The news weighed on MetroPCS’s second-quarter results and erased as much as 35 percent of the company’s market value Tuesday. Rival Leap Wireless International Inc., which reports its results Wednesday, saw its shares fall up to 18 percent.

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However, its forecast that it will sell 8.5 million smartphones this quarter may not be enough to satisfy some analysts. According to Reuters, some firms had recently hiked expectations for HTC, predicting the company would sell 9 million smartphones or more. The company sold 9.1 million phones in the December quarter, though of course that includes the seasonally strong holiday period. HTC noted that any drop in the first quarter will be less than typical.

“Demand remains visible and solid,” the company said. “Management expects a relatively muted seasonal slowdown than previous years.”

For the fourth quarter, HTC reported that sales rose to $3.58 billion (104 billion Taiwanese dollars), up from $1.4 billion (41 billion Taiwanese dollars) a year ago, with per-share earnings growing to nearly 63 U.S. cents a share, up from just over 24 cents in the year-ago quarter.

HTC announced a number of new Android devices earlier this month, including the HTC Evo Shift (a lower-priced 4G phone for Sprint), the HTC Thunderbolt for Verizon and a new phone for AT&T that packs more Web-based services direct from HTC.

Cisco today announced a new version of its key routing system, which the networking giant said has a dozen times the traffic capacity of competitors and three times as much as the company’s previous version.

Cisco’s CEO John Chambers said the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System is aimed at the huge growth in video on the Internet, a trend that has also caused slowdowns.

Pankaj Patel, SVP and GM for the service provider business, claimed the system could in just a few minutes deliver all the movies ever made or allow everyone in China to make a video phone call at once.

It had better. The consumption of video online is growing like crazy and a constant bottleneck is likely without some relief.

“Video brings the Internet to life,” said Chambers. “You are moving from a messaging platform to a video platform.”

Along with Chambers and Patel, AT&T (T) Labs CEO and President Keith Cambron was on the call discussing deployment trials the telecom giant has been doing with the CRS-3.

CRS-3 (pictured here) will be available within the calendar year, said the Cisco execs on a press and analyst call this morning.

Cisco had said weeks ago that it was making “a significant announcement that will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments.”

Significant? We’ll see, of course. For sure, it was a highly hyped announcement by Chambers.

But due to the speculation about what Cisco was unveiling, its stock hit a 52-week high yesterday. It dropped slightly this morning after the call.

Many others are getting into the high-speed act on the Web.

Google (GOOG) said recently that it is planning on building a superfast broadband service. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil its own ambitious plan to improve high-speed Internet access across the United States.

Cisco has gotten deep into the video business of late, both in pushing its networking gear and in acquiring a video device maker like Pure Digital, the company behind my beloved Flip digital camera.

It is also working on innovative holographic and television-based home telepresence technologies.

Here is a pair of Cisco videos about the CRS-3 and the official press release below them, with all the deets:

Cisco Introduces Foundation for Next-Generation Internet: The Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System

Advanced Platform Designed to Deliver New Wave of Video, Mobile and Data Center/Cloud Services

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 9, 2010–Cisco today announced a major advancement in Internet networking–the Cisco® CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS)–designed to serve as the foundation of the next-generation Internet and set the pace for the astonishing growth of video transmission, mobile devices and new online services through this decade and beyond.

With more than 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system, the Cisco CRS-3 is designed to transform the broadband communication and entertainment industry by accelerating the delivery of compelling new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace.

Overview:

The Cisco CRS-3 triples the capacity of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, with up to 322 Terabits per second, which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.

The Cisco CRS-3 enables unified service delivery of Internet and cloud services with service intelligence spanning service provider Internet Protocol Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs) and data center. The Cisco CRS-3 also provides unprecedented savings with investment protection for the nearly 5,000 Cisco CRS-1 deployed worldwide. Cisco’s cumulative investment in the Cisco CRS family is $1.6 billion, further underscoring the company’s commitment.

AT&T, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, recently tested the Cisco CRS-3 in a successful completion of the world’s first field trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology, which took place in AT&T’s live network between New Orleans and Miami. The trial advances AT&T’s development of the next generation of backbone network technology that will support the network requirements for the growing number of advanced services offered by AT&T to consumer and business customers, both fixed and mobile.

