The Smart Life Lifts DOCOMO

NTT DOCOMO, Japan's largest mobile operator, reported a 1.9% year-on-year rise in revenue for the six months ending September 30 to 2.22 trillion Japanese yen (18 billion US dollars), just ahead of rival KDDI. Its Smart Life business (its dmarket content portal, digital commerce, financial services and the like) posted a 18% increase in revenue, more than offsetting a decline of 1% in the core telecoms business. source: NTT DOCOMO presentation

New Smartphones Shore Up Samsung

Samsung Electronics reported a 8% year-on-year increase in sales in its IT and Mobile Communications division to 26.6 trillion Korean won (23.3 billion US dollars) in the third quarter. However, that figure is well below the 36.6 trillion won in revenues the division generated in the third quarter of 2013.

For the most recent quarter, Samsung reported strong growth in shipments of smartphones driven by new models, including the S6 Edge+, Note5, A8, and J5. But average selling prices were down due to increased sales of mid- to low-end products. source: Samsung presentation

4G Helps China Mobile Bounce Back

China Mobile reported operating revenues of 172 billion yuan (27 billion US dollars) for the third quarter, up almost 10% year-on-year. That is a marked improvement on the 5% growth in the first half. It had almost 248 million 4G customers at the end of the quarter, up from 41 million a year earlier, while mobile data traffic surged to 733.6 billion megabytes, up from 298.2 billion in the same quarter of 2014. source: China Mobile operating data

Samsung Successfully Defends Smartphone Share

Source: IDC statement

Huawei Storms Smartphone Market

Huawei said it shipped 27.4 million smartphones in the three months ending September 30th, representing a year-on-year increase of 63%. The Shenzhen-based equipment maker estimated that industry-wide smartphone shipments in 2015 will grow 9.3% year-on-year.

"This quarter’s results clearly showcase the continued success of our growth strategy,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer business group. “We are especially proud of the stellar growth we’ve seen outside of China and the increased demand for our mid-to-high end devices. At this rate, we are confident in our ability to reach our smartphone shipment target of 100 million units by year’s end.”

Huawei said its smartphone shipments to Europe and the Middle-East-and-Africa regions grew by 98% and 70% respectively year-on-year. The division also enjoyed considerable success in China during the quarter, reporting a year-on-year shipment increase of 81%. source: Huawei statement

Apple Expects Sharp Slowdown

After reporting a 22% year-on-year rise in revenue for the quarter ending September 26th, Apple forecast that its revenue would rise between 1% and 4% to between 75.5 billion and 77.5 billion US dollars in the current quarter. source: Apple statement

Ericsson's Network Sales Stumble

Ericsson reported a 9% year-on-year fall in revenues to 59.2 billion Swedish krona (7 billion US dollars) in the third quarter on an organic basis, as declines in North America, Japan, Russia and Brazil offset growth in India and South East Asia. Network sales were down 15% year-on-year on an organic basis, while services fell 2%. source: Ericsson presentation

AT&T's Mobile Revenues Squeezed

AT&T reported a year-on-year increase in third-quarter consolidated revenues of almost 19% to 39.1 billion US dollars, primarily due to the acquisition of DIRECTV. However, total revenues from "Consumer Mobility" customers were down 4.6% to 8.8 billion dollars, due to "the success of Mobile Share Value plans." AT&T also said it added a record 1.6 million connected devices, including
1 million connected cars. The company now has 5.8 million connected car subscribers. source: AT&T statement

Phone Sales Collapse for Microsoft

Microsoft reported a 2% year-on-year decline in revenue in the third quarter to 21.7 billion dollars,  blaming the changes in its phone business, which it is restructuring.  Revenue from sales of phone hardware fell 54% to 1.1 billion dollars, but Microsoft's Devices & Consumer Other segment saw revenue rise 33%. That segment includes advertising, Xbox Live transactional revenue and Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions. The Commercial Other segment, which includes Microsoft's Azure cloud business, lifted revenues 47% to 3.3 billion dollars. source: Microsoft presentation

Google Claims Six Apps Now Have One Billion Users

Alphabet Inc., the parent holding company of Google, announced that Google's revenues rose 21% year-on-year in the third quarter on a constant currency basis to 18.7 billion US dollars. It attributed the increase to "substantial growth in mobile search revenue, complemented by contributions from YouTube and programmatic advertising."

“Our Q3 results show the strength of Google's business, particularly in mobile search. With six products now having more than 1 billion users globally,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, referring to Google search, YouTube, Android, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Chrome. However, Google's "cost per click" - the average revenue it earns each time a user clicks on an advert - fell 11% year-on-year, reflecting the fact that advertisers tend to pay less for clicks on mobile devices than for clicks on PCs.  source: Google statement

Orange Finally Racks up Revenue Rise

Orange reported a 0.5% year-on-year increase in revenues on a comparable basis in the third quarter to 10.3 billion euros - the first such rise since 2009. The top line was boosted by a 8.5% rise in mobile equipment revenues, a 2.9% increase in fixed broadband revenues and a 1.2% rise in mobile services revenues. source: Orange presentation 

Verizon Pushes Mobile Video & IoT

Verizon reported a 5% increase in total operating revenue to 33.2 billion US dollars for the third quarter. Excluding AOL, which was not part of Verizon a year ago, top-line growth was 3.1%, driven by customer and usage growth in both wireless services and fios - Verizon's bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service that operates over a fiber network.

Verizon also talked up the potential of the Internet of Things and mobile video to lift the top line: "New revenue streams from the Internet of Things continue to emerge and grow, with revenues of 175 million dollars in the quarter and about 495 million dollars year-to-date," Fran Shammo, Verizon CFO, told analysts. "In terms of our mobile video strategy, earlier this month, we were the first to market with the commercial launch of go90, a differentiated, mobile-first, social entertainment platform. Go90 includes a broad selection of premium content and social engagement features and the capability for sharing and conversation around the content. The initial feedback has been strong with increasing engagement without significant promotion, and we have received positive industry recognition."  source: Verizon statement

Growth Eludes América Móvil

América Móvil reported a 0.6% year-on-year fall in service revenues in the third quarter at constant exchange rates, a figure that was almost identical to the one reported for the second quarter. Group revenues in the quarter were 223.6 billion pesos (13.6 billion US dollars).

The Mexico-based group said voice revenues—both mobile and fixed—continued to decline in relation to service revenues. However, data revenue growth accelerated in the third quarter, rising 10.7% and 7% on mobile and fixed platforms, respectively. source: América Móvil statement

Ratings Agency Predicts Revenue Growth in EMEA

Credit ratings agency Moody’s said it has stabilised its outlook for Europe, Middle East and African telecoms companies on the expectation of 1-2% revenue growth for the sector into 2017.  “Increasing demand for broadband, improved consumer spending and a change in focus from price competition to service quality, leading to price increases will underpin European telecommunications service providers return to revenue growth in 2016,” said Carlos Winzer, a Moody’s Analyst and author of the report.

Moody’s expects increased capex spending by some companies, such as Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange, to differentiate their offering will offset any increase in free cash flow resulting from higher revenues and improved margins. However, other companies, such as Vodafone Group and TeliaSonera, are nearing the end of their capex cycle, Moody's added. source: Moody's statement

Google reports 1.4 billion Android Users

Google said that 400 million users have started using the Android OS since May 2014, bringing the total of active users to 1.4 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.  Most of the recent growth has been in emerging economies, such as Indonesia and Vietnam.  About 30,000 new Chromebooks are being activated each day, mostly in US schools, Google added. Source: Wall Street Journal article