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JAPANESE ELECTRONICS GIANT Toshiba joined the list of vendors announcing lacklustre financial figures, posting a quarterly loss.

Toshiba announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter that ended on 31 December 2011. The firm’s revenue was .4bn, nine per cent down from the same quarter of the prior year, posting a loss of 9m.

Toshiba is the world’s second largest flash maker behind Samsung, and its electronics devices suffered a 10 per cent drop in sales. The firm’s television division suffered even worse, with a 27 per cent drop in sales.

Japanese television manufacturers such as Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic have faced considerable sales challenges in the past year. Toshiba was thought to have managed its TV business better than most but even it had to lower sales forecasts.

While Toshiba was facing difficulty in the television market, the flash market was expected to provide some respite for the company, after all it is a supplier to Apple. Nevertheless a 10 per cent drop in sales is concerning during a period when tablets sold well.

Toshiba laid the blame for less than stellar figures on the Thai floods, weaker demand and the rising value of the Japanese Yen.

Sony and Panasonic are expected to announce their financial results later this week. µ

SELLER OF SHINY TOYS Apple might not be on top of the smartphone market in March, according to Strategy Analytics.

A day after Apple was installed as the leading smartphone vendor by Strategy Analytics, the firm told The INQUIRER that the ding-dong battle between Apple and Samsung will continue for a while. Scott Bicheno, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics told The INQUIRER that there is a good chance that Samsung will regain its top spot in the first quarter of 2012.

Yesterday Strategy Analytics published figures showing that Apple was the top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2011, overtaking Samsung. The figures showed Apple edging out Samsung by 500,000 units with 37m units shipped.

Bicheno said, “We expect to see the smartphone number one spot being occupied by either Samsung or Apple for a few more quarters. Furthermore, the fact that Samsung got so close to Apple in what was an exceptional quarter for Iphone sales suggests Samsung has a strong chance of retaking the crown in Q1 2012.”

That Apple and Samsung will battle it out for top position is not all that surprising given the disasterous year suffered by LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. However if Samsung can regain its top-spot from Apple it will show that the company is a serious, long term challenger.

Strategy Analytics’ figures for fourth quarter 2011 shipments highlighted just how bad things are at Nokia, with the outfit claiming Nokia shipped 19.6m units, down almost 9m from the same period a year previously. As for global market share, Nokia almost made Research in Motion look successful, showing a drop of 15.5 per cent to 12.6 per cent.

When asked whether the many lawsuits between Apple and Samsung were having an effect on actual sales, Bicheno didn’t seem to think so.

“We have seen little evidence of the lawsuits affecting retail sales – as our latest smartphone figures imply. So far the impact of any minor legal defeats has been minimal and we haven’t seen the kinds of blanket sales bans litigants have been aiming for. That could change at any time, of course, and the only thing that does seem certain is that it will be another busy year for the patent lawyers,” said Bicheno.

Bicheno’s comments suggest that Apple’s legal battles to get countries to ban the import and sale of certain Samsung devices are seeing little effect. Perhaps this could encourage firms to stop fighting in the courts but, as Bicheno suggested, that seems unlikely. µ

PC SHIPMENTS in the fourth quarter declined by 6.5 per cent, according to IDC, as consumers chose to buy devices such as tablets instead.

IDC said PC shipments in the EMEA region fell to 103 million units for the full year 2011, a seven per cent decline from 2010.

Consumer portable PC shipments declined 15.4 per cent in Q4 2011, due to a sharp 48.8 per cent drop in mini-notebook sales, while mainstream notebooks declined by 3.1 per cent.

However, IDC said the shortage of hard disk drive (HDD) supply had a limited impact in the quarter, as products destined to be sold to consumers in the pre-Christmas period are built and shipped by sea by mid-November using inventory that was manufactured prior to the flooding.

It added that the commercial share of air shipments is higher, therefore the lack of sufficient HDD supply could have had a bigger impact, but “vendors prioritised higher-margin commercial SKUs versus consumer models”.

HP maintained the top vendor slot in EMEA, with healthy growth in the consumer notebook market again, having successfully restored its inventory balance across the region in Q4 2011.

Acer remained in second place despite posting the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit declines. Dell regained the third place it lost to Asus the previous quarter, thanks to strong growth in EMEA, where the vendor won several public sector deals, and Asus slipped to fourth place despite posting healthy double-digit growth.

Lenovo maintained fifth place, reporting strong double-digit growth and consolidating market share in EMEA.

Meanwhile, Toshiba regained in sixth place in the overall EMEA rankings despite a sharp drop in Central Europe and weak results in Western Europe. Samsung reported its first decline in five years, due to a sharp drop in Western Europe, where results were impacted by slowing notebook sales and waning mini-notebook demand.

Not surprisingly, Apple maintained healthy growth, particularly in the consumer segment. µ

TABLET COMPUTERS are still going strong, but sales were lower than expected in the third quarter, signalling a potential slowdown in growth.

18.1 million tablets were sold in the third quarter, 23.9 per cent higher than in the second quarter and 264.5 per cent higher than in the same period last year, but this was 5.8 per cent below the original forecast of 19.2 million units, according to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Of course, there’s only so long high growth can last before device penetration becomes an obstacle to further growth. If everyone has a tablet already they are less likely to keep buying more of the things, and thus growth will drop from high double or triple digits to low double or even single digits.

