Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2011. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.12 million iPads during the quarter, a 166 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Millenniata, a new optical disc company, ushered in a new era of information storage with the release of its M-DISC and M-READY disc storage technology-technology that permanently etches data onto the write layer of the disc for use anytime and for generations to come without any data loss. The company also announced a manufacturing and marketing partnership with Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. to manufacture Millenniata compatible (M-DISC compatible) DVD drives and market them through its sales channels.

Whether for music, photos, videos, genealogical records, business records, data loss prevention, permanent file backup, medical imaging, government or archive, M-DISC provides long-lasting storage by literally etching data into a rock-like material. The M-DISC will not degrade over time and is usable on a daily basis.

At the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that sales of Windows 7 licenses crossed the 400 million mark. In June last year, the figure stood at 150 million, and by October, it rose to 240 million. With sales of 400 million license in under two years, Windows 7 is the fastest-selling operating system in history. On a related note, Microsoft announced that 100 million copies of Office 2010 were sold since its launch.

The compact-sized Freezer 11 LP brings low noise cooling into low profile and HTPC Systems. With a height of 53mm only, the cooler squeezes into even most tiny PC cases. With dimensions of 115(L)*106(W)*53(H)mm, having a weight of only 255g, the Freezer 11LP is extremely compact. It fits virtually into any low profile PC case and is the ideal choice for any HTPC system.

Equipped with an ultra-quiet 92mm PWM fan and two copper heatpipes, the Freezer 11 LP offers a maximum cooling capacity of 90W. The dual high performance 6mm heatpipes efficiently dissipate the heat from the CPU into the block consisting of 50 aluminum fins.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today reported that worldwide semiconductor sales in August were $25.7 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent from July when sales were $25.2 billion. Sales increased by 32.6 percent from August 2009 when sales were $19.4 billion. Sales for the first eight months of 2010 were $194.6 billion compared to $134.7 billion for the same period in 2009, an increase of 44.4 percent. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average. "Semiconductor sales have been strong with August marking the sixth consecutive month of sequential growth"

"Semiconductor sales have been strong with August marking the sixth consecutive month of sequential growth," said SIA President Brian Toohey. "PC and wireless related products along with infrastructure expansion in emerging markets, particularly in China and India, continue to drive sales. Concerns about economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe, coupled with seasonal patterns, bear close monitoring. We remain confident in our $290.5 billion forecast, which represents 28.4 percent annual growth for 2010," Toohey concluded.

Global sales of semiconductors grew to $25.2 billion in July, an increase of 1.2 percent from June when sales were $24.9 billion and an increase of 37.0 percent from July 2009 when sales were $18.4 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported today. Year to date sales total $169.2 billion, an increase of 46.7 percent from the $115.3 billion reported for the first seven months of 2009. All monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average.

"Worldwide sales of semiconductors were strong in July despite growing indications of slower growth in the overall economy," said SIA President Brian Toohey. "The continued proliferation of semiconductors into a broad range of products provides opportunities for industry expansion even in a period of slower overall economic growth. Although recent public statements from a number of major manufacturers have emphasized limited visibility for the near-term, we continue to expect that industry growth for 2010 will be in line with our mid-year forecast of 28.4 percent," Toohey concluded.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Announced nine years ago back in 2000, Sony's PlayStation 2 is without a doubt a major success for the company. The console is so good in fact, that today Sony said it has sold 50 million PlayStation 2 units in North America alone, a new milestone. Sales of the iconic console still remain strong, although now we have new consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to the most recently available figures from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. sales only, in November Americans bought 206,000 units of the PlayStation 2. These are some remarkable numbers. In comparison, Microsoft's original Xbox console sold a total of 14.5 million units and is already long gone. Nintendo's GameCube, another PS2 competitor, sold 12 million units in North America, not even close to PS2 numbers. Today PlayStation 2 costs roughly $130, down from its original $300 price tag from nine years ago, and still offers the latest game titles, emulation of some PS1 titles, video and audio DVD playback, and a numerous hacks that allow installing desktop hard drives, playing of DivX movies, running spare copies of games and so on.

Nintendo has had a happy hunting season in the month of November, with record-breaking sales of the Wii game console in the US. According to data compiled by NPD and sourced from TG Daily, Nintendo shattered its own record it set in November 2007, of 981,000 units sold, with a phenomenal 2 million units sold in November '08.

Given the state the economy is in, game console shipment estimates for November 2008 by NPD, come as a big surprise. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony shipped 3,254,000 static consoles last month, which compares to only 2,217,000 units in November and translates to a 47% increase in shipped units year over year and 139% sequentially. Sales of console by Sony saw a sharp drop at the expense of Nintendo and Microsoft. The month saw equally good sales of game titles (covered here), again with those for the Xbox 360 and Wii holding the top spots.

Despite many sectors of the economy now formally entering a recession after two quarters of economic downturn video games sales have increased by ten percent. Data from NPD Group showed total video games sales in November were US$2.9 billion, taking year-to-date spending on software and hardware to $16 billion, which is up 22 percent on 2007. NPD Group theorizes that Economic factors are at play given that a video game is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment for the hours of value it provides.

