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TOKYO — Annual profit at Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Corp. surged 65 percent, driven by strong demand for Apple’s iPhone 4S.

Softbank, which did not break down quarterly numbers, Thursday reported a net profit of 313.8 billion yen ($3.9 billion) for the fiscal year through March, up from 189.7 billion yen the previous year.

Annual sales jumped nearly 7 percent to 3.2 trillion yen ($39.5 billion).

Tokyo-based Softbank credited the boost in earnings to iPhone 4S launched by Apple Inc. in October.

The fortunes of Softbank, once the underdog in Japan’s telecom industry, have improved after it started selling the iPhone in 2008.

Initially, Softbank was the only Japanese phone company to offer the iPhone. Rival KDDI Corp. began to sell the iPhone from late last year.

Softbank still remains the sole vendor of the popular iPad in Japan.

Softbank, which also offers fixed-line broadband services, has carried out an aggressive marketing drive in recent years, starring a talking white dog that has proved popular among Japanese.

Softbank’s success defied initial skepticism about embracing Apple products because of the strong position of local electronics makers previously reputed for the world’s most advanced cell phones.

Highlighting the success of that strategy was a key part of the earnings presentation by Softbank President Masayoshi Son, often praised as Japan’s Steve Jobs.

“Softbank was the first to focus all our managerial resources on smartphones,” Son said.

He said the three must-haves of the 20th Century — the washing machine, fridge and TV — had changed in the 21st century to the iPhone, iPad and cloud computing services.

Son has recently become highly visible in pushing solar technology. That has made him stand out even more because the government is eager to stick to nuclear power.

Japanese public interest in solar and other renewable energy has been growing since the March 11, 2011 tsunami set off a nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEW YORK — The iPhone boosted struggling Sprint Nextel Corp. in the latest quarter, letting it beat ATT and perhaps even Verizon in recruiting high-paying phone subscribers to the Sprint network.

Sprint started selling the iPhone in October, after ATT and Verizon. To get it, it had to promise Apple that it would buy phones for $15.5 billion over four years — a big sum for a company in a precarious financial position — and analysts have noted that the phone could push Sprint over the edge, into bankruptcy.

But in the first quarter, the iPhone appeared to help Sprint recruit subscribers and get more money out of each one.

Sprint added a net 263,000 subscribers to the Sprint network on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. That was up just a smidgen from last year’s figure in the same quarter, but it comes as ATT and Verizon Wireless have seen big drops in new customers.

Excluding tablets, which earn lower fees, Verizon Wireless added a net of about 240,000 customers in the quarter, while ATT added 7,000.

The Sprint figure includes some tablets, but the number is likely small, because unlike Verizon and ATT, Sprint does not sell the iPad.

Sprint’s data network is much slower than Verizon’s or ATT’s, but it has been luring smartphone subscribers by offering unlimited data usage. ATT and Verizon Wireless have stopped signing up new customers for unlimited data plans, and ATT has started slowing down data usage severely once customers on its “unlimited data” plan hit certain usage limits.

On a call with analysts Wednesday, Hesse defended the iPhone, saying customer desire for the device and lower customer support costs justify the price.

“The evidence so far supports our decision to carry the phone,” Hesse said.

Sprint activated 1.5 million iPhones in the quarter, down from 1.8 million in the fourth quarter.

Helped by a $10 per month surcharge on smartphones imposed last year, Sprint’s wireless service revenue rose 7.4 percent from a year ago, compared to 7.7 percent at Verizon, which has had more time to sell the iPhone. At ATT, the figure was 4.3 percent.

“Sprint posted easily the most impressive (quarter) in U.S. telecom,” said Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie Securities.

Sprint shares 4 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $2.51 in mid-morning trading. The shares are still close to a three-year low of $2.10 hit in January.

However, Sprint’s contract subscriber additions turn into a net loss of 192,000 when the outdated Nextel network is included. Since buying Nextel in 2005, Sprint has struggled with the cost of running two disparate wireless networks, even as Nextel customers have cancelled service in droves. It’s scheduled to shut the network down next year.

The depreciation, or drop in value, of the Nextel network widened Sprint’s net loss from January through March to $863 million, or 29 cents per share. In the same quarter last year, the Overland Park, Kan., company’s loss was $439 million, or 15 cents per share.

Analysts polled by FactSet were on average expecting a loss of 42 cents per share. Sprint beat that with the help of the better service revenues and a one-time benefit from a cancelled network-sharing contract.

Revenue was $8.73 billion, up 5 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $8.71 billion.

