quarterly

In 2010, the smartphone arena continued its shift with Apple and Android vendors grabbing a greater slice of the global market and Nokia and Research In Motion watching their shares drop, according to research firm IDC.

The year as a whole still found Nokia and BlackBerry maker RIM in first and second places, respectively, with the highest market shares and units shipped across the globe, according to IDC's latest "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker," which was released today. But Nokia saw its annual market share fall to 33.1 percent, from 39 percent in 2009, while RIM'… Read more

Though still among the top five mobile phone vendors worldwide, Apple has conceded fourth place to China's ZTE, according to the "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker" report released today by IDC.

Looking at the global market share of the top mobile phone vendors in the fourth quarter, Apple dipped from fourth to fifth place despite a record quarter for phone shipments, the report said.

The iPhone maker shipped 16.2 million units, a healthy boost from the 14.1 million units shipped in the third quarter and the 8.7 million shipped in 2009's final quarter. Apple's flagship phone sold especially well in developed countries, including North America and Western Europe.

Apple's global market share for the quarter slipped only slightly to 4 percent from 4.1 percent the prior quarter. But that combined with a surge in shipments for ZTE, which has sold mostly lower-cost feature phones, allowed the Chinese mobile phone maker to steal fourth place away from Apple.

Hitting the top five for the very first time, ZTE shipped 16.8 million units for the quarter, helping it win a 4.2 percent slice of the market.… Read more

Buffeted by ever more intense competition, Nokia saw its earnings fall for the final quarter of 2010, an ongoing downturn that has prompted the company to announce a major shift in strategy.

Net profit for the quarter ended December 31 declined 21 percent to 745 million euros ($1.02 billion), compared with 950 million euros in the year-ago quarter. Sales were on the upswing, though, reaching 12.6 billion euros ($17.2 billion), a gain of 6 percent from 2009's final quarter.

Nokia attributed the downturn to the heated competition in the mobile phone market as well as to … Read more

In its first earnings release since Motorola Inc. split, Motorola Mobility has posted a profit.

The new consumer-focused company reported today that it generated $3.4 billion during the fourth quarter of 2010, representing a sizable 21 percent gain over its fourth-quarter 2009 revenue. It took in a profit of $80 million, another big gain over the year-ago period, when it lost $204 million.

Motorola Mobility's performance was about in line with analyst expectations of $3.4 billion in revenue.

However, Motorola Mobility's full-year performance ended up in the red. The company was able to generate $11.5 … Read more

Nokia's earnings returned to the black in the third quarter thanks to smartphone sales, but it also announced 1,800 layoffs.

The Finnish mobile phone maker said today that it took home a profit of 529 million euros ($741 million) in the third quarter compared with a loss of 559 million euros in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose almost 5 percent to 10.3 billion euros from 9.8 billion euros a year back earlier.

Surpassing analyst expectations, the third-quarter results were boosted by higher selling prices on Nokia smartphones. For the quarter, the company's Devices and Services … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices CEO Dirk Meyer said that his company will address the tablet market with a design that packs "great graphics," but isn't in any great hurry.

The discussion came during the chipmaker's conference call on third-quarter earnings, which the company reported today.

"I expect we're going to see tablets in various form factors and thicknesses over time. From everything we understand today, it's still a pretty new market," he said. Currently, by far the most popular tablet is Apple's iPad, which uses that company's A4 processor. Intel has targeted … Read more

Intel's revenue in the third quarter jumped 18 percent year-over-year, while profits also shot up over the previous year.

The world's largest chipmaker reported revenue of $11.1 billion, earning 52 cents per share and beating the analyst consensus of about 50 cents per share. This compares to $9.4 billion in revenue in the year-earlier period, or 33 cents a share.

Intel said back in August that its third-quarter revenue would be below the company's prior outlook, due to weak demand for consumer PCs, and at that time said it expected to post third-quarter revenue of about $11 billion.

Profits shot up in the third quarter to $3 billion, topping last year's third quarter of $1.9 billion and this year's prior quarter of $2.9 billion.

Gross margin, a crucial profit indicator, was 66 percent, meeting Wall Street expectations.

"Intel's third-quarter results set all-time records for revenue and operating income," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, in a statement. "These results were driven by solid demand from corporate customers, sales of our leadership products and continued growth in emerging markets," Otellini said.

"Looking forward, we...are particularly excited about our next-generation processor, code-named Sandy Bridge, and the many new designs around our Intel Atom processors in everything from the new Google TV products to a wide array of tablets based on Windows, Android, and MeeGo operating systems," he said.

During today's earnings conference call, Otellini had a lot to say about Sandy Bridge, which is expected to… Read more

AMD said today that it expects revenue for the third quarter to be lower than the previous quarter. This comes on the heels of Intel's warning in August.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker's terse release said revenue in its third quarter, ending September 25, will be in the "range of down one to four percent as compared to revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter ended June 26, 2010."

"The sequential decrease is due to weaker than expected demand, particularly in the consumer notebook market in Western Europe and North America," the company … Read more

Adobe's fiscal third-quarter earnings were solid, but the outlook for the fourth quarter was a bit light relative to expectations.

The company today reported earnings of $230.1 million, or 44 cents a share, on revenue of $990.3 million, up 42 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 54 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 49 cents a share on revenue of $985 million.

Read more of "Adobe's third quarter solid, but outlook is light" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.