Wholesale Cell Phones News
More evidence that Samsung smartphone sales steamrolled Apple in Q2
Samsung may not have figured out how to do tablets effectively yet, but it sure has smartphones nailed down. The latest numbers from IDC show that Samsung shipped 50.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2012, nearly double the 26 million iPhones shipped by Apple over the same period. Taken all together, IDC found that Samsung and Apple accounted for nearly half of all smartphones shipped on the quarter as rivals Nokia, HTC and ZTE all registered smartphone market shares of under 7%. The report essentially backs up Juniper’s findings from earlier this week that Samsung smartphone shipments roughly doubled Apple iPhone sales in the second quarter.
Sorry, Motorola: Google only loves you for your patents
Google’s love for Motorola is only as deep as its patent portfolio. Per the Wall Street Journal, Google recently filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that nearly half of the $12.4 billion it paid to acquire Motorola reflected the value of Motorola’s intellectual property holdings. In all, Google paid $5.5 billion for Motorola’s “patents and developed technology,” $2.9 billion for cash acquired, $2.6 billion in goodwill, and less than $1 billion each for “customer relationships” and “other net assets acquired.” In other words, Google placed vastly more value on Moto’s patents — and its ability to help Google combat the likes of Apple and Microsoft in court — than it did on the company’s consumer electronics business.
Big banks pump the brakes on Apple following huge earnings miss
Apple (AAPL) was and still is the darling of Wall Street. Sure, investors get the jitters from time to time, but sky-high price targets and big long-term bets are the norm for the world’s most profitable smartphone maker. Apple reported its third fiscal quarter results on Tuesday, and the company shocked the Street when it missed earnings expectations by a huge margin. Initial reactions were predictable — shares of Apple stock dipped more than 5% in after-hours trading on Tuesday — and now some big banks are pumping the brakes… albeit temporarily. Price targets on Apple’s stock are dropping all over. Some analysts like Canaccord Genuity’s Mike Walkley, who lowered his price target by $3 to $797, are making minor adjustments. A number of analysts at big investment banks are being more cautious with their clients, however — Morgan Stanley cut its price target on shares of Apple stock from to $720 from $738, and Goldman Sachs slashed its target to $790 from $850.
LG manages $138 million profit in Q2 with increased smartphone efforts
LG Electronics on Wednesday reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2012. As the company continues to push forward and pin hopes on the booming smartphone market, it has found a way to profit from its efforts with Google’s Android platform. LG saw a healthy 46% increase in net profit, which rose to $138 million.