Sprint has already started thinning out the Nextel network, turning off cell towers. Steve Elfman, the head of network operations, said this shouldn’t affect service, since there are only 5.4 million Nextel subscribers left. That’s 10 percent of the overall number of Sprint Nextel customers.

On the radio frequencies freed up by the Nextel phase-out, Sprint is building a new fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless broadband network using the “LTE” technology ATT and Verizon are using. It’s reducing its reliance on Clearwire Corp.’s 4G network for data service for its smartphones. That means Clearwire 4G, which is based on an older network technology, is no longer a selling point for its smartphones. Sprint will now make Clearwire 4G available on phones for its Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile pay-as-you go brands, Hesse said.

Sprint has 15.3 million pay-as-you-go subscribers, making it second only to Tracfone in the U.S. no-contract phone market.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Computerworld - Apple on Tuesday announced record first-quarter revenue on the back of soaring iPhone sales, with an assist from the iPad.

During an earnings call with Wall Street analysts and reporters, Apple said it had sold 35.1 million iPhones during the quarter, an increase of 88% from the same period a year ago, and 11.8 million iPads, well over twice as many it sold in the first quarter of 2011.

“[The iPhone] blew through our … forecast,” acknowledged Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, which had pegged iPhone sales of just 29.6 million units.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said the iPhone and iPad numbers showed “aggressive growth.”

Revenue of $39.2 billion was a record for any quarter that ended in March, although it was about $7 billion short of the all-time record set last quarter. Sales rose by 59% over the year-ago period, and the net profit of $11.6 billion, which also a record for the first quarter, was nearly double what the company booked in the first three months of 2011.

As has become the trend, Apple’s revenue was fueled by another big jump for the iPhone, the line that accounted for almost 58% of Apple’s revenue, an even larger percentage than last quarter’s 53% contribution.

It was the second consecutive quarter that the iPhone accounted for more than half of the company’s revenue.

“Apple is a phone company, but it’s not your father’s phone company,” Gottheil said about the iPhone’s contribution.

Apple’s 35.1 million iPhone sold was almost as high as the record 37 million units it sold last quarter. The 35.1 million number blew by the consensus estimates of Wall Street analysts, who again seriously underestimated sales by predicting Apple would sell just 31 million iPhones.

Among the sales drivers, said chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, were strong sales of the iPhone in China, where Apple sold five times as many units as in the year-ago quarter.

Apple began selling the iPhone 4S in China in mid-January, nearly three months after the U.S. launch, and two weeks into the quarter just reported.

Another contributing factor, said Oppenheimer, was an additional 2.6 million iPhones that Apple coaxed out of its suppliers during the quarter, a move that let the company meet demand for the first time since Apple introduced the iPhone 4S last October.

Sales of the iPad were also brisk, but did not match the blow-out quarter at the end of the 2011: Apple sold 11.8 million iPads, up 132% over the same quarter in 2011 but down 24% from the previous quarter.

The iPad brought in 16.8% of Apple’s income for the quarter.

One analyst noticed a drop in the average sales price (ASP) for the iPad line, and asked Oppenheimer if that meant the price cut on the iPad 2 had boosted sales, and if so, what that told the company about the business it could do with lower-priced tablets.

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Capcom is bringing its classic fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to the iPhone.

The publisher announced the mobile title is available now on Apple’s App Store, and works with the iPod Touch and iPad.

The game features a Flick Button mechanic, which Capcom says will let players pull off more advanced attacks with swipes of the touch-screen.

All the original game’s characters and features, such as the ability to tag in other brawlers during battle, will be available.

The game sells for $4.99, but will be available for $2.99 until May 6.

In the Star Trek universe, the tricorder is a handheld device used by Kirk, Spock, and various red-shirted crew members to make detailed scans of unfamiliar planets and even less familiar life-forms. It can be used in sick bay to diagnose intergalactic patients, and in engineering to find which part of the warp core is …

Apple is now accepting nominations for its annual Apple Design Awards given out during WWDC. Apps that are well-designed, state of the art, and innovative—and available via the App Store or Mac App Store—are eligible for consideration.

Apple has been giving out its Apple Design Awards, or ADAs, since 1996. Every year the criteria used to choose winners changes; in 2006, for instance, there was an award for “Best Scientific Computing Solution,” while the 2009 awards has a category for “Best iPhone OS 3.0 Beta App.”

In 2010, Apple famously limited the awards to iPhone and iPad apps only. This prompted the Ars staff to give out “Ars Design Awards,” recognizing some outstanding OS X developers. Apple returned to handing out awards for Mac apps in 2011, though only if those apps were distributed via the new Mac App Store. That same limitation still applies to OS X software this year.

