a number of headlines with reports that iPad mini demand was failing based on supplier Pegatron’s earnings numbers as revealed at an investor conference. Those claims were later refuted by Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng, who argued that Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan had misquoted him to reach his conclusion about iPad mini numbers.
The problem here is one that comes up repeatedly for Apple watchers, namely that of trying to divine from scattered sources what the future holds for the iPhone maker. Reports of slowdowns, layoffs or weak fiscal results from any number of supplier companies, including Pegatron, Foxconn and Sharp have bloggers feverishly pounding keys, predicting dire straits for Apple to come. The problem is, these have never been a very strong indicator of what’s actually going on with Cupertino and its products, and for good reason.
As Fortune’s Phillip Elmer-DeWitt learned from Cheng via email, Pegatron has a wide customer base and never breaks out how each of those are affecting its bottom line or its quarterly financial outlook. Pegatron has its fingers in all kinds of pies, including home video game consoles and e-readers, both of which are currently suffering badly in terms of consumer sales.
Here’s a look back at some equally dire reports from recent memory that also turned out not to have any relation whatsoever to anything Apple was doing, performance-wise.
- Apple’s Q2 Earnings Foreshadowed by Weak Foxconn Results – Disappointing results at Foxconn for its most recent quarterly results were seen as a bad sign for Apple’s progress, but it still filed extremely impressive results, despite a rare year-over-year earnings decline.
- Apple’s Suppliers Experienced A Very Weak February – Supplier reports indicated that Apple was having weak iPad sales, which obviously wasn’t correct as it blew expectations away in terms of sales of its iOS tablet devices.
- Apple iPhone 5 Sales Showing Weakness – Apple was seen as dramatically underperforming relative to Wall Street’s consensus estimates on iPhone sales for Q1 2013, and in fact they exceeded consensus by a fair number (selling 47.8 million iPhones).
- Exclusive: Japan’s Sharp cuts iPad screen output – Sharp shipping woes on iPad panels were seen as an indicator that Apple was having difficulty moving iPads, prompting one analyst firm to predict that Apple would ship only around 8 million iPads in Q1 2013, when in fact they shipped 22.9 million.
In the best of cases, supply chain reports offers some vague insight into the larger picture of Apple’s inventory channels, but when looked to for solid indicators of performance, they’re about as dependable as using a magic 8 ball. The iPad mini, by all reasonable accounts, looks to be a very strong performer for Apple, and it’s very likely we’ll see that trend continue.
Samsung’s corporate image has become slightly tainted as of late — some might argue that recent launch events are to blame, but the company has a different culprit in mind: LG. This latest accusation relates to the company’s position in the all-too-competitive home appliance space. Samsung has filed a lawsuit against LG in South Korea, targeting online advertisements that cited information that the company claims to be incorrect. You see, last year, LG told the public that its own refrigerator offered the highest capacity, but according to the suit, that badge of honor belongs to Samsung. This, of course, follows an LG suit against Samsung for its own promotional video on YouTube last year. 50 billion Korean won are at stake this time around, which works out to roughly $ 45 million — perhaps just enough for Samsung to recoup the costs of its massive Radio City Galaxy S 4 spectacle.
Filed under: Household, Samsung, LG
Via: PhoneArena
Source: Korea Herald
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Motorola isn’t going to escape as cleanly as it would like from Microsoft’s patent lawsuit campaign. Microsoft has sued Motorola once more in Germany, only this time it’s waging a more direct fight against Motorola’s owner Google. The lawsuit claims that Motorola devices violate a patent for taking map information from one set and overlaying it with data from another — a technique that describes Google Maps, not to mention virtually every internet-connected mapping system we know. Details aren’t yet available for the devices allegedly at risk, but the accusation would make it harder for Google, Motorola or both to simply code around the problem if they lose. No doubt Microsoft is counting on just that obstacle to have the RAZR maker fall in line with everyone else and take a license just for using Android.
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile, Microsoft, Google
Microsoft sues Motorola in Germany again, claims Google Maps violates patent originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ZTE might already be feeling heat from Congressional suspicions, but the company could soon take a more direct hit to the pocketbook. Cisco has reportedly dropped an already rocky seven-year deal with ZTE after it learned that the Chinese firm had been selling Cisco’s networking gear to the Telecommunication Company of Iran as recently as July of last year. Being implicated in an end-run around US trade sanctions isn’t great for business, as you’d imagine. While Cisco CEO John Chambers wouldn’t directly confirm the severed link in a chat with Reuters, he noted that we would “not see that [sort of deal] happen again” — an indication that his company at least isn’t happy with the current state of affairs. ZTE isn’t waiting for any public acknowledgment to voice its frustration and says it’s “highly concerned,” although it’s not helped by allegations from its own US general counsel that there was an attempt to cover up the Iranian link. Nothing is definite until the investigations go public, but the Iran connection could make it that much harder for ZTE to keep US customers regardless of its distance from the Chinese government.
