Samsung Sees Smartphone Sales Surge

Samsung Electronics said that sales in its IT & mobile communications division increased 70% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 23.22 trillion Korean won (20.47 billion US dollars). The surge was propelled by an 86% increase in mobile revenues to 18.9 trillion won.

Samsung said that growth in shipments of its "flagship Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II and other premium mobile devices yielded high returns, with significant growth in China, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa." Samsung said it expects to "continue its strong growth momentum in the second quarter, following the announcement of the next Galaxy device in London on May 3rd." source: Samsung statement

Uncertainty Curbs Ericsson

Ericsson, the leading supplier of mobile networks, said that its sales declined 6% year-on-year on a comparable basis in the first quarter of 2012 to 51 billion Swedish krona (7.59 billion US dollars). The Stockholm-based company said sales in its networks division fell 18% on a comparable basis as a result of "cautious operator spending in regions with macro-economic or political uncertainty. ...Sales in CDMA continued to decline and decreased -40% YoY. [But] demand for HSPA and LTE was good in the quarter, following the increased focus on network performance, especially in North America."

By contrast, sales in its global services division rose 14% year-on-year on a comparable basis. Ericsson said that global mobile subscriptions reached 6.2 billion at the end of the quarter, including 1.1 billion mobile broadband subscriptions. source: Ericsson statement

iPhone Lifts Sales at China Telecom

China Telecom said that its operating revenues rose 15.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 67.93 billion Chinese yuan (10.82 billion US dollars). Now selling the iPhone, China Telecom said that its revenues from the sale of mobile devices were 5.64 billion yuan, an increase of 80.7% over the corresponding period of last year.

Its mobile subscribers rose by 9.4 million to 135.8 million (including 43.6 million 3G subscribers) at the end of the quarter, while its wireline broadband subscribers rose by 3.6 million to 80.4 million. source: China Telecom statement

Sales at AT&T Edge Upwards

AT&T, America's largest telco, said that its revenues rose 1.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 31.8 billion US dollars. It said that its revenues from wireless data rose almost 20%, as more than 70% of customers taking data plans paid a premium for a higher-tier plan. source: AT&T presentation

Sprint Lifts Top Line

Sprint, the third largest telco in the U.S., said consolidated net operating revenues rose 5% year-on-year to 8.7 billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2012. Sprint said its wireless service revenues rose 7%, as it sold 1.5 million iPhones in the quarter.

Sprint said that its capital expenditure was up 44% year-on-year to 800 million dollars and that it continues to expect capex to total 6 billion dollars in 2012 - compared with 2.86 billion dollars in 2011. source: Sprint statement

Facebook's Revenues Up 45%

Facebook said in an SEC filing that its revenues rose 45% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 1.06 billion US dollars. The social network also said the number of daily active users rose to 526 million from 372 million (a 41% increase). source: Daily Telegraph article

Apple Warns of Slower Growth Ahead

Apple said that its revenues rose 59% year-on-year in the quarter ending March 31 of 2012 to 39.19 billion US dollars. The revenue from its iPhone product line leapt 85%, while its iPad product line recorded an increase of 132%.

Apple said it expects to generate revenue of 34 billion dollars in the current quarter, which would represent a year-on-year increase of 19%. source: Apple statement

Growth Slows Slightly for China Mobile

China Mobile said that its operating revenue rose 7.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 127.45 billion Chinese yuan (20.2 billion US dollars), as it added 17.63 million customers in the three month period. Revenue grew 8.8% across 2011. At the end of March, it had almost 60 million 3G connections (out of a total base of 667 million).

The telco reported that wireless data traffic in the first quarter of 2012 increased by 181.3% compared to the same period of last year, while "the data businesses of Mobile Mailbox, Mobile Reading and Mobile Video have shown promising trends of growth."

However, China's largest mobile operator  also warned: "As the number of low usage customers increased, the scenario of “one customer with multiple SIM cards” became more and more popular .....ARPU and average revenue per minute continued to decline during the relevant reporting period." source: China Mobile statement

LTE lifts Verizon

Verizon Communications, one of the U.S.'s leading telcos, said that its revenues rose 4.6% year-on-year in the first quarter to 28.2 billion US dollars, fueled by a 21% increased in wireless data revenues and a 18% lift in fiber revenues.

Verizon said it sold 2.9 million LTE devices in the first quarter and that LTE subscribers now make up 9.1% of its customer base. Capital expenditure was down 18.3% year-on-year falling to just 12.6% of revenues in the first quarter. source: Verizon presentation

Nokia Knocked by Competition

Nokia said its sales dropped 29% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012 to 7.35 billion euros, hit by a 38% (at constant currencies) fall in sales in its devices and services division, compounded by a 9% decline in sales in its Nokia Siemens Networks business.

Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, said: “Over the last year we have made progress on our new strategy, but we have faced greater than expected competitive challenges. We have launched four Lumia devices (which run the Windows Phone operating system) ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim. The actual sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging.

"At the same time, the lower price tiers of our industry are undergoing a structural change, and traditional feature phones are challenged by full touch devices. As a result we are taking deliberate measures to continue to renew our Series 40 platform, and we plan to strengthen our line-up in Q2 2012. We are making investments in our Mobile Phones business unit aimed at addressing the gaps in our offering." source: Nokia statement

Qualcomm Sees Strong Growth

Qualcomm, a leading provider of chips for mobile devices, said its revenues rose 28% year-on-year to 4.9 billion US dollars in the quarter ending March 25. Shipments of its "MSM chips" were up 29% year-on-year to 152 million.

It forecast that its revenues in this quarter will rise between 22.9% and 33.9% from the 3.62 billion dollars it generated in the same quarter of 2011. It raised its forecast for growth in global shipments of 3G/4G mobile devices to 15% this year, compared with growth of 21% in 2011.  source: Qualcomm presentation

Google+ Notches up 100 Million Users

In an online posting, Larry Page, CEO of Google, said that "well over 100 million users are active" on the Google+ social network and that its Chrome browser now has 200 million users. He added that Gmail is a "winner with more than 350 million people" and that more than 5,000 new businesses and educational establishments sign up to use Gmail daily.

Page also said that more than 850,000 Android devices "are activated daily through a network of 55 manufacturers and more than 300 carriers."  source: Google statement

Nokia Sees Sales Slump

Nokia warned its "devices & services" net sales in the first quarter 2012 were about 4.2 billion euros, down 41% from 7.09 billion euros in the first quarter of 2011. Nokia said it shipped 71 million mobile phones in the quarter (compared with 84.3 million a year earlier) and 12 million smart devices, compared with 24.2 million in the first quarter of 2011.

The Finland-based company said that "competitive industry dynamics.. negatively affected net sales in the mobile phones and smart devices business units, particularly in India, the Middle East and Africa and China."

In the first quarter 2012, Nokia said it sold more than 2 million Lumia devices, which run Microsoft's Windows software, at an average selling price of approximately 220 euros (reported within the smart devices business unit).  It added that "the Windows Phone ecosystem is also attracting developers and has expanded rapidly with more than 80,000 applications available." source: Nokia statement