Apple hasn’t specified what categories it will give awards for, though the company is asking registered developers to nominate apps based on three criteria: “well-designed,” “state of the art,” and “innovative.” In other words, is the app engaging and easy to use? Does it use the latest hardware or OS technologies? And does it offer a “revolutionary, inspiring” user experience?

If you were picking such an app available from the App Store or Mac App Store, what would you choose? Are there apps outside the Mac App Store that also deserve recognition? Let us know in the comments, as we may very well resurrect the Ars Design Awards this year to recognize those who don’t sell through the Mac App Store. What do you think?

April 24, 2012 9:47 pm

By Richard Waters and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco

Much stronger-than-expected iPhone sales helped Apple nearly
double its profit last quarter.

The world’s most valuable company said it sold 35.1 million
iPhones during the first three months of 2012, soundly beating
analysts’ expectations. That was a relief to investors, following
weaker-than-expected iPhone activations from Verizon and ATT
during the quarter.

Shares of Apple rose more than 7% after hours, halting a two-week
slump that has dragged the stock down nearly 13% from its
all-time peak.

The iPhone 4S got a big boost from overseas sales in the past
quarter, particularly after the device launched on China Unicom
in January and China Telecom in March. Apple’s Asian revenues
grew 32% over the prior quarter.

Apple also announced that it sold 11.8 million iPads. Boosting
sales was the launch of the third generation of the tablet, which
went on sale in mid-March, as well as Apple’s decision to
continue selling the very similar iPad 2 at a $100 discount.

The iPad is now Apple’s fastest-selling device, reaching 67
million sold since it launched two years ago. It took Apple three
years to sell as many iPhones, five years to sell as many iPods
and 24 years to sell that number of Macintosh computers.

Yet analysts were concerned that the introduction of the lower
price point would hurt future profit. Average revenue per iPad
fell to $558 last quarter from $593 in the previous quarter.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts that
the company “feels great” about offering the iPad at a lower
entry cost, which has resulted in a “marked change in demand in
some countries.”

Mac sales grew to 4 million, and iPod sales slipped to 7.7
million.

Overall, sales for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company rose 59%
to $39.2 billion, topping the median forecast of $36.8 billion of
analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Apple’s net income rose to $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share, up
95% from a year earlier. Analysts forecasted earnings of $10.04
per share.

For the current quarter, Apple said it expects earnings of $8.68
per share on sales of $34 billion. That is well below Wall
Street’s expectations, but investors typically take Apple’s
historically conservative guidance with a grain of salt.

Yet Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer defended
the company’s outlook, noting that the ability to ramp up
manufacturing and meet customers’ demand for iPhones exceeded the
company’s forecasts. As a result, the company expects iPhone
sales to fall in the current quarter from the past quarter. Apple
expects iPad sales to grow quarter over quarter.

Apple briefly reached a market valuation of $600 billion before
the recent slide, becoming just the second company to hit that
level. The other, Microsoft, achieved it in late 1999.

At the end of the quarter, Apple’s cash hoard grew to an
astounding $110.2 billion. The company said it would begin giving
shareholders a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime its
fiscal fourth quarter, which begins in July. Apple will also buy
back $10 billion of its own shares over three years, beginning in
October.

The third national iPhone carrier, Sprint, is set to report its
financial results on Wednesday morning. Amazon, Apple’s chief
tablet competitor, is scheduled to report earnings Thursday
evening.

The company reported Tuesday that soaring sales of the iPhone, especially in China, helped Apple nearly double its profit in the company’s fiscal second quarter.

Apple said it sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, an 88 percent increase from the period a year ago. It sold 11.8 million iPads, more than double the number it sold in the same quarter last year.

“It was an incredible quarter in China,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It is mind-boggling that we could do this well.”

For the quarter that ended March 31, the company reported net income of $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, compared with $5.99 billion, or $6.40 a share, in the period a year earlier.

Apple’s revenue was $39.19 billion, up from $24.67 billion a year ago.

Mr. Cook said that Apple’s quarterly revenue from China was $7.9 billion, about 20 percent of total company revenue. Furthermore, that was triple Apple’s China sales in the same period a year ago. In contrast, Apple’s China sales during its last fiscal year were about 12 percent of total revenue. Two years ago, Apple sales in China were 2 percent.

“China has grown from a rounding error to a massive new market,” said Robert Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners. “Their premium price point clearly has not been any hurdle to them growing there.”

