Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Latest from TechCrunch

The Latest from TechCrunch

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Hulu Announces Four More Original Series; Will Feature SNL Vets, Adrian Grenier Of HBO’s Entourage & Others

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:43 AM PDT

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Hulu has been having a busy week. On Tuesday, the company announced a new deal for advertisers, which now charges them only for ad completions, and today at Hulu’s upfronts, the company announced the arrival of even more original shows.

We already knew of several of the programs Hulu discussed this morning, including “Battleground,” “Up to Speed,” and “A Day in the Life,” for example. But this morning, the company revealed several more additions, including “We Got Next,” “The Awesomes,” “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” and “Flow.”

That Hulu is growing into original programming has been known for some time. Although a story in this week’s NYT brought new attention to the TV streaming service, Hulu had first announced “Battleground,” a scripted political comedy, back in January, as the first show to kick off its then growing lineup of original series.

Today, Hulu revealed several more additions to that lineup. It’s notable that there are even some bigger name stars participating this time, including SNL’s Seth Meyers and Michael Shoemaker, for example, as well as HBO’s Entourage lead Adrian Grenier.

Descriptions and details below:

  • We Got Next (2012): Four unlikely friends butt heads on the pick-up basketball court and on the sidelines of everyday life. Starring: Kenya Barris (THE GAME, ARE WE THERE YET?, AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL), Hale Rothstein (THE GAME, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS), Danny Leiner (THE OFFICE, MODERN FAMILY, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, FREAKS AND GEEKS, HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR?
  • The Awesomes (2013): An unassuming superhero and his cohorts battle diabolical villains, the ever-present paparazzi, and a less-than-ideal reputation as second-class crime fighters. Starring: Seth Meyers (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE), Michael Shoemaker (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON) and animation studio Bento Box (BOB’S BURGERS, ALLEN GREGORY).
  • Don't Quit Your Daydream: A cast of famous musicians travel across America in search of could-have-been musical artists to collaborate on a new song giving them a second-chance at stardom. Based on an award-winning documentary by Adrian Grenier and John Loar. Starring: Adrian Grenier; Produced by Virgin
  • Flow: When Ed Dante, a hard-working kid from the wrong side of the tracks is framed for a crime he didn't commit, he begins an epic quest to deliver true justice. To achieve his goal, he must discover the mysteries of an ancient art, uncover hidden worlds and become a hero to a generation. Starring: Michael “Dooma” Wendschuh (show creator, co-founder and president of sekretagent studios: ASSASSIN’S CREED II (2009), ARMY OF TWO (2008), ASSASSIN’S CREED (2007); David Belle (Founder of Parkour); Produced by Agility Studios (producers of The LXD) and the Shine Group (WHO KNEW? IT'S EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS, APPETITE FOR LIFE)

Hulu also revealed many of its numbers to the advertisers in attendance, although much of this has already been reported. The company again noted that it has 2 million paying subscribers and saw $420 million in revenue last year.

There are now over 360 content partners on Hulu and its premium offering, Hulu Plus, and the service now offers over 40,000 hours of content. This includes over 50,000 full TV episodes and nearly 1,900 TV series.



YC-Backed Siasto Draws Nearer To The Holy Grail Of Project Management Software

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:41 AM PDT

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In the quest for the Holy Grail of project management software — a product that just feels natural and easy to use — Siasto has made it further than most. If this were The Last Crusade, it’d be somewhere inside the temple, crossing the bridge of faith to reach the chalice.

Siasto might seem a little too familiar at first, as it uses the same concepts as you’ve seen in competing products like Basecamp. You create projects, you add tasks to them, you upload documents, you invite other users, and so on. What’s special is the how the Y Combinator-backed company has organized the interface, and how it’s busy tying in with Google.

Here’s a quick walk-through of what it’s doing.

First, you sign in using your Google identity — the right third-party ID service such for work-related software, considering the popularity of Docs, spreadsheets, and Google Apps for Business.

Second, Siasto manages to mostly get rid of navigation bars in favor of sticking the main information in tiles on the homepage. The result is fewer clicks. People in the system show up on the left-hand side, with pending user invites at the bottom. Projects, in tiled format, are to the right. If any team member makes updates inside of any project, you’ll see the number of new updates listed on the home page within the project’s tile.

There are two other tabs on this page: tasks and the calendar. Click through the former and you’ll see a universal task list, sortable by active or completed, due for whom, and due date. The latter shows the traditional calendar format; beyond listing any upcoming tasks, it lets you click to create new events that you can categorize within projects.

Third, a document section lets you upload files for any project. This part of Siasto’s product is especially well done. There are special interfaces for uploading files straight from Google Docs and Dropbox. You’ll be asked to provide permissions to either service, then you’ll see a file selector from your docs in either. Maybe it’s not new, but I haven’t seen anything quite like this interface before. The documents section also includes special interfaces for uploading from Google Docs and Dropbox or lets you create and edit your own, complete with a WYSIWYG editor (a nice addition you don’t see in a number of competing products).

