US$20-B sales in 2012? Possible says San Miguel chief

MANILA, Philippines - Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is aiming to increase target sales for all units more than 60% this year, after its president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said its US$20 billion (est PhP860 billion) revenue target will be achieved by end of this year.

“We are ahead to achieve the $20 billion sales. We believe that we may even hit $20 billion revenues per year. We have set internally another target but I will not say how much,” Ang told reporters on May 23.

Originally the company set its $20 billion target revenue for 2015. Last year the conglomerate brought in P535.76 billion (or roughly $12.37 billion based on a 43.31 average exchange rate).

Asked about achieving the ambitious target, Ang said, "We have been buying good companies, that’s why.”

“Madami pa kaming gagawin. Marami pang opportunity sa labas na hinahabol naming at madami pa na opportunities sa Pilipinas. Ngayon ginagaya na kami ng lahat. Habang gumaganda, hinde namin ititigil ito. We will pursue our diversification. (We will be doing more acquisitions. We have a lot of opportunities here and outside the country. Now, others are copying our strategy. We will not stop. We will pursue our diversification strategy),” said Ang.

"Oh, you have not seen anything yet," he quipped.

San Miguel has been diversifying away from its decades-long food and drinks core businesses, and into heavy industries that they expect to bring in higher yields. Their business portfolio now includes mining, energy, power, banking, toll roads, agriculture and other utilities.

San Miguel's recent acquisition was a minority stake in legacy carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL). It also recently disposed its stake in Bank of Commerce for P12 billion. It has expressed interest in key infrastructure and capital intensive projects, including the upcoming NLEx-SLEx connector link project.

“If the timing is good this year, marami pa kaming gagawin (we will do more deals),” said Ang. - Rappler.com

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China 'to investigate land sales'

25 September 2011 Last updated at 16:55 GMT This wall was torn down during the protests The Chinese authorities have agreed to investigate local government land sales that prompted several days of sometimes violent public protests, media say.

Villagers in southern China say they are being pushed off farmland for property development.

Unrest broke out on Wednesday, but the situation now appears to be calmer.

Officials said protesters in Lufeng in Guangdong province injured police officers and damaged government buildings during the protest.

Several hundred people were reported to have attacked a police station and government buildings, and to have used earth-movers to smash down a wall around the seized land.

Chinese reporters who visited the area on Saturday evening said it appeared to be calm.

They said protest banners had been taken down and restaurants were open for business.

Locals, however, said they remain angry and expect the government investigation to expose what they say is an unfair transfer of farmland to build factories.

"We want our land returned to us," said a woman who took part in the protests.

'Mass incidents'

There are tens of thousands of mass incidents, as they are known, in China every year.

Some of the highest-profile recent protests have been in Guangdong province, whose factories turn out about a third of China's exports.

One often-heard complaint is that corrupt officials collude with developers to sell off farmland without giving farmers the proper compensation, correspondents say.

Laws are in place to protect farmers, but are often ignored at local level.

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Ocado sales slowdown hits shares

19 September 2011 Last updated at 09:37 GMT Continue reading the main story Shares in online grocer Ocado have fallen more than 11% after reporting a slowdown in sales growth.

Ocado, which sells mostly Waitrose products, said sales rose 16.9% in the 12 weeks to August 7, down from a rate of 20.8% in the previous six months.

The company also said full-year profit margins were likely to rise by less than expected as it invests in improving customer service.

It hopes to expand warehouse capacity to help it keep up with demand.

Ocado is increasing the size and capability of its distribution centre at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

It said its investments had already improved customer service in the third quarter, with 99% of items delivered as ordered, and 95.5% made on time or early.

Ocado hopes to be able to deal with 140,000 orders per week by the end of the current quarter, compared with 111,000 in its third quarter.

Ocado is also building a new distribution centre in Dordon, Warwickshire, which is expected to be open at the end of 2012.

Earlier this year, Waitrose announced it would be expanding its online presence to within the M25 area, which many retail analysts said would likely take orders away from Ocado.