The Cisco CRS-3 is currently in field trials, and its pricing starts at $90,000 U.S.

Highlights and Capabilities for the Next-Generation Internet:

Unmatched Scale: With a proven multi-chassis architecture, the Cisco CRS-3 can deliver up to 322 tbps of capacity, more than tripling the 92 tbps capacity of the Cisco CRS-1 and representing more than 12 times the capacity of any other core router in the industry.

Unique Core and Data Center/Cloud Services Intelligence: In addition to capacity requirements, the growths of mobile and video applications are creating new multidirectional traffic patterns with the increasing emergence of the data center cloud. The new Cisco Data Center Services System provides tight linkages between the Cisco CRS-3, Cisco Nexus family and Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) to enable unified service delivery of cloud services. This intelligence also includes carrier-grade IPv6 (CGv6) and core IP/MPLS technologies that permit new IP NGN architectural efficiencies required to keep pace with the rapidly growing cloud services market. Unique capabilities include:

Network Positioning System (NPS)–provides Layers 3 to 7 application information for best path to content, improving consumer and business experiences while reducing costs.

Cloud virtual private network (VPN) for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)-enables ‘pay-as-you-go’ for compute, storage and network resources by automating Cisco CRS-3 and Cisco Nexus Inter-Data center connections for Cisco UCS.

Unprecedented Savings: The Cisco CRS-3 offers dramatic operational expense savings and up to 60 percent savings on power consumption compared to competitive platforms. The Cisco CRS-3 also delivers significant capital expenditures savings and investment protection for existing Cisco CRS-1 customers. The new capabilities in the platform can be achieved by reusing the existing chassis, route processors, fans and power systems with the addition of new line cards and fabric. These upgrades can be performed in-service and be provided by Cisco Services to ensure a smooth transition.

Silicon Innovation: The Cisco CRS-3 is powered by the new Cisco QuantumFlow Array Processor, which unifies the combined power of six chips to work as one, enabling unprecedented levels of service capabilities and processing power. Making this implementation even more unique is its ability to deliver capabilities with a fraction of the power required by lesser performing chipsets. The Cisco QuantumFlow Array chipset was designed to provide the new system the ability to scale with the ever increasing demands being placed on the IP NGN by the many different applications and billions of devices being used by both businesses and consumers in the Zettabyte era.

Supporting Quotes:

Keith Cambron, president and CEO, AT&T Labs

“We are entering the next stage of global communication and entertainment services and applications, which requires a new set of advanced Internet networking technologies. AT&T’s network handled 40 percent more traffic in 2009 than it did in the previous year, and we continue to see this growth in 2010. Having leading edge experience in managing the largest global data network, we are pleased to continue our close working relationship with Cisco and its groundbreaking Cisco CRS-3 platform.”

Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco

“The next generation Internet is upon us and we are confident that the Cisco CRS-3 will play a crucial role as service providers like AT&T deliver an exciting, new array of video, mobile, data center and cloud services. The Cisco CRS-3 is well positioned to carry on the tradition of the Cisco CRS-1, become the flagship router of the future and serves as the foundation for the world’s most intelligent and advanced broadband networks.”

Mahaney’s argument is simple: 1) Media sales represent half of Amazon’s North American business and 2) They have been slowing consistently for a while. Here’s what the numbers look like (click to enlarge):

Why are media sales slowing down? Mahaney, an Amazon (AMZN) bull, throws out some ideas:

This may well be the most discretionary/recession-sensitive segment of Amazon. That surely explains part of the slowdown. But three other factors may be material. First, this segment includes Books, Music, and Videos (in addition to Video Game Software)–products that have had inherently slow overall retail growth over the last few years. Second, this segment includes products that are over-indexed in terms of Internet penetration. And third, this segment contains products that are being rapidly digitized–even the plain old book, thanks in part to the Kindle.

The last point is the most interesting one to chew on because Amazon bulls usually argue that the company is the best-positioned player to adapt to the digitization of media. And they’re probably right. But it sure does increase the pressure on the company to get it right, which will probably involve charging more for the digital music and books than it does now.

