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Samsung estimates Q1 2012 $5.1 billion profits

Joe — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:54:45 +0000

Samsung has estimated that they will earn between 44 and 46 trillion Korean won in consolidated sales (around $39 billion US). The profits believe it or not are around 5.6 and 6.0 trillion which is around $5.2 billion. The numbers have to be due to the number of phones they have released. Such as the Samsung Galaxy Note and Samsung Galaxy S and S 2 on multiple different carriers. Around 5 million Galaxy Note devices have been sold so far. So it does look like the Samsung smartphone division is really putting them in a place to make some big profits. So anyone getting a Samsung Galaxy or already own one?

Wifi issues on new iPad

Joe — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:04:07 +0000

From some internal AppleCare documentation, Apple is currently investigating a multitude of WiFi-related issues that have been affecting the new iPad. The problems have been ranging from connection drops, slow download and upload speeds and even having issues picking up wireless networks at all. So now they are telling the store to just exchange the product if they having issues. iPads that are affected by WiFi issues are supposed to be “Captured.” According to one source, “Captured” is code for the device to be immediately packed up and shipped to Apple’s engineering centers for examination and investigation. Apple employees are instructed to Capture the iPad itself and included accessories (the charging adapter and USB cord). Apple will replace affected units.

Let’s game: possible controller for iPad and iPhone coming

Joe — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:39:06 +0000

There are rumors circulating that there may be a controller coming for the iPad and iPhone for gaming. AnandTech’s site had stated that they knew of an internal Apple project that is supposed to bring a physical controller to market and whether or not it will ever even see the light of day remains to actually be seen. Even though this is not they of Apple, I mean they have never had any type of device such as a stylus or what have you to interact with your Apple touch products. So this would be a major change for Apple but is a nice good attachment to sell with Apple products and should have some solid sales from them. So the big thought on this controller would be how would it connect to the devices and most look like it might be Bluetooth, since the keyboard used for the iPad have been Bluetooth for years. Also with being able to put your iPad on your Apple TV for a bigger screen would also make you want to game on it and a controller would be a nice touch. I think this is a no brainer for Apple but whether they will truly follow up is the key.

iPhone outselling other smartphones combined at AT&T and Sprint

Joe — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:53:18 +0000

It looks like the Apple iPhone dominance continues to grow. Mike Walkley, a Canaccord Genuity analyst reported that in March the iPhone continued to gain market share and that the iPhones are outselling all other smartphones combined at Sprint and AT&T and is actually selling close to the equal volume to all the Android smartphones sold at Verizon. That is a very impressive stat with all of the smarthphones out there. Although there is a close second to Apple and believe it or not it is the Samsung Galaxy phones. The Galaxy S II is selling very well at AT&T and Sprint and the Galaxy Nexus that is at Verizon is also selling well. So could Samsung be true rival to the iPhone. So far sales are saying yes.

From Two and a half men to Steve Jobs?

Joe — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:26:16 +0000

Speculation is running rampant that Ashton Kutcher will be playing Steve Jobs in a new indie flick called “Jobs”. This movie will be directed by Josh Stern of Swing Vote and the script was written by Matt Whiteley. The movie is supposed to follow Steve Jobs from being a young hippie to a co-founder of Apple to becoming one of the most creative innovative entrepreneurs of our time. There is also another movie in the works from Sony Pictures as well. So it will be interesting to see how many Steve Jobs movies there will be here.

LivingSocials President and Cofounder has stepped down

Joe — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:41:27 +0000

So the cofounder and president of LivingSocial, Eddie Frederick has actually stepped down from the board that was actually sent out in an email from the CEO tim O’shaughnessy. If you didn’t know LivingSocial is a direct competitor to Groupon which is now a publicly traded company as of late last year. Now LivingSocial is also looking into getting into the public domain. Now one has to wonder if the fact they are going public could of weighted into the decision of the president of LivingSocial decided to step down. Although I obtained the letter sent from Tim O’Shaughnessy on this major change in the top brass of LivingSocial. So take what you will from this email he sent out after being informed of Frederick’s departure from the company.

LivingSocialites,

Every so often you have to write one of those emails that you just hate to write. One of those emails that’s on your to-do list all day but you keep procrastinating until finally it’s the end of the day and you can procrastinate no more. Well, it’s the end of the day.

