For the year ending next March, the Japanese electronics giant Thursday forecast a net profit of ¥30 billion ($376 million), an operating profit of ¥180 billion and a 14 percent rise in revenue to ¥7.4 trillion. Sony said it expects major improvements in its camera, personal-computer and component businesses, hurt last year by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as well as the flooding in Thailand, an important production center.

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In a report released today, eMarketer estimates that 16 million Americans will book travel from their mobile devices this year, increasing 33 percent from 12 million in 2011. Even more people — roughly 37.8 million — will use their phones to research travel this year.

It’s no wonder that big online travel agencies, like Priceline and Expedia, are quickly expanding into mobile. One common mobile strategy is to build an app that gives deep discounts to people who book a hotel room from their phone for the same night.

Travelers who may not have access to a computer are an obvious market for hotel information, flights, maps, reviews and other services.

EMarketer said despite mobile’s rapid growth, total spending on online travel is growing more slowly than overall online retail sales. This year, online travel spending is set to increase 11 percent to $120 billion in the U.S.

But clearly all the trends spell bad news for travel agents and physical travel agencies. EMarketer expects a majority of Internet users to research and book via the Web.

EMarketer predicts that the apparel and accessories category is expected to grow by 20 percent to $40.9 billion this year, up from $34.2 billion in 2011.

That beats the sale of books, music and videos, which have historically been considered the most dominant e-commerce categories — those are now expected to grow by only 18 percent to $20.4 billion this year.

The report published by the Internet market research firm today is the first time it has broken down its forecasts by category.

EMarketer attributed the gains in apparel to retailers’ improved methods for displaying products online that make purchasing clothes, in particular, less of a guessing game.

Some of the visual innovations are stunning.

For instance, Amazon.com’s MyHabit, a private sales clothing site, produces animated videos of models wearing the clothing for sale. The representations are so realistic, the fabric sways as the model struts and turns as if walking down a catwalk.

On the more whimsical side of innovations is eBay’s augmented reality app that allows users to “try on” a pair of sunglasses by layering them over a picture of their face.

But in addition to new display technology, there are also many more apparel sites for consumers to choose from. Over the last two years, the idea of private sales or flash sales — offering expensive, high-end fashion at steep discounts — has spread like wildfire.

Free shipping also plays a role since it removes some of the risk for consumers: If they don’t like a shirt or pair of pants, they don’t have to pay a fee for delivery back to the retailer.

Overall, the report is predicting another big year for e-commerce. It expects U.S. retail sales to grow 15.4 percent to $224.2 billion in 2012, which is higher than eMarketer’s previous forecast that called for e-commerce to grow 11.3 percent to $209.3 billion in 2012.

The biggest category in 2012 is expected to be computer and consumer electronics, which have a higher price point, and are expected to bring in a total of $48.6 billion.

He is forecasting that mobile commerce — purchases made from apps or the browser on a phone or tablet — will hit $8 billion in mobile gross merchandise volume this year, up 60 percent from $5 billion in 2011.

Donahoe made the predictions last night in Las Vegas, where he gave the keynote at a technology dinner for leaders of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Additionally, the company predicted that PayPal will reach $7 billion in mobile total payment volume this year, increasing from $4 billion in 2011.

He made the bold predictions despite the recent unsettling departure of PayPal President Scott Thompson to join Yahoo as CEO, indicating that he is still confident about PayPal’s mobile future.

During the keynote, Donahoe also announced that Best Buy was its newest partner to use the RedLaser barcode scanning app to offer local in-store pick-up services. Other companies that offer it today include Toys “R” Us.

Other big data figures: 

• EBay Mobile currently has more than 65 million downloads of its mobile applications across all platforms.
• More than 890,000 new eBay shoppers made their first eBay purchase through the company’s mobile apps in 2011, a 113 percent increase year over year.
• PayPal’s original prediction for 2011 was that it would achieve $1.5 billion in mobile total payment volume for 2011. Instead, it hit $4 billion. A year earlier, it totaled only $750 million.

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

The Hewlett-Packard board will meet as a whole today, after all kinds of committee confabs yesterday, in what sources describe as an intense debate over the fate of its current CEO, Léo Apotheker.