I am utterly fascinated with the iPhone. Dying to get one. I’ve been a Verizon Wireless person for 15 years and have never had a coverage problem in the metro Boston area. I don’t hear great things about AT&T’s 3G. Do you think it’s worth the switch?

While I believe the iPhone is a marvelous device, I have always advised that nobody should get any phone unless it is on a network that they are sure works to their satisfaction in the areas where they will use it. Personally, I find AT&T’s network adequate where I use it, and getting better, so I am happy with my iPhone. But there are many others who have either given up their iPhones out of frustration with AT&T, or who have decided against buying one because they prefer another carrier, or want to avoid AT&T.

So, my advice is to ask friends around Boston who have iPhones or other AT&T 3G devices how they feel about the network. You might also enter your ZIP Code at some Web sites that track overall carrier coverage and dead zones, like cellreception.com, or deadcellzones.com.

If this research suggests you should avoid AT&T, but you are still “dying” for an iPhone, you might consider the iPod Touch, which is essentially an iPhone without the cellphone inside. It lacks the iPhone’s camera, GPS and built-in microphone, but it does connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi and runs the vast majority of iPhone apps. It doesn’t carry any monthly fee or require a carrier contract.

How do I forward an email from Gmail? I don’t see any icon for forwarding messages like I do on other email programs.

Gmail hides a bunch of menu choices under the Reply icon in the upper-right-hand corner of open emails. If you click on the small downward arrow next to the Reply icon, you will see more actions you can take on the message, including Forward, Reply to All, Print and others.

I read your recent article on IE8 and installed it on my desktop. I did not notice in your article any mention of IE8 slowing the computer down significantly, but it has had this effect on my PC. Why didn’t you mention it? Can I uninstall IE8 and return to the prior version?

I didn’t mention the problem you are having because I never observed that Internet Explorer 8 caused any general slowdown of any of the multiple Windows PCs on which I tested it. I did warn that IE8 itself grew sluggish when it had a large number of Web sites open simultaneously in tabs, but, in my tests, even that didn’t slow down the whole computer.

However, you can indeed uninstall IE8 and return to the previous version. Microsoft has provided complete instructions, and even an automated uninstall program, at: support.microsoft.com/kb/957700.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

No area of technology will be immune to the decline. Hardest hit: the computer hardware sector, which is expected to see spending fall 15 percent to $324.3 billion. Seems even the promise of government stimulus packages won’t be enough to offset this ugly near-term outlook. Said Gordon, “Economic conditions have continued to erode business confidence in all regions. There is a continued general sense of uncertainty in the market and a lack of clarity of actual amount of toxic debt out there. IT organizations will look for ways to shift spending from capital expenditures to operational efficiencies.”

But! Things may be looking up by the fourth quarter of 2009, Wren says. In part, that’s because those results will be compared to last quarter’s results, which are lousy. But Wren is also hopeful about the effect of stimulus spending in the U.S. and other countries. So that’s something, right?

EARLIER: For much of 2008, the big ad conglomerates seemed unaffected by the global slowdown. But that had to stop sometime: Omnicom Group (OMC) just announced that its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings dropped seven percent and 13.7 percent, respectively.

From the barebones press release Omnicom issued, it’s difficult to get a read on just how off the ad markets really are: The giant holding company hasn’t broken out it results by industry (advertising versus PR, etc.), and crucially, it hasn’t broken out its organic growth rate–i.e., how the company would have performed without recent acquisitions. [UPDATE: Reuters says organic growth dropped 2.3 percent, though I can't see where it got that figure.] Hoping to get more of that during the company’s 830 earnings call and will report back if there’s anything interesting.

Here are two breakdowns of Omnicom’s Q4 numbers, via the company’s conference call.

[Image Credit: jsome1]

Though Wii manufacturer Nintendo posted a 21 percent gain in quarterly operating profit on brisk demand for the videogame console, it slashed its forecast for full-year sales of the device (it slashed its full-year profit forecasts as well–by 33 percent). Nintendo had expected to sell 27.5 million units during its fiscal year, which runs from April until March. Now it expects to sell only 26.5 million. “Wii sales in Japan during the year-end shopping season didn’t meet our forecast,” Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said during an earnings briefing. “Still, I don’t think demand for the Wii has run out.”