Ocado was founded in 2001 by three former Goldman Sachs bankers.

Its shares floated at 180 pence in July 2010, but at Monday's close Ocado's shares stood at 118.4p, down 11.4% on the day.

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Labor Day Sales Kick Off

Labor Day Sales are expected to boost US economy as consumers are all set to spend the green bucks while retailers are offering huge discounts to their items.

“September is a weird month because it’s when the stores are trying to get rid of excess so they can restock for the holidays,” says Hillary Mendelsohn, author of “thepurplebook: The Definitive Guide to Exceptional Online Shopping,” and founder of thepurplebook.com, an online shopping guide.

Online shoppers also take the opportunity to purchase the items that they’ve been longing to buy and now these items are now available with discounted prices which range from 40% to 70% The shoppling list for the Labor Day Sales include home decors, designer fragrances, dining room furniture, luggage sets, watches, fine jewelries, Levis denim, Craftsman tools, Samsung TVs and a lot more!

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ABS-CBN H1 PROFITS DROPS ON WEAKER AD SALES!

ABS-CBN Corporation, posted lower first-half profits at P1.7 billion, down 26% on weak sales and lower advertising revenues.The profit drop was limited due to a P674-million one-time gain on the sale of Sky Cable Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to Singapore's STT Communications.However, it was not enough to make up for the absence of political advertising which totaled P1.3 billion in the midst of national and local elections last year.Consolidated revenues hit P13.9 billion, a decline of 18% on year. Advertising revenues likewise dipped 24% at P8.8 billion.Stripping out the sale of Sky Cable's PDRs and political advertising last year, total revenues rose 1% and advertising revenues at 4%.Consumer sales for the first half was also down 4% at P5.1 billion, mainly from ABS-CBN Global, while revenues dropped 14% on year, on lower subscriber growth and stronger peso versus the dollar.ABS-CBN Global's overall viewer count dropped 1% on year, led by declines in the Middle East, Europe and Japan, but it's the contrary in markets like Canada, Asia-Pacific and Australia.The company set a P3 billion profit target for 2011, which the firm acknowledged may be tough to achieve."It will be a challenging year," ABS-CBN chief financial officer Ron Valdueza said.ABS-CBN Corp. is the parent firm of ABS-CBNNews.com.- by Liza Reyes of ABS-CBN News

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Oracle's choice to nix Itanium support hurts HP sales

Filed Under: By: Larry Dignan August 19, 2011 5:55 AM PDT

Hewlett-Packard and Oracle are at odds over Itanium support and the former appears to be taking the body blows.

In June, HP filed a civil lawsuit in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara to force Oracle to support the Itanium platform. In March, Oracle had said it would stop supporting HP's Itanium platform because Intel planned to shut it down in the long run. HP and Intel both denied Oracle's claims. The two parties last month exchanged courtroom jabs over Itanium support.

Now it appears that Oracle's Itanium decisions are impacting sales of HP's mission-critical systems. From a buyer perspective, putting off a purchase makes sense. Why would an Oracle shop buy an Itanium based-system if support was uncertain going forward?

Yesterday, HP CEO Leo Apotheker--amid a massive corporate revamp--acknowledged that the Itanium flap was hurting business. Apotheker said:

Revenue in business critical systems declined 9 percent year over year. This decline is sharper than expected as our ability to close deals has been impacted by Oracle's decision and orders are being delayed or canceled. We are working diligently to enforce the commitments that Oracle has made to our customers and to HP.

Apotheker referenced Oracle a few times in regards to Itanium. He also said that HP was taking Oracle to court over "anti-customer behavior." It's unclear where this Itanium spat goes ultimately, but for now the flap is freezing sales of Itanium-based systems.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard) This story was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines .

If you have a question or comment for Larry Dignan, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.

Larry Dignan is editor in chief of ZDNet and editorial director of CNET's TechRepublic. He has covered the technology and financial-services industries since 1995.

Your destination for the latest news on enterprise-level information technology, from chip research and server design to software issues including programming, open source, and patents.