You know, the Léo who is now painfully twisting in the wind, after AllThingsD and Bloomberg broke the news that he might be ousted after only 11 months on the job, and replaced — at least for now — by director and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

If appointed, even without many critical credentials in the enterprise business, Whitman would be HP’s seventh CEO since 1999. That’s more corporate marriages and exec beheadings than England’s Henry VIII!

The possibility of one more, including other internal and external candidates, sent long-suffering HP shares soaring yesterday, and the stock was still up almost seven percent in after-hours trading.

That Wall Street glee is surely to come crashing down and very soon today, if the current crisis at the Silicon Valley tech giant — which has stumbled from one to the next over the last few years — is not quickly and definitively resolved by the board.

That means, of course, the likely firing of Apotheker, whose tenure has been rocky, articulating a strategy that the company actually plans to stick to and getting a new leader into place.

Translation: Don’t pull a Yahoo board here and drag out the situation to the most excruciating level possible.

Beyond the moribund stock and pissed-off shareholders, the uncertainty will be wearing on employee morale, including HP’s top execs.

According to sources close to the situation, leaders of HP’s many huge divisions had no idea that Apotheker’s head was on the block — although many I spoke to said they had hoped for a while that it would be.

“Leo is a very nice guy, but he has been an ineffective leader for HP at a very important time, with all that has been changing in the tech industry and the pressure from our competitors,” said one person at the company.

Said another, “[Apotheker will] get the blame, but this board needs to get a plan into place we can all follow, and then march this giant army in some direction, because all these shifts have been disheartening.”

I would imagine so.

Still, said sources, the board might not resolve the problem until later today, or Friday, even.

“The board really can’t look like it is making rash decisions,” said one person close to the situation. “And it cannot be hurtling from one mess to another and making an even bigger one in the process.”

That, given the many troubles at HP in recent years — from ever-shifting strategies to disappointing forecasts — is what you might call an understatement.

In fact, it’s moving so quickly that a research firm that released a report only five months ago is already revising its projections upward for the year.

BIA/Kelsey now believes that consumer spending on deals in the U.S. will hit $2 billion, up from its previous forecast of $1.2 billion.

In a release, the research firm said the growth is being fueled by a larger number of registered users who are actively buying deals, better targeting capabilities and new niches in the space, including flash sales sites, which offer deals on apparel and other categories for a limited time via email.

Calculating spending habits in the space is likely difficult, given that Groupon is the only company that has publicly disclosed its figures in its registration statement.

Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey VP and chief economist, said despite the revisions, the firm sees a ceiling coming “on how many deals consumers will buy and their overall interest levels in deals.”

Because of that, the report was less bullish on the industry’s five-year prospects. The research firm also increased its long-term view on the space, although more modestly, saying that in 2015 it expects spending to hit $4.2 billion, up from its previous forecast of $3.9 billion in March.

Both numbers far exceed the $873 million that the research firm estimates was spent in 2010.

Coincidentally, Groupon said its second-quarter revenues increased to almost exactly that much, or $878 million, which is a worldwide total.

2011 isn’t 2008, yet. So Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente doesn’t think the ad business is going to get hammered — he just thinks it’s going to grow less. The exception here is very old print media, like magazines, newspapers and direct mail, in part because of pressure from daily-deal guys like Groupon and Living Social.

Note that Time Warner has already said it has seen weakness at Time Inc. during Q3, and I’ve heard the same from other publishers, as well.

And as with the last go-round, DiClemente (and others) argue that Web advertising will fare best if we really do go into a double dip.

It’s the same argument, too: Ad dollars still haven’t completely followed consumers into the Web, so there’s plenty of growth left, especially when it comes to video, etc. And Web advertising is more efficient than offline, so in a cash crunch, advertisers will have more incentive to use it, etc.

Which may all be true (I hope it is, given where you’re reading this). But also note that both AOL and Yahoo have made noises about softness in display ads this summer. Then again, both of those companies have plenty of their own problems.

What a difference a day makes.

In the 24 hours since Hewlett-Packard announced it was cutting production of its high-profile webOS mobile devices and might spin off its huge consumer PC business, stock of the tech giant has plummeted 20 percent.

