A look at recent tech-industry earnings

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.

- July 17: Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of chips for PCs, backtracks on sales projections. After saying it expected its own sales to grow despite declines on global PC sales, Intel now says sales will be flat. Intel is hoping that sales of chips for servers, tablets and smartphones will compensate for the drop-off in PC sales. The downward revision of the company's outlook is an admission that Intel chips haven't made it into many mobile devices.

IBM Corp. says net income in the latest quarter fell 17 percent as revenue slipped and it absorbed the cost of layoffs. IBM raises its annual profit outlook. It now expects to earn an adjusted $16.90 per share for the full year, above the $16.66 analysts expected.

A challenging overseas market weighs on eBay's outlook. Though he calls the quarter's results strong, CEO John Donahoe says economic weakness in Europe and Korea will "continue to be a challenge" in the second half of the year. Revenue rises by 14 percent in the April-June period, as its PayPal business and namesake online marketplace continues to grow. But net income declines amid higher expenses.

- July 18: Microsoft Corp.'s foray into the tablet computer market is proving costly, as world's largest software company books a $900 million write-down to account for the deep price cut it applied to its Surface RT tablet earlier in the week. It was a move to spur sales amid sluggish demand.

Google's second-quarter results show that the search leader is still having trouble navigating a technological transition driving more online activity on to smartphones and tablets, which fetch lower ad rates. Google's average ad rate fell by 6 percent from the same time last year. The magnitude of the declines had eased in each of the previous three quarters, raising hopes that the worse was over. Instead, things deteriorated from the 4 percent decline in ad rates posted during the first three months of the year.

Cellphone maker Nokia Corp.'s woes continue with revenues dropping 24 percent in the second quarter. Still, cost-cutting helped the Finnish company's trim its net loss to 227 million euros ($298 million), compared with a net loss of 1.41 billion euros a year earlier.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. posts a loss for the second quarter, reversing a year-ago profit, as lower expenses could not make up for declining revenue in the midst of a worldwide PC slump.

Dell Inc. delays a vote on founder Michael Dell's plan to take the slumping computer maker private in a sign the board needs more time to find rally support.

Netflix's "House of Cards" makes Emmy history with a top drama series nomination, the first time that television's leading awards have recognized a program delivered online as equal in quality to the best that TV has to offer.

Verizon Wireless, the country's largest cellphone carrier, says it's joining AT&T and T-Mobile in providing an installment plan for its phones, aiming to satisfy customers who want to upgrade their devices faster or avoid paying the upfront cost of their phones. The plan, dubbed Edge, will be introduced Aug. 25, and allows the buyer to spread the full retail price of the phone, without subsidies, over 24 months. Verizon Wireless added 941,000 devices to its contract-based plans in the April-to-June period, exceeding analyst estimates and continuing a strong run.

Coming up:

- 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.