According to Reuters, Apple's $1.05 billion victory against Samsun in a patent infringement case was cut almost in half by a judge who ordered a new trial for some Samsung products.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, today reduced the jury's damages award by $450.5 million and said Samsung deserves a new trial on infringement claims over its Galaxy Prevail and other smartphones. Koh rejected Apple's request to enhance the jury's award, saying the amount Samsung owed was heavily disputed and the jury wasn't bound to accept either side's damages estimate.

The iPhone maker convinced the jury that the Korean company, which in 2012 knocked Apple off its perch atop the global smartphone market, had infringed on its iPhone and iPad patents.

On Friday Koh, rejecting Apple's motion for an increase in the jury's damages award, ordered a new trial on damages for the 14 devices, which include the Samsung Galaxy S II. The jury's award to Apple for 14 other separate products, totaling almost $599 million, was maintained.

Their legal tussle has been viewed as a proxy war between Apple and Google Inc as Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphones and tablets run on Google's Android operating system.

Shares in Apple closed down 2.5% today.

 

Source: POSS Patents

 

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Apple posted net income of $9.5B for second quarter this year, and has reportedly earned a total of over $43B in revenue for the said quarter. This report comes possibly to prevent the AAPL stock from falling way below the $400-level. According to the report, some 19.5M iPads, 37.4M iPhones have been sold and we're not even half-way through the year yet.

Net income has dropped roughly $2.1B from the same quarter last year but the Company claims that they have actually sold more devices as compared to the same quarter last year. This report contradicts reports that the Company is already in trouble after Google, Samsung and even Microsoft have made strides in developing devices to compete with the iPhone and iPad.

Moreover, a big chunk of Apple revenue comes from the sale of applications, posting continuous growth at notable rate. Also, the Company reportedly is quite liquid as it has around $145B in cash, up from $121B same quarter last year. Clearly, the company is still on the roll.

Apple Press Release

 

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Samsung Electronics Co, the world's biggest technology firm by revenue, estimated its July-September operating profit at a record 8.1 trillion Korean won (RM21.9 billion), driven by strong sales of its Galaxy smartphones.

The South Korean firm's guidance - ahead of full quarterly results by October 26 - was higher than an average forecast of 7.6 trillion won by 16 analysts polled by Reuters.

 

Samsung, valued at around US$197 billion, estimated its July-September sales at 52.0 trillion won, compared with a market forecast for 51.7 trillion won.

 

Samsung shares have risen 7.2 per cent since a US court ruled on August 24 that the Korean firm copied parts of rival Apple Inc's iPhone and awarded the California-based firm more than US$1 billion in damages. Apple is up less than one per cent.

 

Source: Reuter

 

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Samsung, the world's top technology firm by revenue, reported record quarterly profit of $7.4 billion dollars today, with strong sales of its Galaxy range of phones masking sharply lower memory chip sales.

The South Korean firm said July-September operating profit almost doubled from a year ago to 8.12 trillion won, in line with its earlier estimate.

Samsung, reporting its results just hours after main rival Apple Inc, did not detail its third-quarter smartphone shipments, though these are estimated to have soared to 58 million. Apple said it shipped 26.9 million iPhones in July-September. It launched its latest iPhone 5 on September 21.

Profits from Samsung's mobile division more than doubled to 5.63 trillion won - more than two-thirds of the group's total - as sales of the Galaxy S III, introduced in late May, powered ahead of the iPhone 5 launch. Samsung is estimated to have shipped 18-20 million S IIIs in July-September.

Keep up the good work Samsung!

 

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Apple may have quietly invested more than $2 billion in display maker Sharp, the struggling Japanese company that is a component rival to Samsung. While Apple also receives display supplies for its products from Samsung, the iPhone maker and the Korean company have been in an increasingly uneasy relationship because of their rivalry in the smartphone market.

 

Apple's annual capital expenditures for the full fiscal year were $2.3 billion higher than anticipated, which has led Asymco analyst Horace Dediu to believe that the company gave the same amount to Sharp. In an analysis made on Wednesday, Dediu said Apple spent one-third more than it expected in capital expenditures in the 2012 fiscal year. While it had forecast in October of 2011 that it would spend about $8 billion, the final number came in at $10.3 billion. Nearly all of the over-spending related to "product tooling, manufacturing process equipment, and infrastructure," Dediu noted.

 

"My guess is that these attempts to shore up Sharp are directed by Apple to ensure both continuity of supply and a balanced supplier base (offsetting Samsung, another supplier)," Dediu wrote. "If Sharp were to enter some form of bankruptcy, the key plant[s] used in producing screens for Apple might be ‘up for grabs' by creditors and they might be taken off-line, jeopardizing Apple's production capacity, irrespective of contractual obligations."

 

According to the analyst, the deal may have included pre-orders for new components for Apple products. Apple also reportedly sources displays from LG Display .

 

Financially struggling Sharp was set to receive a $1 billion investment from Apple manufacturer Foxconn earlier this year in order to build a new LCD plant and boost production for Apple products. However, the deal fell through. Sharp executives admitted at the end of last month that the company may not recover from its $5.6 billion loss.

 

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Samsung is undoubtedly the leader in smartphone manufacturing and has dominated the mobile industry with its record marketing and research and development budget. In 2012 alone, the company shelled out a total of $21.6B on these departments, enough to make it to the top of the industry.

Whatever Samsung is doing seems to be working really well. Also, note that the company sells other big and small home appliances and are also venturing in providing equipment in the medical industry. Samsung also gets revenues from sale of these products.

The company owes its great success to marketing and more than this, the introduction of pioneering parts and products such as octo-core smartphones like the Galaxy S IV and the use of flexipanels on many of their products.