Despite all the rumors that FOXCONN is not doing so well and it is probably going out of the business, Foxconn Electronics and company subsidiary Foxconn Technology posted today record October sales.

Despite a weakening global economy, Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and company subsidiary Foxconn Technology reported October sales that beat market expectations and hit respective company records. Foxconn Electronics spokesperson Edmund Ding said networking and consumer electronics products delivered an outstanding performance in October, while PC product lines also showed stable growth, pushing the company's October sales up 7.63% from September to NT$169.38 billion (US$5.2 billion), an increase of 29.13% on year. Accumulated sales from January to October were NT$1.216 trillion, up 27.47% compared to the same period last year and slightly lower than the company's 30% annual growth target. The company's sales in November and December are expected to continue to grow, though 30% monthly growth will be a difficult goal for the company to achieve, indicated the market watchers.
Foxconn Electronics' subsidiary Foxconn Technology also announced October consolidated sales of NT$16.72 billion, up 13.12% on month and 25.9% on year. Accumulated sales from January to October were NT$127.87 billion, representing 18.56% growth from the same period of 2007.

I guess now all rumors of FOXCONN leaving the motherboard market are groundless.

With many economies under inflation and other factors influencing a weak demand, these are perhaps the worst days for several companies involved in manufacture, marketing and distribution of DRAM and related products. While on the surface, all the consumer can see is a falling market price, in reality it is a composed chaos.

DigiTimes reports a falling demand for DRAM in the Asia-Pacific region as the Chinese government cracks down on users of contraband DRAM products brought in from manufacturing states. The government crackdown began with the thousands of internet-shacks and the components (both hardware and software) they used. All this comes ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a 'purge drive'. As a result, thousands of internet-shacks have been closed, bans have been imposed on the use of contraband hardware, most of which consist of DRAM related hardware. China also brought about changes in their customs routines and procedures making it extremely complicated for importers, stepping up waiting queues, affecting markets and more importantly, dampening demand.

Retail stores around Japan apparently got the hint that Toshiba recently gave up the HD format war. As piles of outmoded equipment pile up, retailers are anxious to get rid of them. In some stores, HD-DVD recorders can be found at the same price as older DVD recorders. At this point, the real savings can only be found in places around Tokyo, where the original story was recorded. However, expect retailers around the whole world to begin seriously discounting HD-DVD equipment. After all, the industry has decided on Blu-ray.

This is an extraordinary week for the Blu-ray disk format. Aside from exclusive treatment from business giants Best Buy and Netflix, this week also witnessed Blu-ray sales topping two and a quarter million sales. This translates into an impressive 79% market share for Blu-ray in Europe. This epic landmark was reached two months after the previous landmark of 1 million units, which is an impressive feat, to say the least. Odd enough, HD-DVD is also trying to claim some victory. Apparently, 60% of all stand-alone players are HD-DVD.

While people criticize the Sony PlayStation3 for various reasons, Sony appears to be doing something right. Despite large total sales leads that both the Microsoft Xbox360 and the Nintendo Wii have on the Sony PS3, the Sony PS3 is beating one console: it's predecessor. In the United Kingdom, it took the PlayStation 2 50 weeks to reach 1 million sales. Considering that the PS3 was launched on March 23, 2007, it took Sony a little less than 47 weeks (yes I did count) to sell 1 million units in the United Kingdom. Comparatively, it took Nintendo 38 weeks to sell 1 million Wiis in the UK, and Microsoft required 60 weeks to sell 1 million Xbox 360s.

While not nearly as epic as Halo 3, sales-wise, the sequel to one of the most popular Nintendo-based multiplayer games has hit it big. Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, where gamers throw famous characters from classic games at each other, sold 800 thousand copies in the first week of sales. This puts the game at the top of all current game charts, outselling Sony's Devil May Cry 4 by several hundred thousand units. Other than those two games, here are the top five games in Japan right now:

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 819,647 units
• Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) - 205,390 units
• Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut (PS2) - 116,928 units
• Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi (PS2) - 114,335 units
• Wii Fit (Wii) - 73,325 units

For years, users wanted Dell to include AMD processors in Dell builds. In May 2006, Dell was happy to announce that they were bringing AMD on board. Everything seemed to be working out, until now. Dell recently announced that they're discontinuing almost all AMD-based Dell computers. The few ones that are left cannot be purchased online, and are only found in stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. This is likely to be a huge blow for AMD, and could not have come at a worse time. AMD recently posted abysmal revenue/loss figures for Q4 2007, and is running a company (ATI) that is worth 30% less than it was at the time of initial purchase. Hopefully, AMD will find more people to sell their processors.

While some people felt that the iPhone would crash and burn, it has in fact done quite the opposite. Of those in America that own mobile phones, 28% own an iPhone. While most people would wonder how a very expensive product isolated to a single network could possibly sell so well, market analysts see this rather large market share as a wakeup call to mobile phone manufacturers. Hopefully, we'll see less generic phones in the future, and more phones that will seem to be works of art more than tools of necessity (for some more than others, obviously).

