Sunday, July 8, 2012

Samsung's Galaxy powers record $5.9 billion profit

Soaraway product sales of the Galaxy smartphone drove record quarterly revenue of $5.9 billion at Samsung Electronics, though the South Korean tech giant is perspiring over how Europe's credit card debt crisis is denting need in its biggest market for televisions and residence appliances.

The flagship Galaxy smartphones are very likely to possess stretched their lead above rivals Apple and Nokia - despite a components shortage that meant it struggled to maintain up with stronger-than-expected demand for its newest S III design.

Even though sturdy handset sales grab the headlines, a lot more than doubling financial gain growth, other businesses such as chips and consumer electronics are battling weak costs and need as well as a limping euro, which eats absent at repatriated profits.

In the indicator the euro zone crisis is working out minds in boardrooms across the planet, Samsung executives said this week the team was running into a contingency strategy.

"Europe is our greatest customer electronics industry and we can have to initiate value cuts and merchandise value increases ought to the euro fall additional from the existing degree," mentioned a single executive who didn't wish to be named since the prepare is inner.

"Our smartphones are traveling off the shelves, with some shops reporting 40-60 p.c revenue expansion, but which is distorting the overall buying and selling outlook which is more challenging due to the weak worldwide economic system along with a weak euro."

The euro has fallen around 5 % in opposition to the Korean won given that April, and about 8 p.c during the earlier year, to 2-year lows.

In its April-June earnings assistance on Friday, Samsung, valued at $170 billion along with the world's foremost maker of TVs, smartphones and DRAM memory chips, estimated operating profit jumped 79 percent to 6.7 trillion won from a year in the past - according to an average forecast within a Reuters survey of 23 analysts.

That might be 14.5 p.c larger compared to the previous report quarterly gain in January-March. Samsung believed its second-quarter revenue at 47 trillion won ($41.4 billion), just below a fifty trillion won forecast.

"Revenue is under our forecast, which suggests cost stress was far more serious than had been predicted in goods this kind of as televisions and home appliances," said Nho Geun-chang, analyst at HMC Investment Securities in Seoul.

"Earnings will likely be stronger within the current quarter as sales with the high-end Galaxy S III will boost drastically and travel the telecom division's earnings to previously mentioned five trillion won," he explained, predicting shipments of the S III would strike nineteen million this quarter.

Samsung is because of release its complete second-quarter benefits - the first given that former factors chief Kwon Oh-hyun took in excess of as CEO - in direction of the end of this thirty day period.

Samsung and local rival LG Electronics are among the couple of world-wide Tv set makers generating cash and getting industry reveal from stumbling Japanese rivals Sony, Panasonic and Sharp.

But, spooked specially by a weak chip marketplace, Samsung shares have dropped fifteen p.c inside the earlier two months, even though the broader Korean industry has fallen just in excess of five p.c, and Apple has received nearly 3 percent.

On Friday, Samsung shares dipped one percent to one.173 million won ($1,000), whilst the broader marketplace was off 0.4 p.c.

Cellular DRIVER

Financial gain in the cell division is likely to get more than doubled to about 4.four trillion won from a yr in the past, with product sales of close to fifty million smartphones - in a fee of 380 every moment.

Current quarter cellular revenue are expected to forge even more ahead since the most current Galaxy design enjoys a boom prior to the following iphone launch. Samsung's total third-quarter running gain is likely for being among 7.three trillion won and 8.5 trillion won, an increase of up to 27 p.c from your 2nd quarter, according to a Reuters survey of thirteen analysts. The cellular company provides in additional than 70 percent of Samsung's earnings.

Even though the following apple iphone, expected afterwards this year, will likely slow Samsung's handset earnings expansion, it'll increase the Korean firm's semiconductor earnings as Samsung may be the sole producer of processing chips accustomed to power the apple iphone and iPad, and in addition materials Apple with cell memory chips, NAND flash and show screens.