Today I’m writing with a little sadness and a lot of gratitude to let you know that Eddie Frederick will be stepping down from his current position on our leadership team and our board and moving on to new challenges and adventures (and if you know Eddie, you have no doubt that there will be plenty of new “adventures”). As friends and colleagues, we wish him the best.

A big reason for the success and vision of LivingSocial has been the leadership and passion of one of our founders. Eddie has seen it all at LivingSocial – his work has ranged from leading our user acquisition efforts to A/B testing button colors for Facebook Apps to pushing to launch Me + 3 and countless other contributions. Importantly, he’s also been a partner and driving force in always pushing us into new business opportunities and scaling existing businesses even further. His “negative space” view has provided a unique voice as we’ve grown. On every decision, Eddie framed it with a binary question: Does this help us win? And he usually helped us get the right answer.

Please join me in thanking Eddie in helping us become the company we are today, and helping position us for the company we’ll become in the future.

–
Tim O’Shaughnessy
CEO

RIM lost $54 million during a four day global outage

Joe — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:26:54 +0000

Back to October the Blackberry phones stopped working for about 4 days. Now this wasn’t an all-out fail, as a matter of fact you could make calls and text message but no data would work. So BlackBerry makers RIM had to tell investors a few days ago that this outage cost them around $54 million dollars. This is yet another big hit to RIM who is falling further and further down in the phone and tablet market. After this outage it actually was reported that RIM’s market share actually did decrease another 2.9% which brought it down to 16%. From September 2011 to December of 2011. I personally in one point in my life did own a Blackberry. I purchased a Storm when it first came out and let’s just say a year later I got a droid. I felt back then that Blackberry didn’t have the power to keep up with this market and it looks like I was right. It is just a matter of time before they get out of the business altogether, go bankrupt or get bought out.

Google to make tablets

Joe — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:06:01 +0000

The hardware business can be a very tough place to play in. As you know Google for a very long time now has been creating the Android operating systems for phones and tablets for companies like Motorola, LG, and more. Well Google is interested in capturing the lighting Apple has struck with its OS and devices. Google is looking to sell co-branded tablets directly to consumers through an online store such as Apple and even Amazon. Obviously with the purchase of Motorola in the works this had to be no surprise to anyone that they would soon be getting into the market of making their own branded tablets. The question now will be what type of hardware will they use and how strong will they be against the links of Apple and Amazon in these ongoing tablet battles.

GDrive could be parking in April

Joe — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:40:05 +0000

Google has had a rumored online storage service by the name of GDrive that actually was announced back in 2006 and was even brought back up in 2007 but not much has been brought up about this service since that those years. Now there are more rumors coming out that the GDrive might be coming as soon as the first week of April. Google states that this type of service will integrate with Google docs and allow you to upload documents to Google Docs. The details that I have read so far on this online storage service are as follows, a 1 GB of storage space that will be given for free and if you want anything over that you would have to pay, however I have yet to find any details on a pricing structure. Although Google will be facing some stiff competition, jumping into a market that is dominated by Dropbox which offers 2 GB of free storage space. There are also reports that Google will have not just a local client but also a web interface, along with that it will have an API function for third party apps as well. The reports are promising but with the time it has taken Google to make this product, will we really see the launch come this April? Only time will tell.

Xbox Live finally to add Comcast and HBO

Joe — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:41:25 +0000

The new update for Microsoft Xbox Live launched on Tuesday and has some nice updates to it. Some of the nice long awaited applications are included in this update, including the Comcast video on demand service and also the HBO Go service. These applications announced back in October are finally here. Since the announcement of many great applications, many have already been added to the Live family including Verizon Fios, Vevo, Vudu, Epix, and even Youtube. Now it isn’t a surprise that the HBO Go app for the Xbox Live is finally launching now as the new cash cow of HBO, Game of Thrones launches it new season April 1^st. To have a big premiere like this to go along with a highly anticipated app from Xbox Live, that combo is just great press for both Xbox and HBO. So have you had a chance to use these apps yet? Do you like them or do you hate them? Do you even care? Let me know, I like to hear what the people think.