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UK retail sales see weak growth

18 August 2011 Last updated at 11:08 GMT More consumers are cutting back on their spending Retail sales grew only slightly last month, as cash-strapped consumers remained under pressure, figures show.

Sales volumes excluding petrol rose just 0.2% in July, a slowdown on the 0.8% increase in June, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Sales of household goods, clothing and footwear all declined.

Consumer spending continues be affected by a number of factors, including higher inflation, job losses and limited wage rises.

Inflation in July, as measured by the government's preferred Consumer Prices Index, increased to 4.4% from 4.2% in June. This is more than double the 2% target rate.

Meanwhile, the number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 38,000 to 2.49 million in the three months to June.

'Disappointing' data

Compared with July 2010, sales volumes excluding fuel were also 0.2% lower. When fuel sales are included sales were unchanged from a year ago.

The sales volumes data is adjusted by the ONS to remove the effect of inflation.

When the impact of inflation is included, sales in July rose in value terms by 0.8% from June, and by 4.3% from a year earlier.

Continue reading the main story

The outlook for retail does not look particularly rosy, concerns about the growth outlook and the decline in real wages are weighing on the consumer”

End Quote Victoria Cadman Investec The 0.2% rise in volume retail sales in July was less than the 0.3% increase expected by analysts, and was also lower than the 0.6% increase estimated by the British Retail Consortium earlier this month.

The ONS said volume sales of clothing and footwear fell 0.3% in July compared with June, with household goods declining by the same amount. Food sales were up 0.7%.

Since the start of the year a number of well-known retailers have gone into administration, including fashion chain Jane Norman, interior designer Habitat, and wine seller Oddbins.

Others such as Mothercare, entertainment group HMV and confectioner Thorntons have announced store closures.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the latest official figures were "broadly as expected".

He added: "While disappointing, it is not surprising given the huge squeeze on disposable incomes as a result of higher food and energy costs and the government's austerity measures.

"These figures and other economic indicators suggest growth in the third quarter of this year is likely to remain sluggish, although fears of a new recession seem exaggerated."

George MacDonald from Retail Week says people are still buying goods such as iPads

'Limping along'

Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said the latest data was "more encouraging than expected".

She added: "Monthly sales growth was much weaker than June but, given that retailers had started their sales earlier than usual this year, any growth at all in July is very welcome, particularly in the current climate."

Investec analyst Victoria Cadman said UK consumers were "limping along at best".

"What leaps out is that consumers are unwilling to spend on big ticket items - household goods are down 4.1% on the year," she added.

"The outlook for retail does not look particularly rosy, concerns about the growth outlook and the decline in real wages are weighing on the consumer."

The UK economy grew by only 0.2% in the second quarter of the year, down from the 0.5% growth rate recorded between January and March.

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Spain cuts tax on property sales

19 August 2011 Last updated at 14:22 GMT The collapse of the property market left many homes unsold or unfinished Spain has announced plans to try to tackle the severe problems facing its housing market.

The government will temporarily halve the sales tax on new homes to 4% to try to stimulate its construction sector.

Spain's economy was plunged into recession following the collapse of its once-buoyant property sector.

The government is also hoping that building projects will help create jobs and cut the unemployment rate, which is one of the highest in the eurozone.

'Exceptional measure'

The sales tax cut is one of a number of measures that was agreed at a cabinet meeting. The measures are designed to boost Spain's weak economic growth rate and generate revenue to help it cut its deficit.

The reduction in tax, designed to stimulate the construction sector, would last until the end of the year, a government spokesman said.

"This is a temporary and exceptional measure," he added.

There are also new measures to bring forward corporate tax payments and cut health spending on brand-name drugs.

Job measures

It is hoped the move to cut drug costs for regional government via the introduction of a new generic medicines bill will save 2.4bn euros.

A further 2.5bn euros could be raised by front-loading tax payments from large businesses until 2013.

The government said the various measures would make it easier to hit deficit targets this year.