HP shares are down $5.91 right now, at $23.60, one of the worst dives in its long history.

The reason? Wall Street is confused at what HP management and its board are up to.

So is everyone else, so get in line!

In any case, the one-fifth drop in value might be due to the length of time HP said it would take to execute its dramatically announced new plans. That is likely to keep the stock depressed, as investors are still uncertain what it all means.

One thing was clear: HP’s financial prospects are certainly dicey. Even as the Palo Alto, Calif., company announced its major strategic shift, it reported disastrous third-quarter earnings, included lowering its full-year forecast once again.

Related posts

• Hewlett-Packard Says Goodbye to PCs, webOS
• HP Pulls Plug on webOS Hardware, Leaves OS Future in Doubt
• HP And webOS: But They Seemed So Happy Together!
• Liveblogging HP’s “Everything Including the Kitchen Sink” Conference Call
• HP’s Apotheker: We Struck Out with WebOS, but Maybe Someone Else Wants a Swing?
• Viral Video: Like Palm’s Creepy Naked Lady, TouchPad’s Floating Celeb Heads Get the HP Boot
• Licensing webOS May Not Be Much of an Option for HP
• Hewlett-Packard’s PC Business: What Happens Next?
• Worth More Dead Than Alive: Could HP Turn a Profit on Palm’s Patents?
• With HP’s Raising of the World’s Biggest White Flag, Will Jon Rubinstein and Todd Bradley Surrender Too?

At this point — remember, less than 20 years after the ads ran — you’d really have to be a quibbler to argue with any of the forecasts. (Yes, no one Skypes from phone booths, but that’s really because no one uses phone booths, and you can do it from your iPad, anyway.)

If you’re old enough to have a hazy memory of these ads the first time around, the fact that the former future is now present tense might really give you pause. You know, if you were so inclined.

UPDATE: As Richard Raucci notes, the spots were directed by David Fincher, pre “Fight Club” and “The Social Network”. And Terry O’Gara, who worked on the music for the ads, has a fascinating look behind the scenes, with some thought-provoking perspective about sound + vision.

Bonus really, really old video!

Sony, a consumer electronics bellwether for Japan and maker of iconic products like the Walkman music player, recorded a net loss of ¥15.5 billion ($198.7 million) in the quarter ended June. That compared with a net profit of ¥25.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Operating profit for the quarter was sliced by more than half to ¥27.5 billion from ¥67.02 billion a year earlier. Revenue declined about 10% to ¥1.49 trillion from ¥1.66 trillion.

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TI’s lowered guidance, announced at the company’s midquarter update Wednesday, comes after Nokia last week sharply lowered its sales forecast. The Finnish handset maker, a big customer of TI chips, has been struggling to keep up in a smartphone market increasingly dominated by rivals like Google Inc. and Apple Inc.

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The company also forecast full-year operating earnings would rise to “at least” $13.15 a share, compared with IBM’s January estimate of “at least” $13. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast $13.08.

Shares jumped 2.1 percent to $168.89 in after-hours trading on the strong results.

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That’s an additional $1 in EPS for 2011–from $22.25 to $23.25.

“Our expectation going into the Match 11th launch of the iPad 2 in the U.S. was that it would be successful, but probably more subdued than the launch of the original iPad a year ago,” Wolf wrote in a research note titled “AAPL: Shock and Awe.” “The launch blew out our expectations…. In our previous forecast of iPad sales, we had assumed that the fourth calendar quarter of 2010, when Apple shipped 7.3 million units, represented a seasonal high and that sales would recede in the seasonally weaker quarters that followed. Our mistake was to assume only modest secular growth in demand. The launch of the iPad 2, especially abroad, suggests that the underlying secular growth rate of sales is much higher than we previous assumed.”

So much so that it may be a struggle for Apple to satisfy demand for the iPad for quite some time. “Based on December quarter sales, it appears Apple can manufacture around 75,000 iPads per day,” Wolf observed. “Nevertheless, the long lines and stock-outs indicate the iPad 2 will probably be supply constrained for weeks, if not months.”

Which isn’t the best place to be–obviously Apple would much prefer a scenario in which it was able to satsify demand. But it’s a good one nonetheless, particularly since there’s not yet a rival tablet that comes close to matching the iPad.