"Earnings will increase further as being the semiconductor division will even stage a strong recovery within the back again of improving DRAM and NAND desire," stated Jeff Kang, an analyst at Daishin Securities, placing the division could boost earnings by 1 trillion won this quarter.

Friday, March 23, 2012

More cyber attacks are new reality, says Singapore deputy prime minister

The increasing amount of cyber espionage attacks has arrive to get a brand new truth as a result of technological progresses, Singapore's Deputy Primary Minister Teo Chee Hean has said.

He mentioned Singapore has managed to counter a few cyber espionage attacks but is likely to see more of them down the road, local day-to-day Straits Occasions reported on Wednesday.

The vulnerability of Singapore has elevated due to the town state's inter-connectivity, the cache of categorized data that could perhaps be stolen by means of electronic press, and its weighty reliance on details technology programs for crucial companies.

He didn't give a lot more details on who experienced attacked the country's techniques.

Teo, that is also coordinating minister for countrywide security and residence affairs minister, cited cyberspace like a element in maintaining racial and spiritual harmony in Singapore.

The world wide web makes it possible for consumers to article irresponsible, offensive and at times seditious feedback about races and religions, all underneath the cloak of anonymity.

"Whether meant as a deliberate strike versus another neighborhood or not, the tip end result is equally harmful," he explained. " The net allows these dangerous remarks to go viral extremely rapidly. This will probably spiral out of control and quickly hurt inter-communal relations. If transposed into motion during the physical planet, the results can be dire."

The Singapore authorities is producing attempts to build believe in between various communities, he stated.

"It is tempting to assume that the Singaporean identification trumps an individual's racial and religious identity. But modern incidents involving insensitive and offensive remarks in opposition to other religions right here vividly demonstrate the great relations we take pleasure in can't be taken for granted," he stated.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Mobile Leaders Facing Network Complexity Look to Bruce Lee

The final keynote session of Mobile phone Planet Congress 2012 might be remembered, if it is remembered in any respect, as being the Bruce Lee Keynote.

Both Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse and ZTE President Shi Lirong invoked the legendary kung fu grasp in speeches during the Thursday morning occasion, which happened as being the world's greatest mobile trade show arrived into a close in Barcelona. Their remarks summed up several of the challenges struggling with vendors and operators of cell networks, which can be getting to be more complex at the same time as data desire and value pressures increase.

This week's convention has hosted a flood of new developments for heterogeneous networks of conventional macro cells, Wi-Fi hotspots, and femtocells and also other small cells. The several components allow carriers to obtain essentially the most from their finite spectrum and optimize coverage and ability in all places, but this calls for new standards for handling those techniques and assisting subscribers transfer from one for the subsequent.

ZTE's Lirong cited Lee to go with Sprint, calling Hesse's business the premier case in point of a carrier balancing multiple networks. Sprint's services run above CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Accessibility), iDEN and WiMax, which 12 months the company may even kick off LTE (Long-Term Evolution). Furthermore, Lee mixed elements of many different schools of Chinese martial arts, he said.

"A true master, like Bruce Lee, is one that can converge the abilities of all kung fu methods," Lirong stated. "The one particular that masters the converged resolution for numerous networks is going to be kung fu learn of telecom."

Before, Hesse had quoted the star of "Enter the Dragon" in describing Sprint's philosophy:

"Simplicity could be the important to brilliance," Hesse said, quoting Lee. That sentiment may also have partly pushed Sprint's selection, in accordance to information studies earlier this week, to reject a proposed acquisition of midsize U.S. carrier MetroPCS. Sprint is presently within the center of developing a multitechnology network that will have its LTE services, and it is navigating a challenging relationship with Clearwire, which materials its current 4G network with WiMax. MetroPCS operates LTE and CDMA networks.

Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson and Arm Holdings CEO Warren East discussed two other mobile network difficulties while in the keynote. Johnson said applications such as gaming and streaming video clip ever more will demand the exact same speeds upstream from handsets to the Web because they do downstream, that will drive a alter in the standard asymmetric construction of most mobile phone and fastened networks.

