financial

RIM Q3 as expected, but confidence is soaring

Updated 3:30 p.m. PST with details following the conference call.

Research In Motion's third-quarter results were a little disappointing, as expected, but a strong holiday season is giving it reason to be very optimistic.

The company had already revealed that it expected third-quarter revenue and profit to be lighter than originally expected, and the official numbers released Thursday were in line with those revised expectations at $2.8 billion in revenue and net income of $396.5 million. Adjusting for the tax complexities involved with RIM's Canadian base of operations and its heavy U.S. presence, … Read more

Pocket Wall Street

The world of finance is sober, serious business--more so if your stocks or industry is struggling through a waning economy. Financial headlines, a ticker finder, and a fleshed-out index of world markets add up to make Bloomberg's native application for the iPhone and iPod Touch the window into Wall Street. A dark application, Bloomberg contains a read-only newsfeed and statistics on various exchanges in global markets. Highs, lows, and a graph of yearlong performance are displayed for each exchange--further charts and tables are available for industry and stock movers.

To discover individual stock performance, users simply enter the company … Read more

Palm revenue craters as Treos fall out of favor

With revenue falling to dire levels, Palm may need a Christmas miracle to stay afloat next year.

The latest dose of bad news? Revenue for Palm's second fiscal quarter, which ended last week, will be just $190 million to $195 million, the company announced Monday ahead of its December 18th conference call. Wall Street analysts had been expecting Palm to record $331 million in revenue, an astonishing 41 percent gap caused by "reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products," Palm said in a press release.

Last week Palm revealed plans to cut workers and refocus its … Read more

Apple profit soars, but outlook 'challenging'

Updated throughout at 3:15 p.m. PT after Apple's conference call.

Apple's fourth-quarter profit soared past expectations on extremely strong sales of the iPhone, but revenue was a little light, and the company left itself a lot of wiggle room heading into what it called a "challenging" environment.

For the company's fourth fiscal quarter, or the period ended September 27, Apple reported revenue of $7.9 billion, compared with revenue of $6.2 billion in the same quarter last year. Net income was $1.14 billion, or earnings per share of $1.26. Analysts … Read more

Apple's report card less important than crystal ball

Apple's fourth quarter should have survived the economic chaos currently rounding the globe, but what Wall Street will care about Tuesday afternoon is its outlook on the future.

Despite a few more product glitches than usual, it's been business as usual at Apple during the past three months: strong Mac growth and steady iPod sales, with the added bonus of soaring iPhone sales this time around. But the company finds itself in a much different economic environment than last time Apple held an earnings conference call in July.

Will consumers who just watched the value of their retirement … Read more

For China, the financial crisis is an opportunity

I asked my colleagues in frog design's Shanghai studio about their perspective on the current economic downturn, and here's what they wrote back:

"The US may be the initiator of this round of global economic recession but it may not be the final payer. China's economy is about to suffer as well - and in more ways than one.

And yet, the people who have been around the longest know not to pay too much attention to one-direction comments. They know that the sufferers will always shout much louder than the beneficiaries. They also know that … Read more

In downturn, solar industry sees bright days ahead

SAN DIEGO--People in the solar industry are hopeful that the sun is a good place to put money these days.

To be sure, the financial crunch is rippling through even the fast-growing solar business: With falling house prices and general belt-tightening, consumers may be more reluctant to purchase solar panels, even if they want renewable electricity. And less available capital makes it difficult to finance large-scale projects, like corporate rooftop arrays or solar power plants.

But even with the gloomy economic outlook, the mood at this week's Solar Power International 2008 conference was decidedly upbeat.

The solar industry scored … Read more

No "Innovation Gap"? WEF ranks U.S. top in Global Competitiveness Report

The United States tops the overall ranking in the World Economic Forum's "Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009". Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden, and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets.

The rankings were calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with … Read more

Shoeboxed now tags scanned receipts for you

Receipt-scanning service Shoeboxed just launched a new feature that automatically files scanned receipts into one of 15 expense categories. These include groceries, gas, and travel expenses, which you can view simply by clicking on them. Users can also create their own expense categories, although there's currently no way to have the service auto-tag expenses by keyword.

In addition to new receipts, users will find a good number of their old receipts categorized. Dan Englander, Shoeboxed's VP of Communications says some may not get the tagging treatment if the system can't find a match, but that a "… Read more