Wall Street’s generous run-up can be traced to two drivers: The company’s quarterly profits increased 73 percent year-over-year, and its rosy forecast exceeded analysts’ expectations.

But despite the gains today, Priceline’s stock is trading slightly lower than last week, when it hit a five-year high of roughly $460 a share.

The e-commerce site, which is the largest online travel agency by market value, reported fourth-quarter net income of $135.7 million, compared to $78.4 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues totaled $731 million, increasing 35 percent over a year ago.

Quarterly revenues were boosted by strong international operations, which contributed $374.9 million, increasing 68 percent over the same period a year earlier.

Priceline’s outlook is also positive.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based company expects first-quarter net income, excluding some items, of between $2.34 and $2.44 a share. Analysts on average predicted earnings per share of $2.30, according to a Bloomberg survey. Sales are also expected to grow at least 29 percent to $753.9 million, exceeding estimates of $731.9 million.

The company said it is performing well, as deal seekers around the world–from North America to Western Europe to the Asia-Pacific region–look for deals on hotels and rental cars, specifically, and benefit from improvements in the economy.

The company’s stock is trading at $463.33, up $6.32 a share today. A new 52-week high was hit yesterday, trading at $459.57 a share.

Yesterday, Priceline announced it entered its fifth straight year of its well-known advertising campaign, featuring William Shatner–a.k.a. “the Priceline Negotiator.”

Shatner is portrayed as a James Bond-like character who will stop at nothing to obtain the best travel deals and maximum savings for Priceline customers–although he does silly things along the way, too, like watch a gorilla wrestle a scrawny man.

Shatner will be joined in the campaign–created by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners–by new sidekicks Naomi Pryce and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based company will release its fourth-quarter and full-year results Feb. 23.

Expect the focus to be on growth.

Priceline is forecasting total gross travel bookings to jump year-over-year by 36 to 41 percent, with most of the growth coming internationally.

International bookings are expected to jump by 54 to 59 percent vs. minimal growth in domestic gross travel of 5 to 10 percent.

Annual revenues are forecasted to jump by 31 to 36 percent, and gross profits are expected to soar by 49 to 54 percent.

As a close competitor to Priceline, Expedia.com hit a 52-week high of $29.85 back in September, but has fallen considerably since, to trade around $21.69 a share.

Yesterday, Expedia relaunched a new price-savings campaign called ASAP: A Sudden Amazing Price. The  promotion will offer two discounts a day on hotels and other items of up to 50 percent, aimed at both sides of the country.

Posting fourth-quarter earnings this morning, Sprint said it added 1.1 million total wireless subscribers, 58,000 of them two-year contract customers. Quite a milestone for a company that hasn’t seen a gain in postpaid subscribers in 13 quarters and a sign that Sprint may finally be turning a corner. Another good sign: Postpaid churn fell to 1.86 percent from 2.11 percent in the third quarter, and prepaid churn fell to 4.93 percent from 5.32 percent. And another: For the quarter, Sprint added almost 1.1 million wireless subscribers, its best showing in nearly five years.

All welcome news, even if Sprint is still losing money. The company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $929 million, or 31 cents a share, on revenue of $8.3 billion, up from $7.9 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast a loss of 30 cents a share on $8.15 billion in revenue. Said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, “Sprint CEO Dan Hesse might be forgiven for the temptation to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier that is Sprint. To his credit, he expressly declined to do so. Still, the company has at last achieved post-paid and total subscriber growth, customer service levels have improved, churn rates have been brought under control, and revenues were up.”

At $4.41, Sprint shares are up 1.15 percent in early trading as I write this.

However, the company’s shares slid more than 6% after-hours after Activision issued a forecast for the current quarter and fiscal year that were both sharply lower than Wall Street’s expectations.

The company also said it’s discontinuing its once-popular Guitar Hero franchise, citing a sharp slowdown in the sales of music games. Another title, True Crime: Hong Kong, had been expected this year but will also be killed, Activision said.

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CEO John Chambers said in a company statement that the quarter “played out as we expected” and that the company is “going through a period of transition as we move aggressively in the market with our architectural strategy….Simply put, we are owning our evolution and the next generation of industry leadership.”

