consumer demand

Palm Running Out of Time–Again

John Paczkowski in News on March 19, 2010 at 7:14 am PT

Remarking on Palm’s gruesome third quarter during an earnings call yesterday, CEO Jon Rubinstein called the company’s performance “extremely disappointing to me personally.” This sentiment seems to be widely held among investors, who are dragging the company’s shares through the mud today, and analysts questioning whether Palm can ever pull off the turnaround for which it’s striving.

2010: Year of the Palm? Maybe Not…

John Paczkowski in Mobile on February 23, 2010 at 5:13 am PT

Evidently, Palm is not quite as well-poised for growth in 2010 as once thought. In a note to clients this week, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya–who last November praised Palm as “a company with an attractive platform, selling into a high-growth market”–has reconsidered his position.

Latest PC Shipment Forecast Considerably Less Hysterical Than Predecessors

John Paczkowski in News on November 24, 2009 at 4:30 am PT

So that 11.9 percent decline in PC shipments that was supposed to occur this year? Not gonna happen, says Gartner. Neither is the two percent decline the research outfit projected in September. Nope. Turns out that 2009 PC shipments, which were once thought to be headed for certain disaster, aren’t going to decline at all. They’re going to grow.

Another Stinker From Sony

John Paczkowski in News on October 30, 2009 at 6:51 am PT

Sony’s second quarter was another sorry one marked by the company’s fourth loss in as many quarters. Still, it was smaller than expected.

AMD Loss Not Nearly as Awful as Expected

John Paczkowski in News on October 16, 2009 at 6:36 am PT

Looks like AMD has benefited from the same favorable PC updraft that’s lifting Intel. On Thursday, the chip maker reported a narrower third-quarter loss than expected, thanks to “strong demand” for its microprocessors and graphics chips.

Nokia's Smart-Phone Slip

John Paczkowski in News on October 15, 2009 at 8:23 am PT

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says the demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during the third quarter–but you wouldn’t know it to look at the company’s earnings. This morning, Nokia posted an unexpected 559 million euro ($836 million) loss for the period, its first in a decade. Worse, its smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

Nokia’s Smart-Phone Slip

John Paczkowski in News on October 15, 2009 at 8:23 am PT

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says the demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during the third quarter–but you wouldn’t know it to look at the company’s earnings. This morning, Nokia posted an unexpected 559 million euro ($836 million) loss for the period, its first in a decade. Worse, its smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.

O2 Suffers iPhone Drought

John Paczkowski in News on October 1, 2009 at 1:34 pm PT

Well this certainly doesn’t bode well for O2: The U.K. wireless carrier, which has reportedly been selling about 2,200 iPhones a day since it secured exclusive distribution rights to the device in 2007, has run out of the 3GS model. Extremely high levels of demand have emptied not just the company’s physical retail outlets, but its online store as well.

Pre-Mature Exhilaration?

John Paczkowski in News on April 1, 2009 at 6:18 am PT

Optimism over the Pre’s chances of lifting Palm out of its downward spiral may be a bit… overly optimistic. In better times, the device might have proven to be just the curative the handset maker’s ailing business needs, but with the economy mired in the worst recession we’ve seen in decades, it may be more difficult than imagined for the Pre to restore Palm to its former glory.