Smartphone, tablet pile-up may lead to grim Q1 for suppliers

Smartphone sales were explosive in 2012 and the tablet market finally came into its own after being a one-horse town since 2010. Market leaders like Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (005930) are expected to post massive results in the fourth quarter and shipments from smaller vendors have continued to grow as well, but questions surrounding how long these runs can last continue to be raised. To compound the issue, vendors may have been too aggressive with recent orders; in a new report from Digitimes on Wednesday, the site’s unnamed industry sources suggest overzealous smartphone and tablet vendors may have caused a pile-up as 2012 draws to an end, leaving the first-quarter in question for a number of suppliers.
[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface trampled at the bottom of the tablet pile this Christmas]
Smartphones and tablets have seemingly flooded the market faster than end-users bought them over the past few months, leading to a pile-up that may see orders moving into the first quarter reduced beyond what the industry might expect from typical seasonal cuts after the holidays. Digitimes says the issue is particularly bad in China.
[More from BGR: Mark Cuban: Nokia Lumia 920 ‘crushes’ the iPhone 5]
Orders began to slow down in November according to the report, and original device manufacturers in the Far East have yet to begin building up component inventories as a result. Digitimes says supply chain companies are now “conservative about their business outlooks for the first quarter of 2013 as demand for [integrated circuit] parts has been affected” by the back up.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook sees pay drop 99% in 2012

In 2012, Apple’s (AAPL) chief executive will earn about 1% of the compensation he pulled in last year, according to a regulatory filing. The CEO’s compensation will total $4.17 million in 2012, which includes a $1.36 million salary and $2.8 million in compensation related to incentive plans. Last year, the Apple boss was paid $378 million according to Bloomberg, thanks largely to $376.2 million in stock awards that will pay out over a 10-year period. The filing also reveals that CFO Peter Oppenheimer will earn $68.6 million in 2012, including $66.2 million in stock.

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Marvell seeks to overturn $1.17 billion patent verdict

(Reuters) - Marvell Technology Group Ltd said on Thursday it will try to void a $1.17 billion damages award imposed by a federal jury that found the chipmaker had infringed two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University.
In a statement, the company said it will seek to overturn Wednesday's verdict in post-trial proceedings in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh. It also said that if necessary, it will take its case to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington.
Marvell said it has not determined the financial impact, if any, on operating results for its fiscal fourth quarter ending on February 2, 2013.
The company's shares fell 30 cents to $7.12 in premarket trading, after sliding 85 cents, or 10.3 percent, on Wednesday.
The award is one of the largest by a U.S. jury in a patent infringement case. It followed a $1.05 billion award in August to Apple Inc against Samsung Electronics Co concerning the design of smartphones.
Marvell could also face triple damages because jurors found that the company had acted willfully, meaning that it knew it was using Carnegie Mellon patents without a proper license.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer, who presided over the month-long trial, has scheduled a May 1, 2013, hearing to consider a final judgment in the case.
Daniel Amir, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets, on Thursday said the verdict will likely create an "overhang" on Marvell's shares until the case is resolved, which could take years.
"If the ruling stands, given Marvell's total cash position of $2 billion, we think this could represent a significant blow to the company," wrote Amir, who rates Marvell "neutral."
Carnegie Mellon had sued Marvell in March 2009 over patents issued in 2001 and 2002 related to how accurately hard disk- drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks.
The Pittsburgh university said at least nine Marvell circuit devices incorporated the patents, and that the infringement let the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company sell billions of chips using the technology without permission.
Marvell on Thursday repeated that its chips did not infringe the Carnegie Mellon patents, and that the methods described in the patents "cannot practically be built in silicon even using the most advanced techniques available today."
The case is Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell Technology Group Ltd et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, No. 09-00290.

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Lack of low-end BlackBerry 10 phone could be a serious stumbling block in RIM comeback bid