That’s a change from the “air pockets” phrase Chambers used to describe the surprise downward in Cisco’s guidance when it last reported earnings in November, and the stock has yet to recover from the drop that resulted. More as I go through the numbers.

4:38 pm: Chambers: Our routing architecture is in the best shape in its history.

Chambers: We are in the middle of a major product transition with dramatically higher price performance advantages. With this in mind we did see our switching revenue decline 7 percent.

4:41 pm: Chambers: We are seeing pricing pressures on our Catalyst portfolio. This is where our competitors are targeting us and this is where we intend to own our evolution.

We are moving very aggressively to prevent any future erosion of our product share.

Services revenue increase 18 percent year over year.

International bookings are okay. Italy was the only country to see a fall.

Enterprise solid. Grew 10 percent year over year. Public sector grew 7 percent. U.S. public sector orders grew 9 percent. [He thinks orders will worsen in this sector in the coming quarters.]

Set-top business declined.

4:44 pm: Initial customer and industry feedback to Videoscape is being received well

4:45 pm: Chambers: There were a number of areas where we are pleased with our progress.

Guidance coming up.

4:47 pm: Q3 revenue 4 to 6 percent year over year.

Q4: 8-11 percent increase year over year.

4:48 pm: As I look, stock is now trading down nearly 4 percent after-hours.

Frank Calderoni, Cisco CFO is now on the call.

Calderoni: There are multiple product transitions in areas such as switching, which, although expected, are happening faster than expected.

4:56 pm: Cash and equivalents: $40.2 billion. Cash flow from operations: $2.6 billion

4:58 pm: Calderoni says Cisco would issue a dividend in fiscal 2011 with a yield in the 1 to 2 percent range.

4:58 pm: Shares now down about 6 percent.

More guidance coming up from Calderoni.

5:00 pm: Q3, we exepect revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent year on year.

That’s with one less week this year than last year.

Q3 we expect non-GAAP operation 23 to 24 percent

EPS 35 to 38 cents per share.

In Q4 we expect 8 to 11 percent growth in revenue year over year.

FY11 will be mid to lower end of 9 to 12 percent given in previous guidance.

5:03 pm: John Chambers is back on the call.

Enterprise orders growth good. Grew high 20 percent range.

Shares are down 9 percent on that “lower range” guidance for the full year.

We believe we are not losing market share with developed-world governments.

This growth will be severely challenged in the next several quarters, and will grow in the low single digit.

5:11 pm: We believe the growth in enterprise will balance out the challenges in government business.

5:12 pm: Decrease in gross margins was affected by several factors.

He says the company has started something called a working group to study the decline in gross margins. What does that mean?

5:17 pm: Shares are within sight of trading down 10 percent after hours.

5:18 pm: Chambers: I think we will look back on this period of time and wish we could have avoided it, but it will make us stronger.

Q&A about to start. Should be interesting.

5:20 pm: Chambers: Bookings were comfortably above the revenues. In terms of momentum in switching I would expect them to be positive.

5:39 pm: Chambers is now talking about tax policy. Echoing a point he’s made repeatedly about bringing cash that’s held overseas into the U.S. He think the taxes are too high.

5:39 pm: Cash in the U.S. is $3.1 billion versus total cash holdings of more than $40 billion. Calderoni is talking about the $3 billion debt offering. He said Cisco has about $3 billion in long term debt that’s coming due soon, and that the debt it’s issuing will carry a lower rate.

I’m going to close this early because I have to make another meeting. I’ll be posting more on Cisco earnings shortly.

The company’s nine-month results ended Dec. 31 included revenues of $954.6 million, jumping 80 percent, compared with the same period a year earlier. In that same period, income from continuing operations totaled $76.2 million, or 88 cents a diluted share, compared with a loss of $98.4 million, or $1.27 a share, for the year-ago period.

Third-quarter net revenues totaled $334.3 million on earnings of 45 cents per diluted share. That easily beat analyst expectations, which had forecasted revenues of $314 million and earnings per share of 34 cents.

The New York-based game maker, known for hit titles such as Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K11, also increased its financial guidance for the fiscal year 2011. The company now expects revenues of $130 to $150 million in Q4, and revenues of up to $1.1 billion for the year ending March 31.

