All Entries Tagged With: "2009"
Facebook Made Almost $800 Million in Revenue Last Year
According to a report by Reuters, “two sources familiar with the situation” have stated that Facebook made almost $800 million in revenue last year, which is definitely higher than earlier estimates. The privately owned company, who never reveals its finances, was previously believed to have made approximately between $500 million and $700 million in revenue in 2009.
One of the sources stated:
“They are downplaying their performance. There’s no upside in getting people’s expectations high, it’s always better to go low.”
The sources also state that the ultra-popular social networking site made “tens of millions of dollars” in net profit last year. It is currently believed that Facebook could make up to $1.1 billion in revenue this year alone. Facebook definitely keeps growing with no signs of slowing down, which makes it really possible that the company would not only reach that $1.1 billion, but could surpass it as well.
The company, as usual, has declined to comment on the matter.
Internet Explorer 6 Losing Market Share Fast
To many, Internet Explorer 6 is already dead. The browser is antiquated, old, and chock full of vulnerabilities. Individuals have moved on by either updating to a new version of Internet Explorer or adopting a new browser. According to a new report by web analytics company StatCounter, Internet Explorer 6 is now used by only 4.7% of individuals in the United States. In comparison, the browser had 11.5% of the market share one year ago.
Now, while Internet Explorer 6 is losing market share fast, it appears that its Internet Explorer 8 counterpart is gaining ground. StatCounter reports that IE8 usage increase from 8.5% to 30.49% in a one-year period between May 2009 and May 2010. This suggests that when it comes to browsers, Microsoft is not doing really bad after all.
Nintendo Reports Weak Fiscal 2009-2010 Annual Earnings
Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo reported today its fiscal 2009-2010 annual earnings [PDF], which ended in March 31, 2010. Unfortunately for the video game giant, things were not so great this past year. For the very first time in six years, its net profit took a plunge by 18% to $2.4 billion, compared to $2.9 billion the previous year. The company did manage to make $15.2 billion in revenue, which is 22% lower than last year. When it comes to operating income, the company reports a drop of 36% to just $3.8 billion, compared to $6.1 billion last year.
Nintendo reported that “just” 20.53 million Nintendo Wii units were sold around the world in the period, that’s a 21% drop from the year before. Nintendo actually expects the numbers to go down by 14% or 18 million units this year. Additionally, Nintendo foresees net profit of $2.1 billion, operating profit of $3.4 billion, and revenue of $14.9 billion for the end of the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2011.
BlackBerry Curve Dominates US Smartphone Market in Q4 2009
Market research firm IDC has released its quarterly list of best-selling smartphones in the US for the fourth quarter of 2009. And it looks like the BlackBerry Curve series dominated the last quarter of the year, followed by none other than the very popular and trendy Apple iPhone. RIM managed to grab four other places, while Android-based devices by different manufacturers only got two.
It’s important to take into account that the list represents vendor sales only, which means the number of units sold to third-party retailers are the figures that count. It doesn’t matter if these third-party retailers only managed to sell a fraction of ordered units to consumers.
Click the break to see the full list, and get ready to be surprised by some of the results.
Nokia Reports Q4 2009 Earnings, Proves It Still is ‘The Man’
Finland-based mobile phone maker Nokia announced this morning its Q4 2009 earnings. The figures talk for themselves and prove Nokia still has a lot of charm in the mobile phone market. The company reported a net profit of €948 million or 26 eurocents a share in the fourth quarter, that’s a whopping and impressive 65% increase from €576 million last year.
Nokia also reports shipping 126.9 million units worldwide in Q4, that’s a 12% increase compared to figures from last year. Overall, 329 million units were shipped worldwide, up 8% compared to last year. Overall, net sales reached €12 billion, down 5% from the year before.
Nokia’s mobile market share is estimated to have increased to 39% in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from an estimated 37% last year and 38% in Q3 2009. The company estimates that its converged mobile market share went up to 40% from 35% last year.
Google Announces 2009 4th Quarter Earnings
Google announced today via a live video conference call on YouTube its earnings from the fourth quarter in 2009. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was very happy to announced that Google’s revenues went up 17% to $6.67 billion in what he described as “a strong fourth quarter.” Net income for 2009 ended up at $6.5 billion. Overall revenue in the year 2009 went up to $ 24.5 billion in cash.
Non-GAAP earnings went up 35% to $2.2 billion, that’s equivalent to 6.79 per share. When it comes to its workforce, Google ended up with 19,835 full-time employees worldwide. That’s 170 more people than the 19,665 full-time employees reported at the end of Q3 in September 2009.
A Look Back at Technology as Reported by Erictric in 2009
Ah, the year 2009. It officially is nothing but a memory. We have to admit that it was a very fun and wild ride for the tech world. For starters, Erictric was launched in late April 2009. Ever since, we have been so fortunate, and I say this with the most pride, to report and cover many stories that in some big or very small way changed the tech industry. We thought it would be good to take one look back at some of the stories, companies, rumors, gadgets, and people in the tech industry who made it into the headlines in 2009.
JibJab Reviews The Year 2009 In New Original Video
We like technology, and we like fun. And while this next video has very little to do with technology, we figured you might like it anyhow:
RIM Breaks Promise to Release OS 5.0 for Older BlackBerry Models by The End of The Year
With only a few days left, it’s safe to say that 2009 is pretty much over. With that said, it’s obvious that Research In Motion has broken one of its biggest and most important promises: to release OS 5.0 for older BlackBerry models. In case you don’t remember, RIM promised back in September it would released OS 5.0 “before the end of the year.” Later in October, RIM released a list of BlackBerry smartphones that would support OS 5.0. Curiously, the document is not available anymore at the BlackBerry website.
