Apple and Samsung are in the midst of a patent-fueled war with no end in site, but the pair has also inadvertently joined forces to make it increasingly difficult for other vendors to continue making smartphones. New estimates suggest Apple and Samsung combined to take in a staggering 95% of smartphone industry profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. The figures paint an even bleaker picture for the rest of the players in the smartphone business than earlier estimates; UBS analyst Maynard Um said last week th...

E Ink, the popular company that provides paper-look gray-scale displays for eReaders, reported consolidated revenues of $48.02 million in January, down 63.6% from the same month last year and 11% sequentially. The growing popularity of media tablets with full-color displays likely played a big role in the decline — sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet are thought to be eating into the companies’ respective dedicated eReader businesses to an extent. Even thoug...

Sprint on Wednesday reported its results for the fourth quarter of 2011. The nation’s No.3 carrier sold 1.8 million iPhones, 40% of which were sold to new subscribers, and it managed 1.6 million total net subscriber additions in the quarter — its best performance in terms of customer acquisition since 2005. Sprint still posted a net loss of $1.3 billion in the quarter, however, or a diluted loss of $.43 per share. The carrier saw net operating losses increase to $438 million from $139 million in the...

Impressive data points from Apple’s record-setting holiday quarter continue to trickle out, and new estimates suggest that the company accounted for a staggering share of mobile profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a research note on Tuesday that Apple took in approximately 50% of all mobile industry revenues last quarter. Even more impressive, the analyst says Apple’s high-margin iPhone lineup accounted for more than 80% of all mobile phone profits. ...

Apple Stores are often busy and with the release of new iPhones and iPads, Apple’s retail locations become bombarded with waves of excited customers. According to Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf, the launch of the iPhone 4S sent Apple Store sales to record heights during the holiday quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2011, revenue per store reached $17.08 million, a 42.6% increase over the same quarter in 2010. The average number of visitors per store was up 15.3% annually and sales per squ...

HTC on Monday reported earnings for the fourth quarter last year along with guidance for the first quarter that missed analysts’ estimates. Further highlighting the slump that began in October with the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4S, the Taiwan-based vendor posted fourth-quarter revenue of NT$101.42 billion, or approximately $3.5 billion USD, down 2.5% compared to the same quarter in 2010. Gross profit slid nearly 12% in the fourth quarter to NT$27.5 billion, and HTC’s total assets on hand at t...

Kazuo Hirai was appointed Sony’s new chief executive on Wednesday and one day later, the company reported a wider than expected loss in the third fiscal quarter of 2011 that sent its stock tumbling more than 6% in early trading. The firm posted an operating loss of $1.2 billion on $23.4 billion in revenue, down more than 17% compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2010, and its net loss for the quarter totaled $2 billion. Sony also said it now anticipates a full-year loss of $2.9 billion, more than twice...

LG Electronics on Wednesday posted its second consecutive quarterly loss despite record flat-panel TV shipments and solid performance from its mobile handset division. The South Korea-based electronics vendor recorded revenue of KRW 13.81 trillion, or approximately $12.05 billion USD, in the fourth quarter of 2011 along with an operating profit of KRW 23 billion, or about $20 million USD. Including one-time charges however, LG posted a net loss of KRW 112 billion, or approximately $97.7 million USD. The fir...

Apple reported a monster first quarter last Tuesday that sent the company’s stock skyrocketing over the past week. Apple’s holiday quarter was the most profitable quarter ever reported by a technology company, and the second most profitable quarter reported by any U.S. firm. With a market capitalization that now sits in excess of $420 billion, Apple is currently the most valuable company in the world, and with more than $97.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of calendar 2011, Appl...

Samsung on Friday reported record earnings for the fourth quarter last year. In line with the company’s estimates as reported earlier this month, Samsung recorded an operating profit of 5.3 trillion won, or approximately $4.72 billion USD, on sales of 47 trillion won, or approximately $42 billion USD. Samsung had never reported a profit of more than 5 trillion won in a single quarter and its 5.3 trillion won profit represents a 76% increase over the holiday quarter in 2010. Samsung’s mobile busine...

Motorola Mobility on Thursday announced the company’s results for the fourth quarter last year. The vendor managed $3.4 billion in revenue but posted a net loss of $80 million, or $0.27 per share. Motorola posted a profit of $0.27 per share in the same quarter a year earlier. For the full year, the company’s revenue totaled $13.1 billion, up 14% compared to 2010, and it reported a net loss was $0.84 per share compared to a loss of $0.29 per share in 2010. Motorola shipped 10.5 million mobile devic...

AT&T reported its fourth-quarter 2011 results on Thursday and noted that it achieved record mobile broadband and smartphone activations during the quarter. The company reported consolidated revenue of $32.5 billion, up 3.6% or $1.1 billion from the same quarter last year, but it posted a loss of $6.7 billion, or $1.12 per share. EPS swings to a profit of $0.42 per share discounting one-time charges including the massive breakup fee paid to T-Mobile. AT&T attributed 76% of its revenue growth to wireles...

Nokia on Thursday reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011, revealing its third straight quarterly loss but beating analyst estimates. The company saw revenue slide 21% year-over-year to €10 billion, and profit dropped from €884 million in the fourth quarter 2010 to a €954 million operating loss last quarter. Smartphone revenue dipped 38% compared to the same quarter in 2010 to €2.75 billion, and mobile phone sales were off 23% to €3.04 billion. Nokia shipped 113.5 million feature phone...

Netflix on Wednesday announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011. The company noted $876 million in revenue, up 47% from the same quarter last year, and earnings per share of $0.73. Analysts had pegged the company to report revenue in the ballpark of $857.4 million and EPS of $0.54, Barron’s relayed. Netflix also said it added 220,000 new subscribers, a far cry from the 800,000 it lost during the third quarter, and now serves 21.67 million streaming customers in the United States. The company...