Economy Minister Elena Salgado also said that, next Friday, Spain would approve measures to stimulate jobs.

"We are going to carry on taking measures to stimulate and favour growth, which will strengthen those we already have in place, in the labour market," she said.

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Sarah Geronimo, David Archuleta and Super Junior Top PHL Music Sales

The latest albums from Sarah Geronimo, David Archuleta and Super Junior M are the best-sellers in Philippine record bars for the third and fourth week of July.

Odyssey’s Top Sellers
(July 18-24, 2011)

OPM

1. One Heart – Sarah Geronimo (Viva)
2. Angeline Quinto – Angeline Quinto (Star)
3. Panaginip – Noel Cabangon (Universal)
4. Love Songs Unplugged 6 – Various Artists (Ivory)
5. I Love You – Willie Revillame (Viva)
6. Byahe – Noel Cabangon (Universal)
7. Decades 2 – Piolo Pascual (Star)
8. Lighthearted 2 – The Company (Viva)
9. I’d Do Anything For Love – Jovit Baldivino (Star)
10. Himig ng Damdamin – Martin Nieverra (PolyEast)

Overall

1. The Other Side of Down (Asian Tour Edition) – David Archuleta (Sony)
2. Virgin – After School (Universal Records)
3. One Heart – Sarah Geronimo (Viva)
4. Angeline Quinto – Angeline Quinto (Star)
5. Doo Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars (Warner)
6. Panaginip – Noel Cabangon (Universal)
7. 21 – Adele (Warner)
8. Full Blast! Maximum Dance Hits – Various Artists (Ivory)
9. Love Songs Unplugged 6 – Various Artists (Ivory)
10. I Love You – Willie Revillame (Viva)

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Astro Chart: Astroplus’ Top Sellers
(July 25-31, 2011)

1. Super Junior M – Perfection Version A/B – Universal Records Philippines
2. Stephanie Dan – Love To Love Acoustic – SonyMusicPh
3. Juris – Forevermore – Star Records, Inc. (Official Fan Page)
4. Noel Cabangon – Panaginip – Universal Records
5. Noel Cabangon – Byahe – Universal Records
6. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops And Hooligans – Warner Music
7. 30 Seconds To Mars – This Is War – PolyEast Records
8. Adele – 21 – Warner Music
9. Various Artists – Today’s Favorite Love Songs Unplugged 6 – Ivory Music
10. Sarah Geronimo – One Heart – Viva Records
11. Various Artists – Pure … Crooners – SonyMusicPh
12. Princess Velasco (Official) – Acoustic Princess – Vicor Music
13. Various Artists – Kids Sing Along Collection – Ivory Music
14. Various Artists – By Popular Demand 3 – Universal Records Philippines
15. Various Artists – Pure… ’80s Dance Party – Sony Music
16. All Time Low – Dirty Work – MCA Music (Universal Music Philippines)
17. 30 Seconds To Mars – Beautiful Lie – PolyEast Records
18. Incubus – If Not Now, When – Sony Music
19. Various Artists – Bida Best Hits Da Best – Star Records, Inc. (Official Fan Page)
20. Angeline Quinto – Angeline Quinto – Star Records

Source: Astro Plus’ Facebook Page

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Strong sales at Airbus owner EADS

29 July 2011 Last updated at 06:46 GMT Airbus said there had been strong demand in the commercial aviation sector European aerospace giant EADS has reported first-half sales ahead of expectations, amid strong demand for its Airbus aircraft.

Sales rose 8% to 21.9bn euros ($31.3bn; £19.2bn), while it took orders worth 58.1bn euros in the period.

EADS said orders at the recent Paris Air Show had been "record-breaking".

However, net profit fell 41% on the first half of 2010 to 109m euros after the company faced higher financial charges at the beginning of the year.

And it said the weakening US dollar and British pound were offsetting higher sales.

"Deliveries remained at a high level, with 258 aircraft at Airbus Commercial, 205 helicopters at Eurocopter and the 44th consecutive successful Ariane 5 launch," EADS said.