However, let us wait to see if time will come when Samsung no longer needs to spend that much for everyone to know that the brand and its products are excellent.

Link: koreatimes

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Samsung has announced its earnings estimate for Q1 2013, and the numbers are looking amazing, mostly due to good samsung smartphone sales.

 

The company estimates 52 trillion won ($46 billion) in sales and an operating profit of 8.7 trillion won ($7.7 billion) for the quarter, besting Q1 2012 by 53% and increase of 15 percent from a year ago.

 

Counterpoint Technology Market Research said last month that it expected Samsung's smartphone sales to top 70 million during the first three months of this year, further expanding its share in the global smartphone market. The market research firm estimated Apple's iPhone sales to reach 35 million during the same period.

 

Samsung's financials have been improving quarter after quarter, and with its new flagship smartphone - Samsung Galaxy S4 - coming in April, things are definitely looking good for the Korean giant.

 

Link: Reuters

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Samsung released it's first quarter earnings press release this morning, it made an operating profit of $7.9 billion in the Q1 of 2013, matching its guidance and representing a more than 50% improvement on its performance last year. Revenues were $47.6 billion, and net profit was $6.45 billion.

Samsung stated that strong smartphone sales combined with a reduction in its marketing costs was one of the leading causes of its quarterly success. But I suppose such a decent turnover isn't surprising considering that the company sold 3 out of every 10 smartphones last quarter, and still holds an impressive 30% share of the smartphone market.

This month's much-anticipated launch of the Samung Galaxy S4 will make a large impact on Samsung's next quarter, too, though the company warns of increased competition and lower global demand for smartphones.

Source: Samsung Earnings Press Release

 

 

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Samsung Electronics lost $12 billion in stock market value on Friday, hit by brokerage downgrades that have underscored concerns about slowing sales of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone.  Analysts say sales momentum for the high-end version of the S4, which became its fastest selling smartphone since its launch in late April, has slowed.

The share slide of more than 6 percent comes after it recently introduced two stripped-down versions of the S4, fanning worries that profit margins for its mobile business will suffer. It also follows a report that arch-rival Apple will begin a trade-in program for iPhones.

"Samsung has yet to prove its 'creative' innovation, that is, launching a product or a market segment that has not existed before in addition to prowess in manufacturing technology," Fitch said, from Ratings agency Fitch Ratings.

What do you think? 

Source: Cnbc

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Another record from Google, you may remember that in December of last year, Google announced they had surpassed 10 billion app downloads in the Play Store, and had a $0.10 sale to celebrate. Today, the company is announcing that the Play Store has hit a whopping 25 billion app downloads. It took over 3 years to hit 10 billion; it took just 9 months more to hit 25 billion.

 

Whether you're trying to find directions, checking email or sharing a picture with friends, apps have become an indispensable section of life. Of course, if you're using Android, it all starts with Google Play, the place to find 675,000 apps and games. That's a lot of choice. We've now crossed 25 billion downloads from Google Play, also to celebrate we're offering some terrific discounts for the subsequent five days.

Every single day you'll be able to pick from a collection of apps from a number of the world's top developers including Gameloft, Ea, Rovio, runtastic, Full Fat plus more. And all for just 25 cents. We'll be also offering some kind of special collections like 25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the entire world and our 25 best selling magazines, all at special prices. Visit Google Play a bit later today to check them out.

Twenty-five billion is much more than twice the space, in miles, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled since its launch 35 years back. It's the amount of time, in seconds, that have passed since a lot of our earliest ancestors began to set foot in Europe. Now, thanks to everyone, it's a Google Play milestone. High quality to the next 25 billion.

 

Source: googleblog

 

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A report by strategy analytics today confirms a shipment of about 1.6 billion mobiles in the year 2012. An increase of two percent from the numbers shipped last year. Samsung was the top brand to be shipped all around the world with nearly 400 million phones shipped during the year, 396.5 million to exact. 1 of the 4 mobiles shipped was relating to Samsung, which allowed them to snatch 25 percent market share in the world of cell phones.

The main reason behind Samsung's successful campaign in 2012 was its beautifully designed Galaxy series. Nokia was the second best brand of 2012 shipping 20 percent of total mobile phones shipped. Nokia was 2011's number one brand but due to Samsung's Galaxy series the demand for its handsets went down during the year. Strategy analytics declared Samsung, Nokia and Apple the top cellular brands of 2012 which was quite obvious after high demands were observed throughout the 2012 for the brands.

Source: businesswire

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As Andy Rubin steps down as Android Head, Google CEO Larry Page announces that Android has already 750 million activations so far, beating Apple by over 350 million individuals in the mobile operating system race. As Sundar Pichai steps in as head of Android, he inherits a rapidly growing market share and ever increasing applications on the Google Play Store.

Conservatively-speaking, only around 675 million of these users have access to Google's products and services, since not everybody will use a smartphone to its potential, especially those who do not have constant internet connection.

This is why Android continues to improve its services in the timeliest manner. Also, although Rubin is stepping down as Android CEO, he will still be around to head a different department for Google.

Source: techcrunch

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Monthly visitors for YouTube have reached 1 billion and the site is still growing. This video-sharing website is used for uploading and viewing videos that are created by people from all walks of life. Furthermore, this cements its spot at the top three for most visited and searched site, next only to Google and Facebook.

Just May last year, YouTube made the news because it has reached 800 million visitors. It made an average of 20 million new visits each month, which makes it safe from getting shut down by Google, so to speak. Bigger sites such as YouTube should not worry too much about being closed down, since it is one of the more profitable ventures of Google.

Source: youtube blog

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