Technology Oasis

• 27Jan

  Nintendo sees first annual loss, cuts 3DS forecast

  Electronics No Comments

  Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone.

  The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as more versatile smartphone and tablet sales boom.

  “To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo,” said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management. Continue reading »
• 27Jan

  Android grabs more tablet market share

  Commercial Gadget No Comments

  Tablet computers powered by Google’s Android software are increasing their global market share but Apple’s iPad still dominates the category, a research firm said Thursday.

  Strategy Analytics said Android tablets increased their share of the market to 39 percent in the fourth quarter of the year from 29 percent a year earlier.

  The iPad accounted for 58 percent of the tablet market in the quarter, down from 68 percent a year earlier, the Boston-based company said.

  Strategy Analytics director Peter King said global tablet shipments hit a record 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter, up 150 percent from the same period a year ago. Continue reading »
• 26Jan

  RIM shares bounce back after shuffle-related drop

  Commercial Gadget No Comments

  Shares of Research In Motion rose 8.6 percent on Wednesday, rebounding after two days of declines on disappointment over the choice of an company insider as the BlackBerry maker’s new chief executive.

  The jump followed a 8 percent swoon on Monday and a 3.5 percent drop on Tuesday. Over the weekend, RIM replaced co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie with Thorsten Heins, a four-year veteran of the struggling company.

  RIM’s rise also came a day after Apple posted blockbuster quarterly results highlighting the strong global market for smartphones. Continue reading »
• 26Jan

  Apple shares soar after blockbuster earnings

  Communication No Comments

  Apple shares soared on Wednesday following blockbuster quarterly earnings and the California gadget-maker briefly surged past ExxonMobil to become the largest US company in terms of market value.

  Apple shares gained 6.24 percent to $446.45 on Wall Street while ExxonMobil shares were up 0.02 percent at $86.38.

  Apple’s market capitalization — the number of shares outstanding multiplied by the stock price — was higher than the oil giant’s for most of the trading day, but ExxonMobil had moved back in front by the closing bell.

  The maker of the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macintosh computer finished the day with a market cap of around $416 billion to ExxonMobil’s $418 billion. Continue reading »
• 25Jan

  Chipmaker AMD expects lower revenue in weak PC market

  Commercial Gadget No Comments

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc forecast lower quarterly revenue as a shortage of hard drives and a shaky economy hurt PC makers, sending its shares lower in after-hours trading.

  The PC chipmaker’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings beat expectations, but revenue for the quarter just ended and revenue projections for the current quarter came in a bit below many analysts’ expectations.

  Like larger rival Intel Corp, AMD has been wrestling with slow demand for chips as consumers increasingly buy Apple Inc’s iPad instead of laptops. Continue reading »
• 25Jan

  Dutch court refuses to ban sales of Samsung tablet

  Electronics No Comments

  Dutch appeals judges ruled Tuesday that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet is not a copy of Apple’s popular iPad, handing the Korean consumer electronics maker its latest legal victory over its American rival.

  The Hague Appeals court ruling upheld a lower court’s refusal to grant Apple Inc. an injunction banning the sale of Galaxy Tabs in the Netherlands.

  Apple argued that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and earlier 10.1v model copied the iPad that dominated the tablet market from its 2010 launch.

  An Apple spokesman didn’t immediately return a telephone call seeking the company’s comment. A call to Samsung was not immediately answered. Continue reading »
• 24Jan

  Apple again loses Dutch bid for Samsung tablet ban

  Electronics No Comments

  Apple again lost a bid on Tuesday to have Samsung tablet computers banned in the Netherlands in a Dutch appeals case over infringing copyrights of its iPad tablet computer.

  Apple, which has been locked in legal battles with Samsung in almost a dozen countries involving smartphones and tablets, had appealed a Dutch ruling, which said last year Galaxy Tab 10.1 models were not a copy of Apple’s iPad. Continue reading »
• 24Jan

  RIM’s new leader raises doubts among investors

  Commercial Gadget No Comments

  The new leader at Research In Motion on Monday dismissed talk of drastic change at the BlackBerry maker, a declaration seized on by impatient investors who say Thorsten Heins has only 12 to 18 months to turn RIM around.

  Takeover talk, swirling around RIM for months, picked up steam as Heins took the helm at a once-dominant smartphone company that now struggles to compete. But RIM’s shares tumbled more than 8 percent as investors wondered whether Heins could reverse RIM’s decline.

  “I don’t think that there is some drastic change needed. We are evolving … but this is not a seismic change,” said Heins, who joined RIM in 2007 and previously served as a chief operating officer. Continue reading »
• 23Jan

  BlackBerry maker’s CEOs hand reins to insider

  Electronics No Comments

  Research In Motion’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs, handing the top job to an insider with four years at the struggling BlackBerry maker.

  Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive who has risen steadily through RIM’s upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007, took over as CEO on Saturday, RIM said on Sunday.

  The shift ends the two-decade long partnership of Lazaridis and Balsillie atop a once-pioneering technology company that now struggles against Apple and Google. Continue reading »
• 23Jan

  CEOs quit at BlackBerry maker Research In Motion

  Commercial Gadget No Comments

  Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the co-chief executives of Research In Motion, have resigned following months of investor pressure for a change at the helm of the struggling BlackBerry maker.

  Chief operating officer Thorsten Heins was named president and CEO of the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, which has been steadily losing market share to Apple’s iPhone and handsets powered by Google’s Android software.

  Heins, 54, joined RIM from German industrial giant Siemens in December 2007 and served as senior vice president for hardware engineering before becoming chief operating officer for product and sales in August 2011. Continue reading »

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