Rising Revenues for SK Telecom

SK Telecom said its revenues rose almost 4% in 2009 to 12.10 trillion won (10.53 billion US dollars) fuelled by an increase in the number of its subscribers and growth in wireless Internet revenues in spite of an expansion in discount plans and tariff cuts. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the Korean operator's revenues increased by 3% year-on-year to 3.1 trillion won. source: SK Telecom statement

Motorola Market Share Below 4%

Motorola said revenues in its mobile devices unit fell 22% year-on-year to 1.8 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of 2009. Motorola said it shipped 12 million handsets in the quarter and estimates its share of the global handset market was 3.7%. source: Motorola statement

Samsung Telecoms Keeps Climbing

Samsung Electronics said that sales in its telecoms division were 34.2 trillion won (29.84 billion US dollars) in 2009, up 28% from 2008. In the fourth quarter, the telecoms division's revenues were 9.11 trillion won, up 18% from the fourth quarter of 2008.

Samsung said it expects the industry to ship 1.2 billion handsets in 2010, up from 1.1 billion in 2009. It expects to outgrow the market by launching models with AMOLED touchscreens and smartphones running Windows Mobile, Android, LiMo and bada across a broad price range. source: Samsung presentation 

DOCOMO's Sales Slide Slows

NTT DOCOMO said that its operating revenues fell just over 1% year-on-year to 1.096 trillion Japanese yen (12.14 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending December 31, following a fall in revenues from voice services, as prices declined. Operating revenues fell 3% year-on-year in the previous quarter.

DOCOMO said it had 3.1 million subscribers to its i-concier service, which provides last train alerts, weather warnings and other local information, at the end of 2009 compared with 930,000 a year earlier. source: NTT DOCOMO presentation

Qualcomm Sees Subdued Recovery

Thanks to "healthy demand for our chipsets and strong shipments of 3G devices by our licensees," Qualcomm said that its revenues rose 6% year-on-year to 2.67 billion dollars in the quarter ending December 27, 2009. However, the wireless chip maker said it expects revenues in the current quarter to fall between 2% and 6% year-on-year from the 2.46 billion dollars it earned in the same quarter last year.

"A subdued economic recovery in developed regions, including Europe and Japan, combined with relative strength at the lower end of the market, is changing our estimated 3G device average selling price and chipset mix for this fiscal year," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.

Qualcomm said that it expects its revenues in the year ending September 27, 2010 to be between 10.4 billion and 11 billion dollars, compared with 10.39 billion dollars in the previous year, on a like-for-like basis. The San Diego-based chip maker expects the mobile industry to ship 394 million WCDMA handsets in calendar 2010 compared with 308 million in calendar 2009.  source: Qualcomm statement

AT&T To Up Network Spending

AT&T said that its revenues fell less than 1% year-on-year to 30.9 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of 2009. In 2010, it expects its revenues to be stable "with opportunities for stronger results as the economy rebounds".  It also said it plans to increase capital spending by between 5% and 10% to between 18 billion to 19 billion dollars in 2010, driven by a substantial increase in wireless spending to further expand capacity and coverage. source: AT&T presentation

Nokia Claims Smartphone Share

Nokia said that its sales fell 4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 12 billion euros (in constant currencies), as revenues in its devices and services division rose 2% to 8.2 billion euros boosted by rising sales in emerging markets. But Nokia Siemens Networks net sales fell 17% year-on-year at constant currencies. Nokia estimated that its share of the smartphone market (by units) rose to 40% in the fourth quarter from 35% in the third quarter, as it launched new touch-screen and Qwerty keypad models.

Nokia said  its expects its devices and services sales to be between 6.5 billion and 7.0 billion euros in the first quarter of 2010, compared with 6.17 billion euros in the first quarter of 2009. It expects Nokia Siemens Networks' net sales to be between 2.6 billion and 2.9 billion euros in the first quarter of 2010, compared with 2.99 billion euros in the first quarter of 2009. source: Nokia statement

Pricing Pressure on LG's Handsets

LG Electronics said its mobile communications unit recorded a 7% year-on-year fall in sales to 4.2 trillion Korean won (3.6 billion US dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2009. Handset revenues were 3.9 trillion won (3.3 billion US dollars), a 5% decline from the same quarter in 2008, despite a 32% increase in unit shipments to 33.9 million units.

In the whole of 2009, LG said it shipped 117.9 million units versus 100.7 million units in 2008 due to robust growth in North America, Europe and emerging markets. For 2010, LG said it is targeting a 19 percent increase in unit sales to 140 million, "focusing on the exploding smartphone category and differentiation in content and services." source: LG statement

Verizon's Growth Slows Further

In the fourth quarter of 2009, Verizon’s total operating revenues grew 0.2% year-on-year to 27.1 billion US dollars on a like-for-like basis, as rising revenue from data services was offset by falling voice revenues. For 2009, revenues totaled 107.8 billion dollars, an increase of 1.5% on a like-for-like basis.

