Tag Archives: aapl

China grabbed 40% of global smartphone shipments in Q1

China’s influence on the global smartphone market was felt strongly in the first quarter, as it soaked up 40% of total unit shipments, research firm IDC said Wednesday. “The face of the smartphone market is changing rapidly to reflect the rise of its largest market, China, where a record 40% of the smartphones shipped worldwide in 1Q14 were bound to Chinese consumers,” analyst Melissa Chau said in IDC’s Q1 smartphone report. “In a quarter where global shipments declined sequentially, China bucked the trend. “The market benefited from its seasonal Lunar New Year uptick, greater emphasis on 4G devices following the December TD-LTE network launch, and the official launch of Apple (AAPL) at China Mobile (CHL) resulted in volumes a third higher than 4Q13 levels.” Worldwide smartphone shipments totaled 281.5 million units in Q1, down 2.8% from Q4 but up 28.6% from Q1 2013, IDC said. IDC expects total smartphone…

Apple-only diet proved unwise for Cirrus Logic

When Apple was a go-go stock, component makers liked having a lot of exposure to the company. Now that Apple’s growth has slowed, those same companies want to be more diversified. Among public companies, audio chipmaker Cirrus Logic (CRUS) had the greatest exposure to Apple (AAPL). On Tuesday, Cirrus took a step to diversify its customer base by agreeing to acquire Wolfson Microelectronics. Austin, Texas-based Cirrus will purchase Wolfson for about $467 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2014. Wolfson is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. “This acquisition strengthens Cirrus Logic’s core business as a leader in audio signal processing components, enhances our ability to differentiate our products with software, and adds new product categories such as MEMS microphones to our portfolio, ” Cirrus CEO Jason Rhode said in a statement. Cirrus investors cheered the deal, sending the company’s stock up 6.6% to…

5 key takeaways from Apple’s Q2 financial report

Apple proved that its growth story is alive and well late Wednesday by reporting its best sales increase in five quarters and best earnings-per-share growth in six quarters, even without new products to tout. Apple (AAPL) earned $11.62 a share, up 15% from the year-earlier quarter, on sales of $45.6 billion, up nearly 5%, for its fiscal second quarter ended March 29. Analysts expected the company to earn $10.18 a share on $43.53 billion in sales. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company also announced a seven-for-one stock split, significantly increased its stock buyback program and raised its cash dividend. Apple shares were up 8% in afternoon trading on the stock market today, near 567, a four-month high. Here are five key takeaways from Apple’s March quarter financial report. 1. Emerging markets boost iPhone sales Apple sold 43.7 million iPhones in its Q2, easily exceeding Wall Street’s forecast for about 37 million units…