South Africa is one of Research In Motion’s (RIMM) top five markets in the world, and it is a decent proxy for the entire African market. Leading regional carrier Vodacom’s November smartphone statistics illustrate exactly why BlackBerry 10 cannot arrive soon enough… and why RIM badly needs a cheap new BlackBerry 10 model by spring.
[More from BGR: Apple CEO Tim Cook sees pay drop 99% in 2012]
Vodacom holds more than 50% of the South African handset market and South Africa is the largest mobile phone market in the continent.
[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface trampled at the bottom of the tablet pile this Christmas]
On November 12th, Vodacom announced that it had 2.7 million BlackBerry users on its South African network, a number that increased by 300,000 in three months. The number of Android users grew by 200,000 to 700,000 subscribers. The number of iPhone users grew by 250,000 to 500,000.
Of course, there are many ways at looking at these trends but it’s striking that the growth of the BlackBerry user base has slowed down to 12% in a quarter while Android growth is now at 40% and iPhone growth is 100%. Even though the pool of BlackBerry users is still expanding in the most important African market, we are now close to the tip-off point where the absolute number of both Android and iPhone users added each quarter is going to be larger than the number of new BlackBerry subs.
RIM announced last week that its global customer base has finally started shrinking — the BlackBerry subscriber pool dropped from 80 million to 79 million between the August and November quarters.
During the August quarter, RIM still managed to add 2 million BlackBerry subscribers. The non-U.S. BlackBerry subscriber base is still growing, but too slowly to offset the U.S. erosion. This is the trend that the Vodacom November numbers also reflect. In Africa and Asia, that BlackBerry growth slowdown is unlikely to reverse until RIM launches a cheap, sub-$250 model with the new BlackBerry 10 OS.
In South Africa, affluent buyers are now flocking under the iPhone banner, while Samsung (005930) and Chinese vendors are mopping up middle class consumers with cheap Android models. New high-end phones in the $600 range are not going to change this equation.
RIM must strike hard in the low-end market to regain its African momentum. By Easter, Android and iPhone camps will have pulled ahead of RIM in new subscriber additions at Vodacom. Next spring, South Africa could well be the most important global bellwether of RIM’s struggle to recapture subscriber growth.

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Samsung looks to address its biggest weakness in 2013

Samsung (005930) is a force to be reckoned with. Two short years ago it looked like Apple (AAPL) was set to run away with the smartphone industry, but Samsung came out in a big way and the companies now share the smartphone crown — Samsung handily out-ships Apple but the Cupertino, California-based company still pulls in more profit. There is one area where Apple reigns supreme, however, but Samsung may look to launch new attacks next year in an effort to extend its range in important secondary revenue channels.
[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface trampled at the bottom of the tablet pile this Christmas]
Samsung raked in $6 billion in profit last quarter thanks in large part to huge smartphone numbers. The company also does well in several other areas of its business, but one key aspect of its portfolio is still lacking: services.
[More from BGR: Apple CEO Tim Cook sees pay drop 99% in 2012]
When it comes to value-added services, Samsung knows it has a lot of work to do. Apple’s iTunes provides a central location for music, movies and more across all of Apple’s products, and Samsung doesn’t offer anything that even approaches it. The company is dipping its toes in the content pool, however, having launched products like Music Hub this past year, but these services aren’t nearly as refined or effective as competitive offerings.
As picked up by Engadget, Samsung looks to be focusing on this moving into 2013. We’ve heard whispers about new content services in the works for Samsung’s smartphones, tablets and other devices, and the company will also look to refine its interfaces — an all-too-important aspect of content services that has historically fallen short on Samsung devices.
Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, Samsung has posted a series of teaser images on its Flickr account. The pictures just offer a small taste of the major redesign Samsung has planned for the Smart Hub on its devices, and it is also part of a bigger play we’ll see unfold over the coming years: Samsung has the hardware down, and now it will refine its software and service experiences in an effort to cement its role as an end-to-end hardware, software and solutions provider.
Look for Samsung to make moves in this regard across its various device categories as the company further establishes itself as a global leader.

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Stocks open lower as lawmakers doubt budget deal

Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street amid concern that lawmakers will fail to reach a deal to stop the U.S. going over the so-called fiscal cliff.
The Dow Jones industrial average is down 39 points at 13,151. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is off four points at 1,426. The Nasdaq composite is down six points at 3,013.
Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that it is now "more likely we'll go over the cliff than not," following the collapse late Thursday of House Speaker John Boehner's plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes.
Failure to agree on a plan to cut the budget deficit by Jan. 1 would lead to simultaneous government spending cuts and tax hikes that could push the economy back into recession.

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Stocks fall as lawmakers doubt budget deal

Stocks are down Wall Street amid concern that lawmakers will fail to reach a deal to stop the U.S. going over the so-called fiscal cliff.
The Dow Jones industrial average is down 32 points at 13,158. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is off four points at 1,426. The Nasdaq composite is down nine points at 3,012.
Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday that it "It's the first time that I feel it's more likely we'll go over the cliff than not," following the collapse late Thursday of House Speaker John Boehner's plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes. Wyoming Sen. Jon Barrasso, a member of the Republican leadership, predicted the new year would come without an agreement.

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