Filed under: Networking
Cisco reportedly drops sales pact with ZTE after claims of roundabout Iran dealings originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Intel CEO Paul Otellini has reportedly told staff at the chipmaker that Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is being released before it’s ready. Bloomberg reports that sources who attended a private company event at Intel recently have revealed comments made by Otellini about Windows 8. Intel has been working closely with Microsoft for its latest operating system, but Otellini says Microsoft will make improvements to Windows 8 after it ships — something he reportedly believes is the right move, despite claiming it is being released before it’s ready.
How Microsoft plans to deliver these updates isn’t clear. The software maker will address the usual bug and feature fixes through its Windows Update system, but we’re hearing from…
Prof. Inderbir Gill, a leading laparoscopic surgery proponent publicly changed his position regarding robotic surgery during the VGR 2012 conference. He stated that at least in the US, Laparoscopic surgery- “Will become extinct”. Prof. C.Palanivelu and Dr. Mahendra Bhandari also as panelists. Video Rating: 0 / 5
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Apple has been on a social networking kick lately, what with Twitter’s footings in iOS 5 and OS X Mountain Lion as well as Facebook’s upcoming presence in iOS 6. From what the New York Times hears, that fascination could become more of a fixation. The company has reportedly chatted with Twitter in past months about the possibility of investing money on the scale you’d normally expect from a later-stage venture capitalist: the newspaper is talking “hundreds of millions” of dollars based on Twitter being valued at more than $ 10 billion. Any such deal would be less about funding (Twitter purportedly has $ 600 million-plus in the bank) and more about getting cozy in a social world where Apple still has some learning to do. Apple might equally want to dissuade competitors from getting any ideas, we’d add. Neither side will comment, and the negotiations aren’t even supposed to be active at present. Regardless, that Apple might have even toyed with a social networking investment could represent a major change in tack for a company that’s not always known for playing well with others.
Filed under: Internet
NYT claims Apple has dallied with investing ‘hundreds of millions’ in Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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13 companies — including Microsoft, Apple, Google, and the four major US wireless carriers — collectively settled today in connection with a patent infringement suit filed by a company called NTP Inc. NTP, which does not produce commercial products itself, holds patents connected to the delivery of email over wireless systems. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but HTC, LG, Samsung, and Motorola were amongst the other settling parties.
RIM somewhat infamously faced infringement charges from NTP back in 2001 after refusing to license patents from NTP’s portfolio; the BlackBerry creator ended up fighting the claims in court but lost. After several years of appeals, RIM settled with NTP at a cost of $ 612.5 million. Under…
The NPD Group’s gaming figures for June have made the rounds, and both Microsoft as well as Nintendo have something to crow about, albeit for very different reasons. Nintendo is the most eager to prove itself and says that the 3DS has hit five million total sales in the US since it reached gamers’ hands in the country. The tally doesn’t compete with the heady numbers smartphone designers are used to, but it’s a milestone for a handheld console whose prospects were dim until a sudden price cut fueled sales a year ago. Before Nintendo lets the 155,000 3DS units it sold in June get to its head, however, it’s important to get context from Microsoft’s own achievements: Redmond shipped 257,000 Xbox 360 units that month and has had the lead among all US consoles for the past year and a half. We’re in the dark on Sony data, although it’s important that just 90,000 Wii units traded hands in the same month — as clear a sign as any that the Wii U can’t come quickly enough for Satoru Iwata and company.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds
NPD: Nintendo 3DS sales hit 5 million in US, Xbox 360 still claims the console crown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dolphin launches Engine browser beta, claims it’s got what it takes to be number one in speed stakes
Dolphin reckons the beta version of its new browser is the fastest HTML5 browser on Android. While the app looks largely unchanged, its creators have added in a raft of enhanced features behind the scenes, including text rendering, GPU accelerated canvas rendering and optimizations for CPU and GPU team-ups. They claim that Dolphin Engine runs up to ten times faster than the default Android browser, while it’ll also perform 100 percent faster than Chrome, if the timing’s right, with the beta peaking over 450 on a web-based HTML5 test, leaving rival Android browsers choking on its rich web fumes. You can give it a try yourself now — the APK can be plucked from the source link below.
Dolphin launches Engine browser beta, claims it’s got what it takes to be number one in speed stakes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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