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In the second quarter, despite the economy’s effect on consumer sales, Apple’s train continued to roll ahead with plenty of steam. Wednesday, the company announced the best non-holiday earnings in its history.

After the close of market, Apple reported net income of $1.33 a share ($1.21b), up 15% year over, on revenue of $8.16b. Both numbers bested Apple’s own conservative guidance, and expectations.

On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted as Apple’s begun doing, adjusted sales totaled $9.06 billion for quarter. That’s $900 million higher than reported revenue. Adjusted gross margin was $3.62 billion and adjusted net income was $1.66 billion.

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Apple appears to have bought up large amounts of flash memory fueling a new round of iPhone 3.0 rumors.  The company was also hit with a new patent infringement lawsuit. In detail…

THE FLASH
Memory orders are often monitored as potential indicators of consumer electronics production changes.  It’s not an exact science as companies routinely adjust inventory on parts to hedge against price fluctuations, or to satisfy demand,  still spikes in volume can be significant.

Apple has a contract to buy its flash memory chips from Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix, and Micron through 2010.

Think Equity Partners reported in February that Apple had bought up much of Samsung’s supply of flash memory. Digitimes reported today that Apple’s recently snagged another 100m 8Gb NAND Flash memory, mostly from Samsung as well.

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The second generation of G-phone, HTC’s Magic, was revealed at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February.  All signs indicate a stateside debut could be coming soon too.

At the end of March, versions of the new Android powered phone cleared the FCC’s certification process (copies of FCC documents here).  Now, today, T-Mobile has sent out invites for a special event to be held April 21st in New York City.

Details haven’t been provided as to what T-Mobile has planned.  It is possible the gathering is for the debut of some other phone… but the odds are high it’s Magic.

The Android market seems to be picking up speed. Click to Read More

Apple’s said it again and again: it has little interest in the netbook category of computers at this time.  As recently as October, Steve Jobs called it a “nascent” market segment.  Still, no matter the denials or rejections, the rumors just won’t quit.   They’ve been trailing the company for months and they’re back at it again.

The latest batch took flight Monday when DigiTimes published a report saying Taiwan-based Wintek had been contracted to deliver touchscreen panels for a new netbook. Click to Read More

In September, the HTC Dream, the first phone built around Google’s Android O.S. was introduced to the market with all the fanfare of a new smartphone aiming for a share of the iPhone’s spotlight.  Tuesday, like pictures of a celebrity newborn, the G-Phone’s sibling was revealed.

HTC, together with Vodaphone, showed their Magic.  The new phone will offer a 3.2” touch screen, a higher capacity battery and a 3.2 mega pixel camera to European customers waiting on an Android based phone. Unlike the Dream, the Magic will not feature a slide out keyboard to compliment its touch screen.  (A side by side feature comparison of the two HTC Android phones is available below).

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Many retailers fell apart this holiday season, their registers ringing up far less of the holiday cheer than they’d have liked.  Companies were cutting staff. Cash was being conserved.  Spending, especially on premium products was way down.  Apple, despite the so called “Apple Tax,” the name sometimes spitefully applied to the higher pricing on Apple’s products, bucked the trend.   Earnings for the period ended December 27th, while shadowed with some elements of mixed quality, handily beat expectations. 

For the first quarter of Fiscal 2009, Apple reported its best revenue result of all time.  Total sales for the quarter crossed past $10 billion to $10.17b.  Year over year, the gain was 5.8% compared to last year’s sales of $9.6b.

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A year and a half ago, Palm bet its future on its new operating system and the phones that go with it.  After an extended development period, today in Vegas, the company finally, showed its hand.

To a boisterous CES crowd mixed with people harboring both high expectations and some, expectations of failure, the company revealed webOS and the Pré handset.

The 8GB phone comes loaded with GPS and WiFi.  It has 3.1inch screen and a 3 megapixel camera  The user interface is fully touch enabled, working with gestures and point contact. It also hosts a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

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