Arm's East stated power usage can be a main cost for carriers and one aspect limiting the enlargement of mobile phone networks. Arm can extend the sort of efficient, built-in system-on-chip patterns utilized in cellular products, in which it really is dominant, into mobile base stations, reducing their electrical power consumption by 70 p.c, he stated.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Dell Latitude E5420 Review: A Sturdy Business Companion

When Dell indicates company, it doesn't child about. The Dell Permission E5420 is one of the toughest-looking corporate laptops I've witnessed that isn't especially specified as ruggedized. From its dark grey, brushed anodized aluminum case to its magnesium-based insides and sturdy-looking hinges and lock, everything regarding it screams "hard-core organization device."

But using a value tag of $1590 (as of June fifteen, 2011) to get a 14-inch display and an Intel Core i5-based configuration that did not even have an integrated webcam, our 5.6-pound test unit appeared created for enterprises prepared to pay a top quality for durability and exceptional battery life--the E5420's very best features--over portability and video-chat assist.

Functionality is very good: Equipped with an Intel Core i5-2520M operating at 2.5GHz, 4GHz of DDR3 RAM, Intel High definition integrated graphics, as well as the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Specialist, our examination product earned a respectable score of 123 on WorldBench 6. That's in the ballpark for your top-ranked notebooks on our all-purpose laptops chart--and the E5420's gaming scores (in contrast with other laptops employing integrated graphics) have been pretty good too--but numerous of those competition cost less.

What really sets the E5420 apart is its nine.5-hour battery lifestyle, which is two to three times higher than that of the chart-toppers. If you're going areas exactly where electrical power outlets are not constantly available, the E5420 would surely be an attractive option for its longevity on your own. Be aware, nevertheless, that our test device arrived with the top-of-the-line, nine-cell, 97-watt-hour lithium ion battery, which stands out on the back again edge; you'll be able to choose to help save funds and maybe lighten the load a little by configuring the E5420 using a weaker battery, which would needless to say lessen battery existence. I seen a hotspot around the left underside in the E5420 following a handful of hours' use, but the keyboard and best surfaces stayed neat and secure.

The E5420 has several other functions that should endear it to company IT customers and their constituents. It's equally a joystick plus a touchpad (no have to combat that ergonomic war with a big user base); though neither input gadget will be the ideal I have been, the two are undoubtedly adequate. The exceptional keyboard has nicely sculpted keys that are a delight to work with; its backlight happens on the moment you touch a key, and goes dim after a time period of nonuse to avoid wasting battery existence.

Little, silvery hardware audio-control buttons next to your keyboard let you speedily modify quantity or mute the audio entirely. Other welcome facilities incorporate an external on-off hardware button for Wi-Fi (the two the two.4GHz and 5GHz flavors of 802.11n, yay!); Sensible Card and SD Card slots; and also a FireWire port, presumably to assist legacy storage products considering that FireWire has fallen from favor inside the customer marketplace.

The 14-inch widescreen LED-backlit show is brilliant and crisp, with an unusually higher resolution--1600 by 900--for its dimensions. It can be inset inside a pretty extensive bezel for additional hurt protection. The E5420's built-in speakers produce remarkably strong audio, and despite the fact that our test unit lacked a webcam, you'll be able to choose to configure the machine with a single. Even so, while the laptop does have a built-in microphone, it offers no option to plug in individual headphone and microphone jacks--you get only a blended audio-mic port.

Our E5420 came using a somewhat modest 250GB, 7200-rpm difficult drive; other alternatives incorporate greater and encrypted drives, and more compact solid-state drives. You will get the usual three USB two.0 ports, one among which can be a blended USB-eSATA port. The laptop also offers HDMI and VGA ports, gigabit ethernet, plus a DVD burner.

Dell's software package bundle for its company buyers is nominal: You get the starter version of Roxio Creator and CyberLink's PowerDVD for use together with the DVD burner, and also a couple of network-connection utilities (such as the NetWaiting dial-up modem utility, which would seem odd given that this configuration had no dial-up modem) and Dell's backup, recovery, and data-protection tools.