The company’s forecasts now call for Q4 non-GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of a loss of 40 to 45 cents, and for the year from 80 to 85 cents to easily beat analysts’ previous expectations of 62 cents for the year.

In a release, Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two, said strong holiday results enabled the better-than-expected results. Going forward, it’s evaluating new revenue streams. “These include opportunities in Asia and Latin America, evolving downloadable content models and online multiplayer experiences,” he said.

More to follow after the company’s earnings call.

It turns out that if you don’t use the part of the chip that has the problem, it works just fine. The problem is with the SATA port connections on the Cougar Point chipset. There are six such connections and only one is of which four are affected. (For the finer technical points about the design problem, read this post at AnandTech.)

In the days after Intel disclosed the design error on its Cougar Point chipset, PC makers called up to ask if they could continue to ship if they tweaked their designs in such a way that used only the SATA port connections on the Cougar Point chipset that worked. Intel said this was A-OK, and has restarted shipping the chips to those PC makers that have promised to make the necessary changes.

Meanwhile, Intel says it has started manufacturing a new version of the chips, and it should start shipping to new customers later this month

News of the flaw hurt Intel stock last week, mainly because of the potential for financial impact. Intel said it will reduce its revenue forecast for the first quarter by $300 million as it ends production of the old chip and gets volume of the new one ramped up, and that the full impact could reach $700 million for the fiscal year. However, today’s disclosure suggests that Intel may have initially outlined a worst-case scenario just in case. Still, it hasn’t changed its forecast for the quarter. Intel shares, however, are up in after-hours trading.

Update: I corrected this post because I got the number of affected SATA ports on the chip wrong. Sorry about that.

“Our proprietary checks in Apple’s supply chain suggest slight increases to our production forecasts for CY1Q11,” Fidacaro said in a note to clients today. “Our read on CDMA iPhone production shows a ramp up from prior forecasts and positive revisions for the GSM iPhone as well. Early indications from the Verizon presale of the CDMA iPhone were [also] strong. Thus, we are raising our iPhone shipment estimates substantially.”

Fidacaro had been looking for Apple to ship 17.7 million iPhones in the March quarter and 70.5 million in fiscal 2011. Now he’s forecasting 19.8 million and 76.7 million–a 92 percent increase year-over-year.

That, along with a significant upward revision to his iPad shipment estimates, driven by the presumed debut of iPad 2–32.1 million in fiscal 2011, up from 27.3 million (a 330 percent increase year-over-year)–prompted Fidacaro to raise his price target on Apple to $465 from $445.

Spare change for Apple shares?

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is a key component in many tablets and smartphones, and according to James Clappin, president of the company’s Glass Technologies Group, demand for it is spiking. “We expect the number of these devices using cover glass to quadruple over the next four years, presenting us with a significant opportunity for growth,” he said, adding that Corning estimates tablet sales could grow from roughly 20 million units in 2010 to almost 180 million by 2014.

That’s an 800 percent increase in four years.

The company asked 500 people at 300 companies, many of them large companies with 10,000 or more employees, about the benefits they were seeing from using social business software, which in this case is Jive, naturally, though an independent firm did the survey itself.

Some of the results were a little vague. For instance, respondents reported a 39 percent increase in “employee connectedness.” Others were more concrete: Jive users generated 32 percent more ideas, sent 27 percent less email and found answers to questions 32 percent faster

And there were benefits for customers. For one thing, employees spent 42 percent more time communicating with them, which in turn led to a better rate of customer retention, 31 percent, while the volume of support calls dropped by 28 percent and sales to new customers jumped by 27 percent.

The survey also found that 83 percent of companies in the survey are preparing to deploy some kind of social enterprise solution across the entire company this year. That finding is at least validated in part by a Gartner study that forecasts spending on enterprise social software will grow a little more than 15 percent this year to reach about $770 million.

Jive, you’ll remember, is the company that landed a $30 million venture capital investment from Kleiner Perkins last summer, and hired former Mercury Interactive head Tony Zingale as its CEO.

BoomTown’s Kara Swisher visited its offices last August, and her video interview with Zingale and Ted Schlein–Kleiner partner and Jive director–is below: