Intel reports Q1 2013 revenues of $12.6 billion and net income of $2.0bn (down from Q1 2012 revenues of 12.9bn and income of $2.7bn) as it forecasts "low single-digit percentage" growth for 2013.

PC Client Group revenues fall by 6% Y-o-Y to $8.0bn, Data Centre Group revenues grow by 7.5% Y-o-Y to $2.6bbn while Other Architecture revenues drop by 9.0% Y-o-Y to $1.0bn.

"Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in Q1 and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company," Paul Otellini says in his final earnings call as Intel CEO. "We shipped our next generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors this quarter."

Hon Hai (aka Foxconn Technology) sees Q1 2013 sales drop by -19% Y-o-Y to $29.96 billion Reuters reports, as declining iPhone sales hurt the Taiwanese device manufacturer even after 2012 was a record year for the company.

Around 60-70% of Hon Hai revenues come from iPhone and iPad manufacture-- and if Apple sales are down, the device manufacturer depending on it follows suit.

"A quarterly decline was expected, but not a yearly decline," KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo says. "This shows that Continue reading...

EU regulators are looking into complaints from a number of carriers on possible antitrust violations in iDevice distribution contracts Apple draws with carriers, The New York Times and Reuters report.

According to anonymous sources a group of European carriers have already submitted information on their contracts with Apple to the European Commission, even if they still have to file a formal complaint.

The EC confirms the reports with a statement saying "“we have been contacted by industry participants and we are monitoring the situation, but no antitrust case has been opened."

The complaints involve the launch price regulation and hefty subsidies Apple commands on operators in order to offer customers discounts on smartphones in exchange of 2-year contracts. However Samsung's beating Apple as top smartphone maker appears to have eroded the iPhone maker's advantage in negotiating the best subsidies and marketing support.

AMD quietly unveils cloud gaming ambitions at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2013 with Radeon Sky, a graphics cards series designed to power game streaming services on PCs, smart TVs and mobile devices.

The lineup consists of 3 graphics cards built on Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture-- model 900 (with x2 Tahiti Pro (aka Radeon 7950) graphics processors), model 700 (with x1 Tahiti Pro chip) and the model 500 (with a Pitcairn XT (aka Radeon HD 7870) GPU).

According to AMD each Radeon Continue reading...

Samsung is set to rival Apple in yet another market segment-- wearable electronics. The Korean giant confirms with Bloomberg it is currently hard at work designing a smartwatch device of its own.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long,” Samsung mobile business VP Lee Young Hee says. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

Lee Young Hee gives neither hardware nor launch date details on the device, Continue reading...

THX, the audio company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, sues Apple-- claiming iPhones, iPads and iMacs infringe on a 2008 patent for "narrow profile speaker configuration and systems."

According to Bloomberg, the THX lawsuit says the Apple caused “monetary damage and irreparable harm" and demands a court order stopping the alleged infringement as well as either royalties or compensation for lost profits.

The patent in question (no. 7433483) describes "A narrow profile speaker unit comprises at least one speaker outputting sound towards an internal surface and through a duct with an output terminus, such as a slot, having a narrow dimension, effectively changing the cross-section of the speaker's audio output wave. A pair of speakers may face one another, outputting sound towards a common output slot."

Following a shake up in Google leadership Android creator and former senior VP of mobile and content Andy Rubin steps down to a new, yet unspecified, role within the company.

Replacing him is Sundar Pichai, the senior VP in charge of the Chrome browser and OS. Interestingly Pichai will continue leading all things Chrome even as he takes over Android-- maybe Google will converge mobile and PC operating systems in the future?

“Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android-— and with a really strong leadership team in place-— Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google,” Google CEO Larry Page writes in his announcement. “Andy, more moonshots please!”

The European Commission (EC) slaps Microsoft with a €561 million fine for violating terms of the 2009 commitment to give Windows users alternatives to Internet Explorer.

According to investigators Windows 7 Service Pack 1 lacked the browser choice screen from May 2011 to July 2012, meaning 15m Windows users did not get to see the choice during the period.

Microsoft acknowledges the screen was not displayed at the time, even if it had provided the screen from May 2010. The case is also cited as a reason why CEO Steve Ballmer got only half of his potential 2012 bonus.

Clearly using Microsoft as an example to others, EC antitrust enforcer Joaquín Almunia says "legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy because they allow for rapid solutions to competition problems. Of course, such decisions require strict compliance. A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly."