BLACKBERRY SALES PLUMMET AFTER INITIAL RELEASE

After some initial excitement for the new line of BlackBerry 7 smartphones and a strong launch--both unusual for RIM for the past year--sales are starting to sputter. That's according to Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley, who said his checks indicate a slowing trend for BlackBerrys.

It's likely sales have been blunted by the release of the iPhone 4S, as well as the lower price of the legacy iPhone 4 and 3GS models as well. The coming release of the Galaxy Nexus and phones running on the recently unveiled Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system is expected to provide additional pressure, while Nokia may take some shine off RIM's growth overseas, Walkley said. We anticipate increasing competition across all tiers of RIM's products in 2012," he said in a research note sent to clients today.

RIM had hoped for its upgraded BlackBerry 7 operating system to inject some life back into the company's prospects and get it back on track as it migrates to a slicker next-generation platform. With that platform, BBX, expected to be delayed until the middle of next year, it's more important than ever for its current BlackBerry 7 phones to have a strong showing.
A RIM representative wasn't immediately available for comment.

TABLET SHIPMENTS EXCEED NETBOOKS FOR FIRST TIME; NETBOOK SLIDE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE

Global tablet sales into channels exploded in the second quarter of 2011 to surpass netbooks for the first time in the emerging category’s young history. Market research and intelligence firm ABI Research determined that shipments of media tablets ballooned 112.5% in the second quarter to reach 13.6 million units, up from 6.4 million tablets in the first quarter this year. Netbook shipments declined from 8.4 million units to 7.3 million over the same period, just over half the number of media tablets shipped in the quarter. ”This is a trend that we do not expect will reverse,” said ABI’s group director, mobile devices Jeff Orr in a statement. “As they are different segments, this is not a direct replacement behavior, but a changing of leadership for the most interesting device type.” ABI says Apple’s iPad line was responsible for 68% of tablets shipped globally in the second quarter, and the firm expects 60 million media tablets to ship globally in 2011.

iPHONE 4S PRE-SALES HIT ONE MILLION IN ONE DAY

Overwhelming demand for Apple’s new iPhone 4S during the first weekend of preorders has sent unit sales for the device skyrocketing. Apple sold more than one million in the first 24 hours the handset was on sale — a new record, according to a statement released by the company. Indeed, AT&T received more than 200,000 requests for the iPhone 4S in the first 12 hours of availability for preorder on Friday, surpassing even record demand for the iPhone 4 last year.

Though the iPhone 4S officially goes on sale on Oct. 14, shipping times on Apple’s Web site have already shifted to “one to two weeks,” or as late as Oct. 23.

LEAKED SALES DATA SHOWS AMAZON HAS SOLD OVER 250,000 FIRES IN FIVE DAYS

According to some leaked internal sales data Amazon has sold over 250,000 Kindle Fires in just five days. When put in comparison with iPad sales per day, the Fire is still lagging behind, 80,000 for the iPad and ~50,000 for the Fire. That's not bad, but when you look at sales for non-iPad tablets the Fire is uh...on fire!

On the e-reader front however things are not as rosy. The Kindle Touch has only sold about 32,000 units in the same five day period as the Fire. There could be a few reasons for this. The Fire could be cannabalizing the Touch's sales and/or the Kobe and Nook Color have already locked up the advanced feature e-reader market.

AUGUST US GAME SALES PLUMMET 23%

Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the United States continued to slide in August according to new data from NPD Group, again dipping more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Overall industry sales slid 23% to $669.9 million last month from $873.8 million in August 2010. Hardware sales were down 12% from last year to $249.4 million, accessory sales were down just 1% to $134.7 million and software sales plummeted 34% to $264.8 million. ”August 2011 sales saw a decline versus August 2010 in all categories except for portable games hardware,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. “In software, the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September (8/30 release falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period).” Frazier continued, “Even though year to date performance of the new physical portion of the industry is down 5%, more than half of industry sales in this channel are still to be realized in the back four months of the year. Given the strong release schedule in the coming months, new physical retail sales could still be flat to slightly up once full year sales are tallied.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the seventh consecutive month in August with 308,000 units sold.

260% JUMP IN NINTENDO 3DS SALES AFTER PRICE CUT

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata said sales of the company’s Nintendo 3DS device in Europe and the United States were weaker than expected after the portable gaming console made its debut in April for $250. However, Nintendo dropped the price of the 3Ds to $179 after the company reported its first quarterly operating loss. The move quickly boosted sales in Japan and has reportedly resulted in a huge boost of sales in the United States, too. Nintendo sold 50,000 units between August 1st and August 12th before slashing the price of the console. The company then sold 185,000 more units during the rest of August after it reduced the price, a figure that’s up 260% from the same 19-day time period in July according to figures Nintendo quoted from the NPD Group. “Consumers are responding very positively to the new suggested retail price of $169.99 for the Nintendo 3DS,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With Star Fox 64 3D and the new Flame Red color launching [on September 9th], and Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 arriving later this year, Nintendo 3DS will offer consumers cutting-edge entertainment and tremendous value this holiday season.”