No, of course not. But clearly the Wii isn’t as recession-proof as was once thought. And, despite its appeal to budget-conscious consumers, Nintendo doesn’t feel it’s immune to the general slowdown in consumer spending. Said KBC Financial Products analyst Hiroshi Kamide: “Today’s revision suggests that the roaring pace of Wii growth that we’ve seen until now may be over.”

“We believe demand has deteriorated across most of the company’s core end-markets, with a particularly sharp slowdown in handsets, evidenced by a number of key supplier and competitor pre-announcements,” Sheerin wrote in a note to clients. “[The economic downturn] will make a recovery in the core handset business even more challenging and could accelerate cash burn.”

More ugly news for Motorola (MOT), which last week had its credit rating slashed to Junk by Standard & Poor’s.

“We believe demand has deteriorated across most of the company’s core end-markets, with a particularly sharp slowdown in handsets, evidenced by a number of key supplier and competitor pre-announcements,” Sheerin wrote in a note to clients. “[The economic downturn] will make a recovery in the core handset business even more challenging and could accelerate cash burn.”

More ugly news for Motorola (MOT), which last week had its credit rating slashed to Junk by Standard & Poor’s.

Hell of an understatement, given the news. Hope they serve alcohol at that Capital Markets Day event….

Hell of an understatement, given the news. Hope they serve alcohol at that Capital Markets Day event….

Those would be the Web publishers, large and small, that hand over some of their ad space to Google (GOOG), which generally fills it with its ubiquitous text ads. Kim Scott, who runs AdSense sales, would like those publishers to know that Google knows times are tough, and that it wants to help, and that it’s improving AdSense all the time, and that they should hang in there.

Nothing wrong with the note–it’s always good form to send customers a little pick-me-up. But since most publishers we know use AdSense as an ad solution of last resort–because they have extra space to sell, or because they have no way to sell space, period–it’s hard to imagine a missive like this will be very persuasive.

Here’s the note , courtesy of VentureBeat’s MG Siegler:

Dear Publisher,

We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we’re continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.

We’re focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We’re bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we’ll continue to launch new products and features. We’re also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.

We’ll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.

Sincerely,

Kim Scott
Director AdSense Online Sales & Operations

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043″

And, of course, it will sooner or later. Certainly, the Semiconductor Industry Association, which provided the sales numbers above, thinks so. Earlier this week, it called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion financial rescue package before it. “Consumer demand accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy,” said SIA president George Scalise. “A slowdown in sales of a broad range of consumer products such as personal computers, cellphones, and entertainment electronics would have an adverse impact on semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest quarter for the chip industry. The entire supply chain, including our suppliers and customers, will be harmed if access to credit becomes difficult.”

And, of course, it will sooner or later. Certainly, the Semiconductor Industry Association, which provided the sales numbers above, thinks so. Earlier this week, it called on the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the $700 billion financial rescue package before it. “Consumer demand accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy,” said SIA president George Scalise. “A slowdown in sales of a broad range of consumer products such as personal computers, cellphones, and entertainment electronics would have an adverse impact on semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest quarter for the chip industry. The entire supply chain, including our suppliers and customers, will be harmed if access to credit becomes difficult.”

“When Dell announced Q2 financial results on Aug. 28, 2008, it reported continued conservatism in IT spending in the U.S., which had extended into Western Europe and several countries in Asia,” the company said in a statement. “The company is seeing further softening in global end-user demand in the current quarter.”

Translation: If you thought Q2 was lousy, wait until you see our Q3.

Coming as it does after a second quarter in which Dell (DELL) reported a 17 percent drop in earnings and announced plans to sell off its factories, the warning doesn’t bode at all well for the company’s next round of financials. Said Bill Kreher, a securities analyst with Edward Jones, “The company’s inconsistent performance and lack of confidence means there’s a lot of uncertainty in the turnaround.”