Strong Consumer Sales Shore up BT

BT said its revenue fell 3% year-on-year in the quarter ending December 31st to 4.5 billion British pounds (6 billion euros). Revenue in BT's Global Services division declined 8% (hit by lower public sector revenue in the UK), but was partially offset by a 7% rise in the consumer division, primarily driven by growth in broadband and TV. source: BT statement

For more on the impact of BT Sport, check out my research report for Telco2.0: Telco-Driven Disruption: Hits & Misses (Part 1)

Google Relies on Own Sites For Revenue Growth

Google reported a 15% year-on-year increase in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2014 to 18.1 billion US dollars. Stripping out the impact of currency movements, Google said its revenues would have increased 19%, driven by strong growth in advertising revenues from its own web sites.

Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of its "network members", decreased approximately 3% over the fourth quarter of 2013 and decreased approximately 3% over the third quarter of 2014.  source: Google presentation

For more on Google, check out my report for Telco2.0: Google's Big, Big Data Battle

Smartphone Competition Rocks Samsung

Samsung Electronics reported a 22% year-on-year decline in sales in its IT and mobile communications division in the fourth quarter to 26.29 trillion Korean won (23.99 billion US dollars). Across the calendar year,  the division saw sales fall 19%.

Samsung expects competition in the smartphone market to intensify in 2015 "amid the demand growth driven by LTE and emerging market." It also expects "tablet growth to continue with mid to low-end demand." Samsung itself plans to "focus on increasing smartphone shipments and securing profitability with new product portfolio." source: Samsung slide presentation

For more on Samsung, check out my report for Telco2.0: Samsung and Google versus Apple?

Facebook Sales Growth Slows Slightly

Facebook reported a 53% year-on-year rise in revenue to 3.85 billion US dollars (on a constant currency basis) in the fourth quarter of 2014, with revenue from advertising up 58%. The 53% figure represents a slight slowdown on revenue growth of 58% in the third quarter

Facebook said mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 69% of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter, up from approximately 53% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The social network flagged that it plans to spend between 2.7 billion and 3.2 billion dollars on capex in 2015, up from 1.8 billion dollars in 2014. source: Facebook statement

Apple Enjoys Extraordinary Quarter

Apple said its revenue rose 30% year-on-year in the quarter ending December 27th to 74.6 billion US dollars, fuelled by a 57% increase in iPhone revenues. However, iPad revenues fell 22%.

Apple forecast revenues of between 52 billion and 55 billion dollars for the current quarter. That represents a year-on-year increase of between 14% and 21%. Source: Apple statement.

For more on Apple, check out my report for Telco2.0: Samsung and Google versus Apple?

Ericsson Sees Sales Slip

Ericsson said its sales in the fourth quarter of 2014 fell 2% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to 68 billion Swedish krona (8.3 billion US dollars).  The company said that sales growth in the Middle East, Europe and Asia was offset by decline in North America. In the core networks division, like-for-like sales declined by 7%.

Across 2014, sales also fell 2% on a like-for-like basis, but increased marginally on a reported basis, shored up by strong growth in the Middle East (see graphic). source: Ericsson presentation

Handset Sales Power Verizon Revenue Rise

Verizon Communications said its total operating revenues in the fourth-quarter were 33.2 billion US dollars, a 7% increase year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. The rise was driven largely by a 74% increase in wireless equipment revenues. Full-year 2014 operating revenues were 127.1 billion dollars, up 6% on a like-for-like basis. 

In 2015, Verizon expects consolidated revenue growth of at least 4%. source: Verizon statement

Spotify Adds 2.5 Million Paying Customers

Leading streaming music service Spotify said it had more than 15 million paying subscribers out of a total of 60 million active users at the end of 2014.  In early November, Spotify said it had more than 50 million active users of whom 12.5 million were subscribers each paying 120 US dollars per year.  Spotify said then that it had paid out more than 2 billion dollars in royalties to the music industry. source: Spotify blog post

Huawei Claims Rapid Double Digit Growth

Huawei said it expects to report year-on-year revenue growth of almost 20% to between 287 billion and 289 billion Chinese yuan (about 46.5 billion US dollars) for 2014. The China-based technology company said revenue in its Carrier Network business increased by approximately 15%, while its Enterprise Business grew by about 27%.

Huawei's Consumer Business increased revenue by about 32% year-on-year "thanks to the higher sale of mid-range and high-end handsets within a rapidly growing smartphone market worldwide, with Huawei enjoying particularly strong growth in emerging markets."

Huawei also said it invested between 39.5 billion and 40.5 billion yuan in R&D in 2014, an increase of 28% over 2013. source: Huawei statement

Apple Weekly App Store Sales Hit $500 Million

Apple said consumers worldwide spent nearly half a billion US dollars on apps and in-app purchases in the first week of January - a new record. In 2014, billings rose 50% and apps generated more than 10 billion dollars in revenue for developers, Apple added. To date, App Store developers have earned a cumulative 25 billion dollars from the sale of apps and games, according to Apple.  source: Apple statement

Huawei Notches up Double-Digit Growth

Telecoms equipment maker Huawei estimated its revenue in 2014 revenue rose 15% to 46 billion US dollars, driven in part by a 40% increase in smartphone shipments to 75 million.  The company has estimated that smartphone revenue in 2014 was 11.8 billion dollars. Huawei also reported that it has set up 450 retail shops worldwide. source: Mobile World Live article

Xiaomi Triples Unit Sales & Doubles Revenue

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technology said its revenues rose 135% year-on-year to 74.3 Chinese yuan billion (12 billion US dollars) in 2014, according to a report by Reuters. Xiaomi said it sold just over 61 million phones last year, up 227% from the year before. The company is expecting growth in China's smartphone market to ease this year and intends to focus on innovation and overseas expansion. source: Reuters article