financial

Smartphone customers keep flocking to the BlackBerry, and there are signs that it's not just harried executives signing up for service.

Research In Motion announced Thursday that it expects to have added 15 percent to 20 percent more subscribers than it initially forecast for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ends next week. The company originally thought it would add a net total of 1.82 million subscribers during the period, but strong holiday sales and the absence of a usual seasonal drop-off are credited with the surge.

Long the smartphone of choice for the U.S. businessperson, the BlackBerry … Read more

Although the Demo 2008 pitch came off a bit like an infomercial, Voyant At Home looks like an important and useful Web application for consumers. It's a personal financial planner that understands the impact of life events--children being born, college starting, retirement starting, and so on. You tell it your income and assets and when the life events will happen, and it tells you what your economic picture looks like. If you want to run some what-if questions, you can drag dates around (when you're buying that car, for example), or enter in alternate financial data--send the kid … Read more

Updated at 3:45 p.m. PST following the conference call, with changes throughout.

Apple's first quarter hit on all cylinders, as the company continued its financial run on the strength of its Mac business. But anyone looking for reassurance about the overall health of the economy later this year didn't get it from Apple.

The company posted revenue Tuesday of $9.6 billion for its first fiscal quarter, which ended December 29. That's better than the $9.5 billion expected by financial analysts, and Apple also gave them good news with its earnings-per-share number of $1.… Read more

While the raw numbers from AMD's latest earnings call are as gory as we've seen from the chipmaker this year, the bigger picture is more favorable.

AMD took steps toward--but fell just short of--profitability during its fourth quarter. On a net loss basis, the number is staggering: AMD reported a loss of $1.8 billion. However, the few Barcelona shipments that did go out during the fourth quarter helped AMD fall just short of profitability after you factor out a few one-time charges.

The net loss number reflects a charge AMD was forced to take after determining that … Read more

On the heels of banking scandals in the virtual world Second Life, its publisher Linden Lab announced Tuesday that it is effectively banning in-world banks.

"As of January 22, 2008, it will be prohibited to offer interest of any direct return on an investment (whether in Linden dollars or other currency) from any object, such as an ATM, located in Second Life, without proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter," Linden Lab wrote on its blog Tuesday. "We're implementing this policy after reviewing resident complaints, banking activities and the law, and we'… Read more

Palm reported sharp declines in revenue and earnings on Tuesday, as expected, but demand for its Centro smartphone is outpacing the company's ability to supply its carrier partners, according to executives.

We already knew that Palm's second-fiscal quarter, which ended November 30, was going to be a bad one. In fact, Palm has been laying off employees this month as a result of the earnings shortfall. The company confirmed the ugly numbers: It lost $9.6 million, or 9 cents a share, and revenue fell 11 percent to $349.6 million.

CEO Ed Colligan revealed that the mystery … Read more

AMD executives put their best foot forward Thursday during a conference with financial analysts, but only time and a better performance will lift the company out of its 2007 spiral.

The company owned up to its mistakes with Barcelona, its first quad-core server processor, during the conference call. Barcelona will have to be tweaked before it can be sold for general-purpose use, and the revamped chips won't be available until the first quarter of 2008, said Mario Rivas, executive vice president for the computing products group. Systems using Barcelona aren't expected to be available until the second quarter, … Read more

It's not going to be a happy holiday season for Palm employees.

The company issued a statement after the close of the market Thursday warning that revenue for its second fiscal quarter would be about $30 million less than it had predicted. In addition, its gross margin is expected to be about four points lower. It's just the latest item of bad news from a company that can't wait for 2007 to end.

The reasons? Palm failed to qualify "a product that the company had previously expected to have certified within the quarter," it said … Read more

Emerging nations are buying notebooks by the bundle, and Hewlett-Packard is reaping the benefits.

HP reported its fourth-quarter earnings Monday, and revenues were up across its business units, but the PC business was again the star. Revenue for the Personal Systems Group, which sells desktops and notebook PCs, was up 30 percent from the same quarter a year ago to $10.1 billion. It's the first time the business unit has crossed the $10 billion threshold. Shipments of PCs rose about one-third in the last year.

But HP is claiming success for its revenue and sales growth all for … Read more