Apple continued to dominate the tablet market, with 11.1 million units shipped, compared to 9.3 million in the previous quarter. However, its market share dropped slightly from 63.3 per cent to 61.5 per cent due to the extra competition in the sector, according to IDC.

HP shipped 903,354 Touchpads in the third quarter, marking the beginning and end of its foray into the tablet market. The move helped it secure a five per cent market share, earning the third spot behind Samsung’s 5.6 per cent market share for the Galaxy Tab. However, HP lost money on almost every Touchpad.

Despite the poorer than expected performance in the third quarter, IDC expects strong sales in the fourth quarter, primarily due to Christmas shopping. It has increased its forecast from 62.5 million units to 63.3 million, which should largely make up for the third quarter shortfall.

IDC also expects market share to shift considerably in the fourth quarter, with Android’s 32.4 per cent market share growing to 40.3 per cent, thanks largely to Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, which IDC believes will sell well thanks to its low price tag. µ

FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia has reported a second successive net loss of €68m, which was not as bad as expected after higher sales of its low-end feature phones.

The surprising increase in sales of feature phones was due to strong sales of Nokia’s dual SIM handsets. The firm shipped 8 per cent more feature phones in the third quarter at 90 million, and 18 million were dual SIM phones.

Nokia’s €68m loss beat Wall Street’s estimate of a €321m loss. Meanwhile, the firm’s sales dropped 13 per cent to €8.98bn. Smartphone sales slumped by 38 per cent to 16.8 million units in the quarter, while average selling prices fell 21.5 per cent to €51.

Overall, Nokia’s mobile shipments fell three per cent to 106.6 million units in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said he was “encouraged by the progress we made during Q3″, while noting that “there are still many important steps ahead in our journey of transformation”.

He added, “Additionally, I am encouraged by our progress around the first Nokia experience with Windows Phone, and we look forward to bringing the experience to consumers in select countries later this quarter. We then intend to systematically increase the number of countries and launch partners during the course of 2012.”

Nokia has been targeting emerging markets such as India in recent times, accounting for the surge in feature phone sales, arguably at the expense of its smartphone portfolio.

The former (and perhaps future) maker of rubber boots will launch its first Windows Phone 7.5 (WP7.5) Mango smartphone(s) along with Microsoft at Nokia World next week. µ

DARLING OF THE CONNECTED executive set, Research in Motion (RIM) has acknowledged its difficult first financial quarter and revealed that it sold 500,000 of its Playbook tablet devices.

Revenue in the first quarter was .9bn, down by 12 per cent against the previous quarter but up 16 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.

Most of the revenue, 78 per cent, came from the firm’s hardware business, 20 per cent from services and two per cent from software.

Device-wise the company flogged 13.2 million Blackberry smartphones, a figure lower than it was expecting, and approximately 500,000 Blackberry Playbook tablets. RIM started selling the Playbook tablet in the UK this week.

“Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start. The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter.” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of RIM.

“RIM’s business is profitable and remains solid overall with growing market share in numerous markets around the world and a strong balance sheet with almost billion in cash. We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part of fiscal 2012.”

New products could give the firm the much needed kick it needs. While once it dominated suit jacket pockets with its Blackberry devices, other smartphones like Apple’s Iphones and the many Android releases have knocked it out of that position.

The Playbook is an interesting addition, but with the Ipad and again the many Android alternatives it is in danger of being an also ran. The firm does plan to release what might be tagged a ‘superphone’, but who knows when or what, and by whenever it is if will anyone will care.

The Canadian company was rubbished by Morgan Stanley yesterday in a research note that depicted the once great firm as a lesser, floundering one.

“We believe RIM has now squandered nearly every opportunity and competitive advantage it enjoyed through ineffective R&D resource management, delayed product launches and misreads of the competitive environment,” read the research note. µ

GADGET MAKER Apple has released its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2011, reporting record revenue growth of 83 per cent and profits up by 95 per cent.

Apple brought in revenue of .67 billion for the period ending 26 March, nearly doubling the .5 billion it earned in the same period a year ago. Net profit was also up significantly from .07 billion to .99 billion.

These figures were higher than expected, even with already high analyst expectations, which might reassure investors fearful about the impact of component shortages following the recent Japanese earthquake.

A big increase Iphone sales was a large contributor to the high growth. The company sold 18.65 million Iphones in the second quarter, marking a 113 per cent increase over its second quarter last year. This also marked a 15 per cent increase over the first quarter.

Apple sold 3.76 million Macs, a 28 per cent increase, showing that there is still a growing market for alternatives to Windows-based PCs.

The ageing Ipod did not do so well, however, selling only 9.02 million units, a 17 per cent fall from Q2 2010 figures and a much larger 54 per cent fall from first quarter sales.

Apple sold 4.69 million Ipads, a significant number, but also a 36 per cent drop compared to the first quarter. This is likely because Apple’s first fiscal quarter included the busy Christmas shopping season.

For the third quarter Apple expects to bring in billion in revenue and diluted earnings per share of .03, which are lower figures than those reported for the second quarter. It seems likely that Apple will beat these estimates.

These strong results have helped Apple’s shares, which, at the time of writing, climbed .55, 1.35 per cent, to 2.41. µ