APPLE HAS RECORD QUARTER FOR REVENUE AND PROFITS

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

NVIDIA CEO SMACKS ANDROID TABLET SALES AROUND

It won't have escaped your attention that just about every Honeycomb tablet shipping in the first half of this year features, or will feature, NVIDIA's Tegra 2 hardware. Unfortunately for NVIDIA, reception for the Android 3.0 slates has been a little underwhelming, and the company's Chief Eloquence Officer, Jen-Hsun Huang, has had a few words to say about it.

He sees the relative paucity of tablet-optimized Android apps as a weakness, while also expressing the belief that cheaper WiFi-only models should've been the standard shipping config rather than fully fledged 3G / 4G variants as Motorola has been pushing with the Xoom. All in all, his is a very sane and accurate analysis, but Mr. Huang loves to look to the future as much as he enjoys talking about the present, and in his opinion all these major downsides have already been "largely addressed" by "a new wave" of Android tablets. He doesn't specify the devices that constitute said wave, but his emphasis on thinness and lightness leads us to believe he's talking up Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 models

NINTENDO 3DS SALES WEAKER THAN EXPECTED ACCORDING TO NINTENDO PRESIDENT

Speaking during an investor briefing on Tuesday, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata said that sales of his firms new 3DS portable gaming system failed to meet expectations. “Sales of the 3DS have been weaker than expected since the second week of launch in the US and Europe,” Iwata said while discussing the device’s launches in Europe, the United States, and in Japan.

Nintendo had expected to sell 4 million units last quarter, but sales fell short at 3.61 million units. Iwata said that he hopes sales will increase as much as 40% during the next year, AFP reported.

Reviews of the device are pretty unanimous that the system doesn't offer enough features to justify the high $250 price tag.

VERIZON CONFIRMS 2.2 MILLION iPHONES SOLD

Verizon Wireless reported that it has activated 2.2 million iPhone 4 devices during the first quarter. That number is helping the company to drive increased data revenue, which was up 22.3% year over year, and new smartphone sales which now account for 60% of total phone sales. That’s an increase of 11% from the previous quarter and 24% year over year.

In January, after much speculation and rumor, Apple and Verizon Wireless finally announced that the iPhone was coming to the carrier ending the monopoly AT&T had since 2007. The two companies picked the memorable date of 11.1.11 to make their announcement. That announcement was followed up by an official pre-order launch of the Verizon iPhone on February 9th, though Verizon subscribers got a chance to pre-order early on February 3rd at 3am marking the most successful first-day sales in Verizon Wireless’ history.

NINTENDO SELLS NEARLY 400,000 3DS'S IN FIRST WEEK IN US

In an interview with USA Today, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, confirmed that Nintendo sold nearly 400,000 of its 3DS units in the week following its March 27th launch. That’s the same figure Nintendo sold in Japan on its first day of availability when it launched there in February. “We are very satisfied with this start and we look forward to the momentum that we will build on the Nintendo 3DS with the launch of the E-Shop, the launch of the 3-D trailers for Hollywood movies, and the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in mid-June, as well as the launch of Netflix later on in the summer,” Fils-Aime said.

Nintendo sold more than 460,000 units of its previous-generation DS portable gaming consoles, and 290,000 Wii consoles during the month of March.

HTC REPORTS RECORD SALES AND PROFIT

Another quarter, another spectacular set of financial results for HTC. The once-small Taiwanese phone maker reports its net income for the first quarter of 2011 nearly tripled earnings in the same period of 2010, now totaling an impressive $513 million. Overall quarterly revenue was in the vicinity of $3.6 billion and the causes cited were, rather predictably, demand for Android smartphones and higher-speed internet connectivity (as provided by the likes of the EVO 4G and Thunderbolt).

ACER CEO RESIGNS

It appears as though Acer founder Stan Shih will get his wish, as news of CEO Gianfranco Lanci’s resignation could mark the start of a much needed overhaul. Shih, who retired from the company in 2004, said on Tuesday that Acer is in need of an overhaul and a shift in focus from being a leader in the PC market to increasing profit margins.

On Thursday, Acer announced that Lanci is resigning effective immediately, and company chairman J. T. Wang will step in as interim CEO until the company finds a suitable replacement. “The personal computer remains the core of our business,” said Wang in a statement. “We have built up a strong foundation and will continue to expand within, especially in the commercial PC segment. In addition, we are stepping into the new mobile device market, where we will invest cautiously and aim to become one of the leading players.” Wang continued, “In this new ICT industry, Acer needs a period of time for adjustment. With the spirit of entrepreneurship, we will face new challenges and look to the future with confidence.”

eBOOK SALES JUMP IN JANUARY; PAPERBOOK SALES SLIDE

The Association of American Publishers said Thursday that eBook sales for the month of January were up 115% from the same period last year. No surprise there, given that you can read them on most any mobile device these days, not just eReaders. Net sales of eBooks were $69.9 million during the month, up from $32.4 million in January 2010.

On the other side of the coin, sales of paperback books were down 30% year-over-year, and sales of adult hardcover books dropped to $49.1 million in January 2011 from $55.4 million during January 2010.