Mr. Cook said that enormous numbers of people moving into the middle class in China were creating demand for goods including the iPhone. He said Apple was “doing everything” it could to serve the market. The iPhone 4S went on sale in China on Jan. 13, near the beginning of the last quarter, and starts at nearly $800 without a wireless plan, though it is available free with a multiyear carrier contract.

Since becoming chief executive of Apple last fall, Mr. Cook has repeatedly identified China as one of the biggest growth opportunities for Apple. The growing appetite for Apple’s products among Chinese consumers comes at a time when Apple is working with manufacturing partners and parts suppliers to improve working conditions in factories in countries like China, where most Apple products are made.

Apple executives also said demand for the newest version of the iPad, released by Apple last month, was outstripping supply of the product, leading to shortages. They said it remained their fastest-growing business and that Apple had sold 67 million of the device since the first model went on sale in 2010.

Mr. Cook said it took 24 years for Apple to sell an equivalent number of Macintosh computers. In the education market, one of the strongest for the Mac, Apple said it sold two iPads for every Apple computer. In one example, the San Diego school district bought 10,000 iPads during the last quarter, with plans to buy 15,000 more in the current quarter, according to Apple.

Apple previously told Wall Street to expect earnings of $8.50 a share and revenue of $32.5 billion for the quarter. But as they do nearly every quarter, analysts viewed Apple’s official figures as lowball estimates and came up with their own more bullish forecasts. On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Apple to report earnings of $10.06 a share and revenue of $36.81 billion for the quarter.

Investors in Apple had grown increasingly skittish about Apple’s performance in the weeks before the earnings report, sending its shares down from a high of $636.23 on April 9 to $560.28 at the close of regular trading on Tuesday. Among their chief concerns were research data showing weak sales of the Macintosh computer and worries about whether iPhone sales could keep up their momentum.

But immediately after the results from Apple came out, its shares shot up nearly 7.4 percent in extended trading. Even after the jitters of the last several weeks, Apple’s shares are up 38 percent for the year and the company remains the world’s most highly valued company.

Some investors fear a repeat of a pattern from last year, when Apple said it lost some sales of the iPhone because of a steady escalation of rumors about the release of a new model. Those rumors were accurate; Apple announced the iPhone 4S in early October.

There is widespread speculation that Apple will again introduce a new version of the iPhone in the fall and that consumers might wait for its release so they can get the latest gadget. The iPhone has become an engine of Apple’s growth over the last two years, accounting for almost 40 percent of the company’s revenue during the quarter. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said a slowdown in iPhone sales in the months ahead of an expected fall or summer release of a new version remained likely.

“You can count on that,” said Mr. Munster.

As it does in most quarters, Apple again tempered expectations with analysts. In the company’s current quarter, Apple said it expected to report earnings of $8.68 a share and revenue of $34 billion.

The company also said its hoard of cash and cash equivalents rose to more than $110 billion. Apple has said it intends to slow the growth of its cash through investor dividends and share buybacks.

By Katie Marsal

Published: 12:21 PM EST (09:21 AM PST)

A new rumor claims Apple is planning to release iPhoto ’12 on the Mac App Store this summer, with the new software bringing some of the features of iPhoto for iOS to the Mac.

The rumor comes from anonymous sources who spoke with the Dutch website Apple Weetjes, which does not have an extensive track record with respect to Apple rumors. It said the new version the photo editing software will be “largely inspired” by the newly released iPhoto for iOS.

The new iPhoto ’12 will reportedly allow users to create a photo album and share it via iCloud. This would replace the MobileMe gallery function currently found in iPhoto.

In addition, iPhoto ’12 is also rumored to allow users to easily transfer pictures from iOS devices with iPhoto installed. In this way, users could quickly edit and share photos between their Mac and iOS devices.

The report also said that photo retouching in iPhoto ’12 for Mac will be “inspired by iOS.” It said the new version will be available on OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, but will not run on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

iPhoto for iOS was launched on the App Store in March, and was introduced alongside the third-generation iPad. It was dubbed by Apple as a “reinvention” of the preexisting iPhoto for Mac.

Apple revealed last month that it had sold more than a million copies of iPhoto for iOS in less than 10 days of availability. It is available for $4.99 on the iOS App Store, and is compatible with both the iPhone and iPad.

On the Mac, iPhoto was last updated in October of 2010 along with iMovie and GarageBand in the iLife ’11 software suite. All three applications come free with every new Mac, while existing users can purchase the latest versions from the Mac App Store for $14.99 each.