Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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If You Don't Think You Need It, You Haven't Seen Greatness Top
great jobEditor's note: Joe Kraus is a partner at Google Ventures, focusing on mobile, gaming, and local services. In 1993, he co-founded Excite.com, an early Internet search engine. He also co-founded JotSpot in 2004, a wiki company acquired by Google in 2006. Follow him on his blog, JoeKraus.com, and on Twitter: @jkraus. One thing I can hear with some regularity from a small founding team is something like "we don't think we need a marketing person" or "we're not going to hire a product manager". Those aren't the only positions I hear that statement for. I hear it for PR, marketing, HR and sometimes BD.
 
Apple's Feeling Europe's Economic Crisis: 'Essentially Flat' Revenues Top
2010-06-06T15-56-53 -- DSC_0385Apple often gets a lot of love in Europe, but in the last quarter that wasn't enough to help it against the tide of economic woe hitting the region. In today's Q3 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook described sales in the region as "essentially flat to slightly positive" -- and, not unlike the wider macro-economy, "that really hampered our total results." Specifically, he noted that France, Greece and Italy were "particularly poor", and Germany saw "only single digital positive growth." Interestingly, the UK seemed immune to this situation and posted a "solid" 13 percent growth rate.
 
Apple Shipped 1.3M Apple TVs In Q3 2012, Still Calls It A Hobby Top
apple tv"We are not going to keep products around we don't believe in," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in regards to the Apple TV on today's earnings call. He also stated that Apple still considers the product a hobby although Apple keeps at the project because they stated "it will lead us [Apple] somewhere." Apple is very happy with Apple TV's growth. The company shipped around 4 million so far during this fiscal year with 1.3 million units over the third quarter -- not so bad for a hobby.
 
CEO Cook On China In Q3: Apple Had $5.7B In Sales, Still Growing At 'Incredible' Rate Top
apple-chinaApple today noted in its earnings call for Q3 that two-thirds of its Asia Pacific revenue is coming from Greater China at the moment. CEO Tim Cook noted that revenues in the country were $5.7 billion for the quarter, 48 percent increase on last year, and still growing at an "incredible rate." To date Apple's revenues in China for the year now total $12.4 billion. In 2011 the company made $13.3 billion in China. Nevertheless, Asia Pacific was actually the only region where Apple saw declines in hardware sales in Macs. These were down to 593,000 units, four percent year on year in terms of Mac units. They also increased of 25 percent in terms of revenue to $7.887 billion. But that's down from growth last quarter of 100 percent.
 
Apple Q3 Earnings: Apple Now Has Over $117 Billion In Cash Reserves Top
Screen Shot 2012-07-24 at 5.23.28 PMApple closed its record June quarter with $117 billion in cash reserves, up from $110 billion last quarter. Crediting strong sales of almost all products as well as an improved economy. Asia-Pacific growth increased 25% this quarter (down from 100% last quarter), 2/3s of which came from China.
 
Apple App Store Hits 650,000 Apps: 250,000 Designed For iPad, $5.5B Paid Out To Devs Top
app-store-iconOn its Q3 earnings call, Apple announced that there are over 650,000 apps on the Apple App Store, up from 600K in April of this year. Apple exec Peter Oppenheimer also mentioned that 250,000 of those apps were developed specifically for iPad. Perhaps more importantly to you hungry entrepreneurs, Apple paid out approximately $5.5 billion to developers. This is a huge jump from the $4 billion figure Apple reported in April.
 
Facebook Open Graph Leader Leaves: Director Of Product Management Carl Sjogreen Plots Next Adventure Top
Carl SjogreenFacebook's acq-hiring like crazy and retaining plenty of top talent, but today marks another post-IPO departure as Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen told friends that he's heading out to take some family time and "plot my next adventure". However, he tells me there's "no concrete ideas yet". Sjogreen's exit follows director of corporate communications Barry Schnitt taking the top comms and public policy role at Pinterest, and CTO Bret Taylor leaving to found a new startup. Many suspected the social network's IPO was designed to give liquidity to long-time employees, but it seems the pull of fresh challenges is outweighing high salaries and extra stock grants for some Facebookers.
 
Apple Retail: 372 Stores, 123 Of Them Outside The U.S. $4.1B In Sales In Q3 Top
Grand Apple storeIn today's Q3 earnings, Apple noted some strong increases in its retail operations, amid some other pressures in overall sales and numbers. Retail sales were up three percent in terms of Mac units, to 791,000 units, and $4.084 billion in revenue. That was a rise of three percent in terms of units, and 17 percent in revenue compared to the same quarter a year ago. In the conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted that half of the sales in retail were to people who had never owned a mac before.
 
Apple Now Has 150 Million iCloud Users Top
apple-icloud-logo1During Apple's Q3 earnings call today, the company's CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced that Apple now has 150 Million iCloud users. That's up from 125 million users the company cited in its last quarterly earnings call in April. As Apple announced at its annual developer conference earlier this year, iCloud will be tightly integrated into Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X that's scheduled to launch tomorrow. Apple sold 26 million iPhones and 17 million iPads in the last quarter, which surely helped to push the number of iCloud users up as well, though the growth in iCloud users is obviously lagging behind the overall growth in the iPhone and iPad ecosystem.
 
Despite Slower-Than-Expected Subscriber Growth, Netflix Pushes Forward With International Plans Top
NetflixBuilding4Netflix announced that it returned to profitability in the second quarter, after a slight dip into the red during the prior three-month period. But despite slower-than-expected subscriber growth, the company said it is committed to pushing forward into a new market in the fourth quarter. Netflix added almost 600,000 international streaming customers in the second quarter, ending with 3.6 million outside the U.S. But that's lower than its forecast from the first quarter. Nevertheless, Netflix remains committed to adding an additional market by year-end, which is expected to push it into the red again.
 
Apple To Release Mountain Lion On July 25 Top
mount-lion2According to Apple's Q3 filing, OS X Mountain Lion will be released to the public tomorrow, July 25. The OS improves on the current version, Lion, by adding iOS-like notifications as well as improvements like Game Center and tweaks to the Mail app. Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote: "We're thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter. We've also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we've got in the pipeline."
 
Netflix Leadership Open To Working With HBO GO, Unthreatened By Verizon Redbox Top
netflix_4c_white_logoBuried a few pages into the Netflix earnings report was an open door to a very interesting possibility: Netflix and HBO GO collaboration. "As for HBO, they continue to do great work with HBO GO, which is now available to most US households that subscribe to the premium service," the report read. "While we compete for content and viewing time with HBO, it is also possible we will find opportunities to work together – just as we do with other networks." Now, this is a far cry from announcing a partnership, but it would be a game-changing collaboration if it happened.
 
Apple Reports Disappointing Mac Sales Despite Retina MacBook Release: 4 Million Units Sold In Q3 2012 Top
retinambpAnalysts have been sharply divided in providing estimates for Apple's third quarter earnings report. And it would appear that this time, predictions of a mild third quarter were correct. Apple saw a bit of a plateau in Mac sales, with 4 million Macs, 26 million iPhones, and 17 million iPads sold in Q3 2012. That's compared to last quarter's sales of 4 million Macs, 35.1 million iPhones, and 11.8 million iPads. The main question was whether or not Apple's MacBook Pro Retina would pick up declining Mac sales. As you can see from the numbers, it appears that 5.1 million pixels does not a spike in sales make, as this represents only a 2 percent increase in sales over the year-ago quarter. At the same time, the Retina MBP was only available for a short portion of the quarter being reported, so it's possible we'll see a spike in Q4.
 
Apple Q3 2012: 26M iPhones, 17M iPads, 4M Macs, and 6.8M iPods Top
iphone-4Apple managed to move a lot of iDevices over the last three months. The company just reported its third quarter financials and detailed iPhone, iPod, and iPad unit sales. The iPad saw a killer quarter with sales up from 11.8M units in Q2 to 17M in Q3. That said, the iPhone didn't fare as well. The company shipped 26M down from 35.1M last quarter but up 28% from last year's third quarter.
 