It doesn’t look like overpriced textbooks are going anywhere, as the higher education sector wasn’t hit as hard. Higher education sales were $382 million this January, down from $387.6 million reported in the same month in 2010.

AMAZON ENDS AFFILIATE PROGRAM IN ILLINOIS

On Thursday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Mainstreet Fairness Bill which would require any online retailer with affiliates in the state to collect state sales tax on purchases from Illinois residents. As a result of the bill being signed into law, Amazon notified affiliates in the state that it would end its affiliate program on April 15th. Overstock.com has also threatened to take a similar move and end its affiliates program in Illinois as well.

The state is taking advantage of a 1992 Supreme Court decision which said that retailers don’t have to collect state sales tax on out-of-state shipments unless it has offices within the state. Clearly, Illinois believes that an affiliate of a retailer is equivalent to having such an office.

Many states have been frustrated with the loss of sales tax revenue associated with items purchased online since most online retailers don’t collect it. States typically have a section on income tax forms which asks citizens to voluntarily admit to any online purchases in order to pay the associated sales tax, but few people actually report such purchases. The Illinois Department of Revenue estimates the state loses between $153 million and $170 million a year as a result.

Illinois is in the midst of correcting what some say is the state’s worst financial crisis resulting in $6 billion in unpaid bills and $4 billion in payments the state has missed to fund state pensions. In January, the state began addressing the crisis by passing legislation to increase the state income tax by 67%, the largest such increase in the state’s history. In addition to receiving bi-partisan support from both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, the Mainstreet Fairness Bill also received the support of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association whose business members believe it is unfair that out-of-state businesses have an advantage simply because they are not required to collect a sales tax.

Amazon did leave the door open so that should the current law be changed or modified it would consider resuming the program.

Walmart on the other hand has taking advantage of the crisis faced by Amazon and Overstock.com affiliates by inviting affiliates of those companies to join the Walmart affiliate program instead. Since Walmart maintains retail locations within Illinois it already collects sales tax on purchases sold through its website.

ELECTRIC CAR SALES FIZZLE IN FEBRUARY

Autoblog Green has turned up the numbers for the Cheverolet Volt and Nissan Leaf sales for the month of February and it's not good. The Volt's sales declined from January's 321 to just 281. The Leaf didn't fair much better, losing 20 sales from January bringing them down to a paltry 67 for February.

Constrained supplies may have something to do with the anemic sales for both months, it could also be that people don't want to pay the price Chevy and Nissan are asking for a small car, regardless if it is all electric or not.

NINTENDO 3DS LAUNCHES IN JAPAN, INITIAL 400,000 UNITS GOBBLED UP

Japan, as usual, got the first crack at Nintendo's latest handheld gaming rig and has torn through the initial 400,000 Nintendo had available. Some of those sales were to customers waiting in a few lines up to 2,000 persons long, but those lines were exceptions to the norm -- several publications note that very few stores actually had any lines to speak of, as most Japanese electronics retailers sold out when the 3DS went on pre-order over a month ago.

US and other countries' retailers should be ready for the onslaught of customers when the 3DS arrives on their shores in the coming months.

PIRACY NOT AFFECTING BOX OFFICE RECEIPTS

While the industry certainly has its share of piracy problems, they aren't affecting box office receipts. The movie business has—yet again—run up record numbers at the box office. In 2010, theaters around the world reported a combined total revenue of $31.8 billion, up 8 percent from 2009. In the US and Canadian markets, the total number of tickets sold fell by 5 percent last year, but theater owners made up for the decline by raising prices an average of 39¢.

While most of the growth last year came from international movie screens, the US and Canadian market has learned that 3D projection can be lucrative. A full 21 percent of US/Canada revenue in 2010 came from 3D films.

VERIZON POSTS LACKLUSTER iPHONE SALES

BGR is reporting Verizon iPhone sales are performing a little under what Apple and Verizon anticipated, and we have the data to show it. Below are unit sales totals from five Apple stores combined (including two very, very prominent Apple stores) showing both Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4 sales during the Verizon iPhone’s first five days of availability:

• Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
• Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
• Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
• Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
• Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618

Additionally, we have been told that online pre-orders between Verizon and Apple amounted to around 550,000 units. We also have some statistics on who’s buying Verizon iPhones to share with you: 30% of people buying Verizon iPhones were Android users, just over 25% of people buying iPhone 4 were BlackBerry users, and only 14% of people buying the Verizon iPhone were AT&T iPhone owners. The remaining percent didn’t want to say, didn’t have a smartphone, or didn’t have a phone prior to making their iPhone 4 purchases last week.

NISSAN REVISES 2011 LEAF DELIVERY ESTIMATES LOWER

Back in December Nissan representative Tim Gallagher said "By the end of summer, our goal is to have everyone in their car." That would have meant 20,000-odd Leafs shipped before leaves start falling from trees, but now Nissan North America's Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing Brian Carolin thinks we won't even see that many until next year. "I think 20,000 will be too high," he said, referring to total deliveries for 2011. "You just have to make this launch absolutely perfect. It's not a numbers game."