Samsung Predicts Slower Smartphone Growth

Samsung Electronics said it expects the recent growth in the smartphone market to slow in 2013 even as expansion in LTE coverage increases replacement demand in developed markets. In the tablet market, Samsung expects intensified competition amid "strong growth with emerging market expansion."

In the fourth quarter of 2012, sales in Samsung's IM (IT and mobile communications) division rose 51% year-on-year to 31.32 trillion Korean won (28.97 billion US dollars), fuelled by strong demand for its smartphones and tablets. source: Samsung presentation

Networks Division Shores Up Nokia

Nokia reported that its revenues fell 23% year-on-year in constant currencies to 8.04 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2012. Sales in its Devices and Services unit fell 40% to 3.85 billon euros, but sales in Nokia Siemens Networks rose 1% to 3.99 billion euros.

Device shipments were down 24% year-on-year to 86.3 million. Nokia said it expects "competitive industry dynamics [will continue] to negatively affect the Mobile Phones and Smart Devices business units" in the current quarter. source: Nokia statement 

Apple Expects Slowdown

Apple said its revenue increased 18% year-on-year in the quarter ending December 29, 2012 to 54.5 billion US dollars. Sales rose 67% in Greater China and 25% in Japan, but just 11% in Europe. Apple's iPhone revenues climbed 28% year-on-year and iPad revenues 22%, but Mac revenues were down 16%.

Apple said it expects revenue in the current quarter to be between 41 billion and 43 billion US dollars. That would represent an increase of between 5% and 10% year-on-year. source: Apple statement

Google Sees Strong Growth in Advertising Revenues

Google said the revenues from its core Google business (advertising and other) rose 22% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to 12.91 billion US dollars. "Other" revenues, which probably related to sales of software, cloud computing services and storage, more than doubled to 829 million dollars. Source: Google statement

Revenue Growth Accelerates at Verizon

Verizon Communications said its revenue rose 5.7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 30 billion US dollars. For 2012 as a whole, revenue was up 4.5% to 115.8 billion dollars.

Verizon said that almost 50% of its total data traffic is now on its 4G LTE network, which now covers 89% of the US population. The carrier now has 21.6 million LTE devices connected to its network. In 2012, capex stood at 16.2 billion dollars - the same as in 2011. source: Verizon presentation

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Huawei Expects Faster Growth in 2013

Telecoms equipment maker Huawei said it expects its overall revenue to grow between 10% and 12% in 2013. In 2012, global sales revenues rose 8% to 220.2 billion Chinese yuan (35.38 billion US dollars). Huawei added that it invested 29.9 billion yuan in R& D in 2012, accounting for more than 13% of the year's revenue.

Huawei said its Carrier Network business group generated revenues of 160.3 billion yuan in 2012, while its Consumer business group recorded robust sales revenue of 48.4 billion yuan, "with sales continuing to grow in developed markets including Europe and Japan." Huawei's Enterprise business group generated revenue of 11.5 billion yuan. source: Huawei statement

Nokia's Asha Range Helps it Beat Expectations

Nokia estimated that its "Devices & Services net sales" in the fourth quarter of 2012 were approximately 3.9 billion euros, compared with almost 6 billion euros in the same quarter of 2011. That represents a decline of about 35%. Nokia said it shipped 86.3 million devices in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 113.5 million a year earlier.

Nokia's "smart devices" sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 were 1.2 billion euros, down 56% year-on-year. Its mobile phone sales were 2.5 billion euros, down 18% year-on-year. Nokia said it sold 15.9 million smartphones, composed of 9.3 million Asha "full touch smartphones", 4.4 million Lumia (Windows OS) smartphones and 2.2 million Symbian smartphones. Confusingly, the Asha smartphones count as mobile phone sales, rather than smart devices sales.

Nokia estimated that Nokia Siemens Networks net sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 were approximately 4.0 billion euros, up from 3.82 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, said: "We are pleased that Q4 2012 was a solid quarter where we exceeded expectations and delivered underlying profitability in devices & services and record underlying profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks. We focused on our priorities and as a result we sold a total of 14 million Asha smartphones and Lumia smartphones while managing our costs efficiently, and Nokia Siemens Networks delivered yet another very good quarter." source: Nokia statement

Mobile Broadband Connections Hit 1.6 Billion

There are now 1.6 billion mobile broadband connections globally - one quarter of total mobile connections, according to Wireless Intelligence. source: Wireless Intelligence statement