Mark Bridge writes:
Internet veteran Yahoo! provided last week’s biggest news, at least in terms of press coverage. It appointed Marissa Mayer as its President and Chief Executive Officer, having enticed her away from Google after 13 years.
Also generating plenty of headlines was an Ofcom report that showed UK mobile users were now texting more than they talked. Apparently the average Briton sends 50 text messages per week.
And O2 mopped up the aftermath of its network problems by explaining how it planned to compensate customers who’d suffered connectivity issues last week.
Quarterly results have been hitting the headlines again – and there have been a few minor surprises so far. Vodafone’s had something of a mixed quarter, with market conditions in Europe (and European exchange rates) being blamed for much of the turmoil.
Microsoft reported its first-ever quarterly loss after writing off most of the money it spent on advertising business aQuantive five years ago. However, that didn’t stop it from generating record fourth quarter and annual revenue. In addition, it revealed details of the new Microsoft Office and said Windows 8 will start selling on 26th October.
Google announced its first quarterly results since acquiring Motorola Mobility. Total revenue and net income were both up from 2011, although Motorola reported an operating loss. Also having a good time was eBay. It revealed a particularly good quarter and, along with its PayPal business, expects mobile transactions to double this year.
Nokia’s quarterly results, with mobile device shipments down 5% year-on-year, appeared to generate a response of “could’ve been worse” from most analysts. And Qualcomm admitted that sales were slower than expected although they’re expected to pick up towards Christmas.
Quarterly figures from Apple are due tomorrow, while Facebook’s first-ever quarterly earnings report is expected on Thursday.
Finally for this week’s newsletter, we bid goodbye (sort of) to the Wholesale Applications Community. WAC’s programmes are being integrated into the GSMA, while a business called Apigee is picking up the technology assets of WAC. Despite all parties offering upbeat statements, I can’t help feeling it’s not the end that WAC would have really wanted.
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