'Continuing momentum'

Last month, American Airlines placed what it called "the largest aircraft order in history".

It ordered 260 Airbus A320 aircraft, as well as 200 Boeing 737s.

"Our results for the first half of 2011 mirror the strong demand in the commercial aviation sector," said EADS chief executive Louis Gallois.

"In terms of orders, Paris Air Show was record-breaking for us, particularly thanks to the A320neo.

"The recent historic order by American Airlines adds to this remarkable success story as the strong commercial momentum continues beyond Le Bourget."

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Nintendo hurt by weak 3DS sales

28 July 2011 Last updated at 09:20 GMT The 3DS, a cross between a handheld and a tablet device, has not been a smash hit Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has reported a surprise loss, hit by weak sales of its new 3DS handheld game player.

The company reported a net loss of 25.5bn yen ($324m, £201m) for the April-to-June quarter, compared with a loss of 25.2bn yen last year.

For the year to March 2012, Nintendo now expects a net profit of 20bn yen, down 82% from its previous forecast.

It has cut the price of the 3DS console sharply in Japan and the US.

The price in Japan will be about 40% less - retailing at 15,000 yen. In the US, the price will drop next month to $169.99 from $249.99.

"For anyone who was on the fence about buying a Nintendo 3DS, this is a huge motivation to buy now," Nintendo's US president Reggie Fils-Aime said.

Analysts said Nintendo lacked hit games titles to fuel sales of its consoles.

Nintendo's total sales during the quarter fell by more than 50% to 93.93bn yen.

About 80% of Nintendo's sales are from outside of Japan, meaning it has been hit severely by a strong yen.

The company's shares in Tokyo have fallen by more than 40% this year.

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Android phone returns eroding sales gains?

Google

So many Android handset the reason for returns?

Some Android phones are better than others, at least to consumers who are reportedly returning them at a rate of 30 to 40 percent.

That figure is based on an unnamed TechCrunch source, "a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers," and led Phandroid's Kevin Krause to write, "Yes, we can believe that some Android handsets are getting returned at a rate nearing 50 percent, but not Android handsets as a whole." 

Because there are so many Androids out there — dozens from the likes of Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG, just to name a handful — there is apt to be just as much variance in quality, while there is only one handset for Apple's iOS, the iPhone. In contrast, the iPhone 4 had a 1.7 percent rate in returns (51,000 phones out of about 3 million) at about this time last year.

Safety in numbers for Android, which propelled it to the top of smartphone sales at the beginning of the year, may also be its undoing, especially as the iPhone continues to spread to other carriers.

TechCrunch's John Biggs says that to the "average" phone user, "Android is a maze." (Cue the inevitable back and forth between fanboys and Google plussers, and carry on in the comments below.)

We'll keep looking for back-up for those return rates, but here's one CEO, Motorola's Sanjay Jha, who does seem to blame Android for his company's handset returns:

70 percent of all smartphone returns tend to be for software reasons. We're beginning to understand now what has been going on ...  One of the good and problematic things about Android is that it's very, very open, so anyone can put third party apps in the marketplace without any testing process. There is a way of taking malicious applications off the marketplace, but generally for power consumption, for CPU utilisation, for some of those things those applications are not tested.

We're now beginning to understand the impact that has. Remember Android is really, truly multitasked, so you can run 64 parallel applications at the same time, and it has an impact on consumer experience. We're beginning to understand why 70 percent of the devices are coming back — because they're downloading third party applications and the impact that has on the performance of the device."

(Thanks, Mobile-Device.biz for its transcription of Jha's remarks at a technology conference in June.)

More stories:

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

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Amazon suspends Nintendo 3DS sales

UPDATED: See below

If you were planning to finally pick up one of Nintendo's new 3DS gaming gadgets, you're going to have to pick it up somewhere other than Amazon.com. The online retail giant appears to have suspended sales of the gadget that lets you see video games in 3-D without wearing special glasses.