Some of the most anticipated titles of the year, Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis, have failed to sell very well. In contrast to the overly hyped Halo 3, which boosted actual Xbox 360 sales, Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 sales were, in short, abysmal. Since last month, neither game has managed to sell even 100,000 units. To be precise, EA sold 86,633 copies of Crysis, and Epic Games sold 33,995 copies of UT3. The Inquirer claims that Crysis, despite having a beautiful graphics engine that will have benchmarkers twiddling their thumbs for years, failed to impress anyone without a very expensive gaming machine. And Unreal Tournament, despite being absolutely breathtaking, had gameplay that was uncannily similar to the previous two versions of Unreal Tournament. Hopefully, as systems get better and gamers get more money to spend on games, these sales figures will increase.

This fun piece of trivia does more than make you the life of the party when playing "trivial pursuit". It indicates just how popular the Nintendo DS really is. Nintendo claims that they have sold over six million Nintendo DS units in America this year, citing internal estimates. There also seems to be no slowdown of sales in sight. The Nintendo DS is extremely popular to both the casual and hardcore gamer, and Nintendo fully intends to propel that momentum into 2008.

To further increase your trivial pursuit scores, these recent sales figures indicate that the sale of a Nintendo DS happens more than...

• A bad car accident (those happen once every 14 seconds)
• A man making a sexual advance on a woman (that happens once every seven seconds)
• Two or more script kiddies having a "flame war" on internet message boards over the previously mentioned console (which happens once every six seconds).

A recent stratified random sample poll of 100 independent retailers, commissioned by the trade paper MCV, brought back surprising results. 49% of those surveyed believed that the Xbox360 would eventually trounce the competition, despite the fact that the same retailers are having trouble keeping enough Nintendo Wiis on shelves to meet demand. 35% felt that the PS3 had a fair chance of nabbing the best console award, and a paltry 16% felt that the Wii had a chance. Of course, these figures are mostly based one current retail performance. If Microsoft did not have such blockbuster titles as BioShock and Halo 3, and if Nintendo had ample stock of the Wii, chances are we'd be looking at much different figures.

While Microsoft is putting their PR people to work showing the superiority of Vista to XP, Microsoft Watch is doing their part in educating the public on the other side of things. According to Microsoft Watch, you should not be listening to Microsoft, and know that Vista didn't too very well this year. Here are their reasons why, in order from most to least important. Please follow the source link for the reasons in greater detail.

• Windows XP stayed in the market too long; everything was built for XP and not ready for Vista.
• No compelling reason to upgrade from XP
• User Interface changes made Vista seem overly complex
• Bad timing; most sales occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas of any given year
• Too many people were in charge of designing Vista
• People were not ready for Vista
• Advertising campaign was confusing, and stopped as abruptly as it started.
• No obvious link between Office 2007 and Windows Vista
• Legal issues with the US Department of Justice and the EU.
• Way too many versions.

What was once a stalemate on the HD format front now seems like a landslide victory for the Blu-ray team. The latest Nielson figures shows that Black Friday really put Blu-ray in the chips. As of this week, Blu-ray now has a 72.6% market share over rival format HD-DVD. The most likely reason for this sudden push in sales was the release of "Live Free or Die Hard". Despite cheap HD-DVD players, Blu-ray has managed to maintain a sales advantage for quite some time, and currently is holding off HD-DVD with a 2-1 average sales advantage. Last week's sales advantage was roughly 3-1 in favor of Blu-ray.

Microsoft Claims Xbox 360 Outsold PS3 2:1 on Black Friday Week; Sony Denies Claim

According to Microsoft, Microsoft sold roughly 310,000 Xbox 360's during Black Friday week. If true, these figures would make Black Friday week nearly as successful as the Halo 3 launch week, as far as console sales go. While Microsoft did not bother to contest the Nintendo Wii sale supremacy (about 350,000 units), they proudly boasted to Next-Gen that they had outsold the PS3 2-1, citing unknown retail estimates. Sony was very quick to respond to the sales figures Microsoft boasted. While the sales figures were not unreasonable (Microsoft claimed Sony sold 155,000 PS3's during Black Friday week, and Sony confirmed selling 121,000 PS3's during the month of October), Sony alleged that the Black Friday figures were falsified and/or exaggerated. In fact, the Sony representative claimed that any sales figures are premature: the NPD does not release sales figures for November until December 13th. Sony does not dispute that the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 on Black Friday week, however.

For the past couple weeks, we've been hearing that the PlayStation3 has been beating the Nintendo Wii in sheer sales week-by-week. While hardcore Nintendo and Microsoft fans will be happy to hear that this streak has ended (on the week ending 11/25, Nintendo sold 54,362 Wiis and Sony sold 50,564 PS3s), massive PS3 sales the other three weeks certainly helped Sony out. According to the latest sales figures, 183,217 PS3s were sold in November, as opposed to 159,193 Wiis. The Xbox 360 did not sell anywhere near that well in Japan, with total sales at roughly 26,000 units in November.