Verizon’s capital expenditures were 17 billion dollars in 2009, compared with 17.2 billion  in 2008. In 2010, Verizon expects capex to be between 16.8 billion and 17.2 billion dollars. source: Verizon statement

Apple Doubles iPhone Shipments

Apple said it sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter ended December 26, 2009, representing 100% unit growth year-on-year. source: Apple statement

ARPU Tumbles at KDDI

KDDI's latest financial results show that its revenues fell 2% year-on-year to 862.22 billion yen (9.61 billion US dollars) in the quarter ending December 31. Revenues in Japan's second largest operator's mobile business declined 4% year-on-year as its mobile ARPU fell 7% amid sliding prices in the Japanese market. source: KDDI presentations

Ericsson's Sales Slide

Ericsson, the largest supplier of mobile networks, said that its revenues fell 20% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 58.3 billion Swedish krona (8.08 billion US dollars) on a like-for-like basis. The Stockholm-based company blamed the fall on weak sales of GSM equipment in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ericsson also said that WCDMA uptake is accelerating and grew by 38 million connections in the fourth quarter to a total of 452 million, of which 185 million are estimated to be HSPA. In the third quarter of 2009, fixed broadband connections grew 15 million to 438 million, according to Ericsson. source: Ericsson statement

ST-Ericsson Steady

ST-Ericsson said its revenues fell almost 1% year-on-year to 740 million euros in the fourth quarter on a like-for-like basis. The wireless chip maker added that revenues were up 2% from the third-quarter driven by continued demand in China. source: ST-Ericsson statement

Google Rides Out the Recession

In 2009, Google's revenues rose almost 9% to 23.65 billion US dollars. In the year, the web giant increased its spending on R&D by almost 2% to 2.84 billion dollars. source: Google statement

Sony Ericsson Down 40%

A 40% year-on-year fall in handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009, resulted in Sony Ericsson's revenues falling 40%. The company forecast a slight growth in units in the global handset market in 2010. source: Sony Ericsson statement

KT Sees 3% Growth in 2010

Fuelled by growing usage of wireless data services, KT of South Korea said it expects its revenue to increase almost 3% to 19.5 trillion Korean won (17.3 billion US dollars) in 2010 on a like-for-like basis, according to Dow Jones.  The newswire also reported that the telecoms operator plans to increase capital spending by 8% to 3.2 trillion won during 2010.

"2010 will still be a difficult year for KT as it will continue to suffer from fixed-line market difficulties, tougher market competition to attract more customers and a new rivalry paradigm," KT also said in a statement, according to Dow Jones. Source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Mobile Apps Earned $4 billion in 2009 - Gartner

China Now Has 325,000 3G Base Stations

China's three major telecommunications operators invested a total of 160.9 billion Chinese yuan (23.55 billion US dollars) deploying 325,000 3G base stations in 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Monday, according to Dow Jones.  The  Ministry also said that China had 13.07 million 3G users by the end of November 2009. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom 

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Intel Boosts R&D Spending

Intel said that it plans to increase its R&D budget by 10% in 2010 to 6.2 billion US dollars, compared with 5.65 billion dollars in 2009. The giant chip maker's revenue in 2009 fell 7% to 35.1 billion US dollars. source: Intel statement

LG Forecasts 20% Rise in Shipments

LG Electronics said it is aiming to ship 140 million mobile phones globally in 2010--up 20% from last year, according to Dow Jones Newswires. source: Total Telecom/Dow Jones

Chunghwa Sales Slip Slightly

Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan said its revenues in  2009 fell 1.5% to 184 billion Taiwanese dollars (5.75 billion dollars) thanks to a 2% fall in fixed-line revenues and a 1% fall in mobile revenues: source: Chunghwa Telecom spreadsheet

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PT Telkomsel Claims 17 million New Subs

PT Telkomsel, Indonesia's largest mobile operator, said its subscriber base increased by 26% to 82 million during 2009, according to Dow Jones Newswires. In 2010, the operator's CEO said he expects to add 18 million new subscribers and spend 13 trillion Indonesian rupiah (1.42 billion US dollars) on capex. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

iPhone and Android Gain Mobile Internet Share

Huawei's Growth Slows to 17%

Huawei said in an email that its revenues in 2009 rose 17% to 21.5 billion US dollars, according to Dow Jones Newswires, which also noted that Chinese telecoms equipment maker's revenues grew 43% in 2008. source: Dow Jones/Total Telecom

HTC Down 13% in Q4

HTC, a leading maker of smartphones running Windows and Android, said that its revenues fell 13% year-on-year to 41.08 billion Taiwanese dollars (1.29 billion US dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Total revenues for 2009 were down 5% year-on-year to 144.88 billion Taiwanese dollars. The Taiwanese company didn't give a reason for the declines. source: HTC statement

High-End Google Handset for $530

Costing just $530 without a mobile contract, Google's new Nexus One Android HSPA smartphone has a 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen (800 by 480 pixels), a 1GHz processor, GPS and a second microphone for cancelling out background noise. Google says the handset, which is just 11.5mm thick, can access the Internet for only five hours over 3G and 6.5 hours over WiFi. source: Nexus One technical specifications