A visit to this Nintendo 3DS product page at Amazon.com reveals this message from the retailer:

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!) We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Though oddly enough, if you visit this page at Amazon.com right now, you can still purchase the device. It's not clear what the difference between the two pages is. Both indicate that Amazon and Target will be fulfilling the order. And a visit to Target.com directly shows that it is still selling the device.

Perhaps there's just a rare bad batch of 3DS devices floating around at Amazon? There's also speculation sales were suspended because consumers found that the 3DS' top screen rubs against the bottom screen, over time leaving the top screen scratched up (as one customer posted here).

But for the most part, the device has been receiving positive reviews from customers at Amazon.com. Out of 359 customer reviews, 210 gave it five stars and 84 gave it four stars.

Still, this is just the latest difficulty Nintendo's new portable gaming gadget has faced since launching back in March. Initial reports suggested some 3DS owners were encountering a "black screen of death," though that did not turn out to be a far reaching problem. And some customers have reported feeling dizzy and nauseated when using the device's 3-D display.

But the biggest problem has been the sales — which have been significantly lower than Nintendo initially expected — due at least in part to a less-than-exciting line-up of games at launch.

I've reached out to both Nintendo and Amazon to find out why the 3DS sales have been suspended. Amazon has not yet responded, but a Nintendo representative told me they are checking into it and will get back to me. So check back here for an update.

UPDATE #1: An Amazon spokesperson has responded with this explanation:

We received customer feedback that there may be an inventory issue with the Cosmo Black Nintendo 3DS. The integrity of the product is not under review. Customers are still able to purchase the Amazon.com offer of the Aqua Blue Nintendo 3DS, however the Amazon.com offer of black Nintendo 3DS has been removed until the inventory issue is resolved. 

When I asked them to clarify what kind of "inventory issue" this was, the spokesperson replied:

Although I am not able to provide more detail on the inventory issue itself, I can confirm that there is no problem with the Cosmo Black Nintendo 3DS units themselves. This is an inventory problem that was brought to our attention from customer feedback and we are looking into it and will resolve as soon as possible. 

UPDATE #2: The Amazon spokesperson now says: "Happy to report that the Amazon offer of the Cosmo Black Nintendo 3DS has been reinstated."

So there you have it. Whatever the issue was, it doesn't appear to be a problem with Nintendo 3DS devices themselves and it appears Amazon has sorted it out.

(Thanks to Consumer Reports for the heads up.)

For more game news, check out:

Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter or join her in the stream right here on Google+. You can check out the In-Game Facebook page right here.

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Will new 3-D video service boost Nintendo 3DS sales?

 Nintendo

"Dinosaur Office" is one of the very first 3-D videos offered by Nintendo's new video service for the 3DS. Will original video offerings and Netflix streaming help sell the handheld game gadget?

The Nintendo 3DS is a sharp little gadget that lets you play video games in eye-grabbing 3-D without having to put on those goofy 3-D glasses ... and yet, this sharp little gadget isn't selling as well as Nintendo had hoped.

Perhaps it's the device's $250 price tag. Perhaps it's the lack of a signature Mario Bros. games. Perhaps people just aren't that excited about 3-D. No matter what it is, Tokyo analysts are now saying they expect Nintendo's first quarter earnings to disappoint — in part thanks to lackluster 3DS sales.

But Nintendo is soldiering on, rolling out new features for the 3DS to help increase its appeal and boost sales as we push toward the all-important holiday buying season.

This week the company launched a new video service that now allows 3DS owners watch short videos in sharp 3-D. And earlier this month, Nintendo also added the Netflix video service to the device. (Alas, the 3DS's new Netflix app — which requires an unlimited streaming subscription — does not stream movies in 3-D.)

Video to the rescue?
Starting this week, the new Nintendo Video application can be downloaded to 3DS devices for free from the online eShop, which arrived on the gadget just last month.

The video app delivers a hand-picked variety of short-form videos to your machine each week. New videos will be added and older videos will be removed on a regular basis to keep things fresh, Nintendo says. The videos themselves are two to three minutes in length and will include a mix of short films, music videos, comedy performances and movie trailers.