Apple's Q3 2012: $35B In Revenue, Net Profit Of $8.8B, Earnings Of $9.32 Per Share Top
Apple_first_logoApple has just released its fiscal Q3 2012 earnings, and the Cupertino-based company reported revenues of $35 billion (compared to $28.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and $39.2 billion in Q2 2012) and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion (compared to $7.3 billion in the year-ago quarter and $11.6B in Q2 2012). All that breaks down to earnings of $9.32 per diluted share. During the days leading up to the disappointing release, analysts expected to see Apple rake in revenues of about $37.4 billion, with earnings of roughly $10.38 per share. Apple also reported gross margins of 42.8% (compared to the impressive 47.4% figure the company revealed last quarter) and noted that a full 62% of the quarter's revenues were thanks to international sales. Apple also announced that the company would be issuing a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of common stock.
 
Netflix "Returns To Profitability," Reports Gain Of $0.11 Per Share On $889M In Revenue Top
Netflix_4C_White_LogoNetflix has just released its second quarter 2012 earnings report, in which the video rental veteran outpaced estimates, improving on last quarter and meeting most expectations and even beating some. Revenue increased to $889 million compared to the same period for 2011. Earnings per share came in at $0.11 per share. In the weeks leading up to the release, analysts had been projected Netflix to remain steady, reporting a profit of $0.04 per share on sales of $889 million. That works out to a $6 million gain for the quarter, and brass are happy with the outcome over the quarter. In their letter to investors (see below), CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said that Netflix returned to global profitability this quarter, and are gearing up for more of the same in Q3. Although, as it should be, expectations remained mild for the rest of the summer.
 
Could Romney Really Ban Porn? Top
womanRepublican Presidential front-runner, Mitt Romney, may hold the most unpopular stance in American history: he wants to ban as much porn as he can. A 2007 video (below) of Romney promising to place porn filters on every new computer have resurfaced after his legal adviser "assured" President Reagan's anti-porn legal crusader that Romney sticks by his pledge to curtail porn and resumes prosecution under latent federal obscenity laws.
 
Jessica Alba And Brian Lee Are Coming To SF Disrupt! Top
disrupt-sf12-eventWe are incredibly excited to announce two more amazing speakers who will be joining us onstage at this year's Disrupt SF -- The Honest Company co-founders Jessica Alba and Brian Lee! Alba and Lee will be joining our already impressive list of formidable Disrupt speakers, which so far includes: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Marc Benioff, super angel Ron Conway, Ben Horowitz, Vinod Khosla, Joel Klein, Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. We can't wait and neither should you, so get your tickets here.
 
The Future Of Shopping Looks Blurry: Microsoft And TheFind Launch Glimpse Catalogs HTML5 Shopping App Top
thefind-logo

Nothing says modern web tech technology like making print shopping catalogs available online - or at least that's what Microsoft and shopping search engine TheFind must have been thinking. The two companies unveiled a new project called Glimpse Catalogs today that makes extensive use of HTML5 and other modern web technologies to combine TheFind's Catalogue app for tablets and its Glimpse social shopping app for Facebook into one Pinterest-like site that lets you browse through all your favorite Brooks Brothers, Williams-Sonoma and Lands' End catalogs.

 
Financial Rewards Startup SaveUp Raises $5 Million To Gamify Your Finances Top
saveupFinancial rewards startup SaveUp launched a financial rewards program last year that essentially "gamifies" user savings and paying down debt. It provides a series of rewards as a carrot to get users on the right track with their finances, making the otherwise dull and sometimes scary work of tracking finances fun and interactive. With that goal, the company is raising an additional $5 million, in a round of financing that it hopes will help it change the way users interact with their finances. According to an SEC filing, SaveUp has closed on $4 million of the $5 million round. Existing investors Blue Run Ventures and True Ventures participated in the round, but CEO Priya Haji tells me the round also includes money from a couple of strategic investors, who aren't yet disclosed. They include a multinational bank, as well as a distribution company in the financial services industry. For that final $1 million, which Haji says should close soon, SaveUp is also seeking investment from some prominent angels.
 

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