03/02/2008 Best Buy snaps up 3% of Carphone

Mobile communications giant Ericsson posted a sharp decline in fourth-quarter net income, from $1.52 billion in the year-earlier period to $883.9 million. However, sales rose slightly from $8.49 billion one year ago to $8.54 billion. Both results met the expectations of analysts, who were cautioned by the Swedish network equipment maker last October to expect a sharp profit decline. "The market conditions have become tougher in the networks market," CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg told analysts during the company's latest conference call. In particular, the competitive landscape continues to change due to network operator consolidation, he said. Moreover, in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America last year, the company's revenues fell by 1 and 15 percent, respectively, he added. The rapid growth of mobile communications infrastructures in emerging markets also "resulted in a higher proportion of new network builds with initial lower margins," Svanberg said. "We also had political unrest in several emerging markets, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand."

Flat Growth Ahead

A handset joint venture with Sony contributed pretax income of $360.4 million to Ericsson's fourth-quarter results and $1.11 billion to the company's full-year report.

Sony Ericsson increased its handset shipments to 30.8 million units in the fourth quarter, an 18 percent year-over-year rise, executives noted. Sony Ericsson said it sold more than 100 million handsets in 2007. Based on the joint venture's estimate of 1.1 billion handset shipments for the total market in 2007, the company increased its market share 2 percentage points from 2006 to 9 percent.

In response to the news that Motorola is seriously considering separating its mobile handset unit from its other businesses, Svanberg said Ericsson would "consider carefully" any assets that its American rival might decide to sell, but remain cautious, as he believes it would be better for Ericsson to grow its business on its own.

02/02/2008 Motorola: The End of an Error

For connoisseurs of American electronics, Jan. 31 marks what may become the end of a technology icon. Motorola, the largest and most successful cell-phone manufacturer in the U.S., announced it's considering separating the cell-phone division from the rest of its businesses, possibly through a sale.

The company had to say there's no assurance a transaction will occur, but the statement from recently appointed Chief Executive Greg Brown reads like a fait accompli. "We are exploring ways in which our mobile devices business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise," Brown said.

The fact is, Motorola management has been unable to speed up the recovery under its current structure. It's just not clear whether Motorola would sell the cell-phone unit or spin it off to shareholders. The company said it won't discuss the options under consideration until the board of directors picks one.

01/02/2008 It's a Phone! A GPS! It's Nuvifone, Not iPhone

On Wednesday, Garmin International unveiled the nuvifone, a slim, all-touch-screen device that combines a 3.5G phone, a Web browser and a personal navigator with an appearance similar to Apple's iPhone.

"The Nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device," said Cliff Pemble, Garmin's president and COO. "This is the breakthrough product that cell-phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for -- a single device that does it all."

Personal-Navigation Features

When powered on, the 3.5-inch screen displays three primary icons -- Call, Search and View Map. Users initiate a call by tapping the Call button and selecting a name from the contact list or using the on-screen keypad.

When the Nuvifone is docked onto its vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so the user can begin routing to a destination.

The nuvifone's personal-navigation features include preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to find a specific street address, an establishment's name or search for a destination by category using the nuvifone's built-in database with millions of points of interest.

Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to a destination. If the user misses a turn along the route, nuvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets the user back on track, speaking the names of streets along the way.

The nuvifone includes Google local search capability. Nuvifone users can search for locations like "coffee shops" and Google will sort the results based on the user's current location and relevance. The nuvifone also provides e-mail along with text and instant messaging.