During this week's launch, 3DS owners can find two animated short films — one of them from famed funny site CollegeHumor.com called "Dinosaur Office" — along with a trailer for the "Captain America" movie.

While the pickings are currently pretty slim, Nintendo says that in the coming weeks the app will offer exclusive 3-D videos from music artists Jason DeRulo and Foster the People, as well as trippy performance troupe the Blue Man Group. But they'll really kick things off Wednesday with an exclusive 3-D music video from the band OK Go.

Will these 3-D video offerings from Nintendo help boost 3DS sales? Well ... maybe.

The 3-D video playback looks nice and crisp on the device's top-screen. Meanwhile having Netflix access on the 3DS definitely helps broaden its appeal. Certainly, in an age when smartphones have trained gadget owners to expect their devices to do many things at once, Netflix and Nintendo Video are the kind of feature boosts that the 3DS needs.

But what would make Nintendo Video a real boost for the 3DS is if it offered longer 3-D video fare (TV shows and movies). The 3DS is one of the few portable devices with glasses-free 3-D capabilities and having the ability to take 3-D movies on the go would make the gadget very appealing indeed. Nintendo has implied, in the past, that this was a possibility. So here's hoping that pans out in the not-too-distant future.

For the time being, however, I think it's the games that will ultimately have the real power to drag the Nintendo 3DS out of the sales doldrums. Though an alarming number of 3DS games have been canceled recently, Nintendo will be pulling out the big guns in the coming months. The company plans to launch a brand new "Super Mario" game for the 3DS along with "Mario Kart 3DS" this holiday. They will follow that up with "Luigi's Mansion 2" for the 3DS next spring.

Expecting disappointment
But before that happens, Haruka Mori, a technology analyst at Barclays Capital in Tokyo, reports that he expects Nintendo to post a $11.9 billion net loss in the April-June quarter and even miss its full-year financial targets.

Why haven't you bought a Nintendo 3DS?

Who needs the 3DS, I'm perfectly happy with my standard-issue DS.Who needs the 3DS, I've got my smartphone.The games! Where are the games?I'm saving my money for the PlayStation Vita.What the heck is 3DS? And is it contagious?VoteTotal Votes: 97

For the fiscal year ending March 2012, Nintendo is forecasting sales to rise 8.4 percent to 1.1 trillion yen ($14 billion) and net profit to climb 42 percent to 110 billion yen ($1.4 billion). The company also expects to move 16 million 3DS machines this fiscal year.

"It is not only the 3DS that is struggling at present," Mori said in his recently released report. "Sales of the legacy DS and the Wii — which has been discounted in Europe and the US — appear to be below plan."

And laying off the 3DS for a moment ... it seems some folks are having a hard time getting their heads around Nintendo's forthcoming Wii U game console and that's causing some of Nintendo's problems as well, Mori believes.

Though In-Game editor Todd Kenreck and I immediately saw the appeal of the device (due to launch next year) when we were given a sneak preview of it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month, Mori said the Wii U has failed to impress investors who have had difficulty judging the potential of the unusual machine with the beefy touch-screen controller.

But nobody — not even the most talented financial analysts — can see the future. And so I'd remind people who are ready to count Nintendo down and out, that much of the world mocked the Wii when it was first revealed. And that game machine went on to crush the competition and changed the face of the video gaming industry at large.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

For more game news, check out:

Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter or join her in the stream right here on Google+. You can check out the In-Game Facebook page right here.

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Android phone returns eroding sales gains?

 Google

So many Android handset the reason for returns?

Some Android phones are better than others, at least to consumers who are reportedly returning them at a rate of 30 to 40 percent.

That figure is based on an unnamed TechCrunch source, "a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers," and led Phandroid's Kevin Krause to write, "Yes, we can believe that some Android handsets are getting returned at a rate nearing 50 percent, but not Android handsets as a whole." 

Because there are so many Androids out there — dozens from the likes of Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG, just to name a handful — there is apt to be just as much variance in quality, while there is only one handset for Apple's iOS, the iPhone. In contrast, the iPhone 4 had a 1.7 percent rate in returns (51,000 phones out of about 3 million) at about this time last year.

Safety in numbers for Android, which propelled it to the top of smartphone sales at the beginning of the year, may also be its undoing, especially as the iPhone continues to spread to other carriers.

TechCrunch's John Biggs says that to the "average" phone user, "Android is a maze." (Cue the inevitable back and forth between fanboys and Google plussers, and carry on in the comments below.)

We'll keep looking for back-up for those return rates, but here's one CEO, Motorola's Sanjay Jha, who does seem to blame Android for his company's handset returns:

70 percent of all smartphone returns tend to be for software reasons. We're beginning to understand now what has been going on ...  One of the good and problematic things about Android is that it's very, very open, so anyone can put third party apps in the marketplace without any testing process. There is a way of taking malicious applications off the marketplace, but generally for power consumption, for CPU utilisation, for some of those things those applications are not tested.

We're now beginning to understand the impact that has. Remember Android is really, truly multitasked, so you can run 64 parallel applications at the same time, and it has an impact on consumer experience. We're beginning to understand why 70 percent of the devices are coming back — because they're downloading third party applications and the impact that has on the performance of the device."

(Thanks, Mobile-Device.biz for its transcription of Jha's remarks at a technology conference in June.)

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Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

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IBM profits up on computer sales

19 July 2011 Last updated at 05:53 GMT

IBM is the world's biggest maker of mainframe computers International Business Machines (IBM) reported second quarter net income up 8% on the same quarter last year.

The rise was fuelled by strong growth in sales of both its computers and software.

IBM, the world's biggest maker of mainframe computers, made $3.66bn (£2.27bn), compared with $3.39 billion a year earlier.

IBM raised its prediction for full-year earnings for the second quarter running.

Revenue at the 100-year-old company was 12% higher at $26.7bn.

IBM said strong growth was coming from new signings for its services division, which were up by 16% in the quarter - a sign businesses are still spending on technology.

Although the figures beat expectations, IBM's shares initially fell slightly on the results before rising by 2% in after hours trading.

Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, said: "The margins were very strong and the revenue, especially in the second quarter when you expect softer revenue, makes it look like they did well in the quarter."

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Apple in record sales and profits

19 July 2011 Last updated at 21:41 GMT

iPhone sales more than doubled - again Apple's latest profits soared past expectations as sales of its best-known iPhone and iPad products more than doubled.

Net income was $7.31bn (£4.6bn) in the three months to 25 June, 125% higher than a year earlier and a record quarterly profit for the firm. Revenue was $28.6bn, also a quarterly record.

Apple sold more than 20 million iPhones in the quarter and 9.25 million iPads.

However, iPod sales continued to slip, down by 20% to 7.54 million units.

The results assuaged concerns about the supply of the iPad 2, partly because of parts supply interruptions caused by Japan's tsunami and earthquake in March.

Lion

Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, said: "We are extremely pleased with our performance.

"Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25bn."

Mr Oppenheimer also said that Lion, the new version of the Mac OS X operating system, will go on sale Wednesday.

Continue reading the main story

The company is turning into one of the most extraordinary cash-generating machines ever built, and just keeps on growing”

End Quote The Lion software mimics some of the features of the iPhone and iPad interface.

The company has a reputation for being conservative with its forecasts.

Shares jumped 5.3% in extended after-hours trading to their highest for a year.

Battles

The price had suffered after its founder and Chief Executive, Steve Jobs, took a long-term break last January for medical reasons.

The future stewardship of the company remains an open question. On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal was reporting that several Apple board members had discussed a successor to Mr Jobs, and had talked about the matter with at least one head of a high-profile tech company.

Another uncertainty for the company is a web of patent battles with rivals.

It claims Taiwanese rival HTC has infringed its patents, with HTC claiming a number of infringements against Apple.

Apple is also in dispute over the rights to technology with South Korea's Samsung and US competitor Motorola.

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