Technology companies have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. The reports come as consumers shift their spending toward tablets. Here is a summary of recent earnings and reports for selected technology companies and what they reveal about the state of spending and the overall economy.
- July 5: Samsung Electronics Co. estimates its April-June operating profit at a record high of 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion). That is a 47 percent jump from a year earlier and 8 percent growth from the previous quarter. But it fell short of forecasts by analysts. Its stock fell on doubts that Samsung's smartphone business can maintain rapid growth. Analysts say high marketing costs probably weighed on Samsung's mobile business despite the robust sales in the first month. Samsung says it will release full results on July 26.
- July 10: Research firms IDC and Gartner report that worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 11 percent in the April-June period, as people continue to migrate to tablets and other mobile devices. Gartner's Mikako Kitagawa said inexpensive tablets are displacing low-end computers in "mature" markets such as the United States. IDC says the numbers "reflect a market that is still struggling with the transition to touch-based systems running Windows 8." Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system launched in October and sales have disappointed analysts.
- July 16: Yahoo Inc. says earnings climbed 46 percent, thanks to a major boost from an investment in Chinese Internet company Alibaba. But Yahoo's revenue fell 7 percent from last year, highlighting a recurring problem despite other signs of progress under CEO Marissa Mayer as she marks a year with the company.
Coming up:
- July 17: Intel Corp., eBay Inc., IBM Corp.
- July 18: Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Verizon Communications Inc.
- July 22: Netflix Inc.
- July 23: AT&T Inc., Apple Inc.
- July 24: Facebook Inc.
- July 25: Zynga Inc., Amazon.com Inc.
- July 26: Samsung (full report)
- July 31: Comcast Corp.
- Aug. 1: Sony Corp.
- Aug. 14: Cisco Systems Inc.
- Aug. 20: Dell Inc.
- Aug. 21: Hewlett-Packard Co.
- Sept. 27: BlackBerry Ltd.