The company has already done some smart things to further tie in with Google, like adding a “Gmail contextual gadget” a few days ago. Install it, and you can turn an email into a task, event or document in Siasto with the click of a button.

Expect it to go much further with Google integrations. You can import calendar events, for example, but there’s no way to export to iCal or other desktop calendars yet. You can also imagine ways of auto-creating groups by importing the users of a company’s Google Apps account.

Stronger Google integrations would also aid with the biggest overriding problem for these types of companies, which is getting organizations to use them in the first place. That was my problem when I was trying to test it out over the past week while in the middle of a million other things. It simply requires extra up-front investment, even if it is way simpler than most others to use.

All in all, Siasto’s streamlined interface is state of the art for this type of software, but the company will need to keep working on the onboarding and initial user experience to really pull in the types of overworked users that could get the most value out of it. Judging by how well the company has done so far, though, I expect them to cross that bridge.



New York Hits Sprint With $300 Million Lawsuit Over 7 Years Of Tax Dodging

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:02 AM PDT

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Sprint’s had its fair share of problems to deal with as of late, but who knew one of them would be taxes? According to a new flurry of new reports, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a $300 million lawsuit against Sprint for (among other things) non-payment of taxes, and falsifying official tax documents.

According to Reuters, Sprint failed to collect (and subsequently pass along) over $100 million of taxes from their customers over the past seven years. Schneiderman, who is picking up where a whistle-blower lawsuit filed against the carrier early last year, is seeking three times the amount of Sprint’s underpayment plus additional penalties for good measure.

It’s quite a shift for Sprint, considering that they attempted to position themselves as the good guy looking out for consumer interests during the AT&T/T-Mobile merger proceedings. Sure, while Sprint customers may have unknowingly enjoyed an illicit price break on their phone bills, that’s certainly not going to keep up for much longer.

Schneiderman alleges that Sprint’s non-payment of taxes was all part of a plan to lure customers away from larger wireless rivals like AT&T and Verizon. If true, it strikes me as a terribly misguided way to attract new subscribers — potential public relations nightmare aside, customers’ bills are only going to up now, which probably won’t garner much appreciation from the carrier’s existing users.

I’ve reached out to Sprint representatives for comment, but have not received a response at time of writing. I imagine they’re working on a more thoughtful statement than “Whoops, we goofed,” so keep your eyes peeled — I’ll be updating the post as soon as I learn more.



Decide.com Launches Daily Deals; Offers Price Guarantees On Select CE, Home Appliance Purchases

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT

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Decide.com, the shopping search site for consumer electronics and home appliances founded by former Farecast engineers, is now putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak. The service, which helps consumers know whether to “buy” or “wait” when researching items like laptops, phones, TVs, washers and dryers, wants to make it easier to trust its recommendations with the launch of a price guarantee.

With Decide’s new “Got Your Back” program, if you click to buy an item the service recommends and the price drops within two weeks, the company will automatically send you a payment for the difference.

To be clear, the guarantee doesn’t apply to everything across Decide.com’s website, only its hand-picked daily deals found at www.decide.com/deals. This section of the site will showcase ten backed deals every day, based on record-low pricing and the company’s confidence that nothing will change in the short-term. The deals will be online for up to 24 hours, or until a specified number of allocated “buys” for each guaranteed deal are reached.

(It seems Decide is somewhat hedging its bets with that last one – just in case prices do drop, it’s limiting the number of payouts it would have to make).

Consumers who buy one of these deals have to go through a couple of steps to ensure their deal is tracked for price changes. They must send in a copy of their receipt to Decide, and provide “proof of purchase” – that is, a photo of them holding the product in question.

If the price drops – and not just on the original seller’s site, but at any participating retailer – Decide will then alert the buyer automatically and pay the amount of the price drop, up to $200. The payments are sent out either via PayPal or check.

The program is sort of an odd one for Decide.com, as it isn’t a retailer itself, where such price guarantee programs are typically found. Decide is just a shopping resource which connects consumers to retailers through the use of algorithms that track pricing fluctuations, news and historical data to determine whether it’s a good time to buy an item.

Decide is kicking off the launch today with ten deals, which include a laptop, camera, smart TV, printer, juicer, fridge and more.



Le Web London Goes Faster Than Realtime – Grab Your TC Discount Here

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:16 AM PDT

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‘Allo my Breeteesh chums! If you have not been to Le Web before, zen zis is pour vous!

Le Web is possibly Europe’s oldest, and certainly its biggest tech startup conference, running for many years in December in Paris. Because of organiser Loic Le Meur’s connections in Silicon Valley it regularly brings the creme de la creme of the Valley to Europe every year. It’s now adding a London conference (19-20 June) to its schedule and even attracting the likes of Michael Arrington, TechCrunch Founder and Crunchfund partner, to London. If I recall correctly, the last time he was here was 2006 – I know because I was there, in the same pub. So, now consider yourself educated about Le Web! Here’s how you can get a discount and enter the startup competition.

The theme for LeWeb London will be "Faster than Realtime" and the startup competition is now open. You can register your startup for free.

As Loic tells me “we like to do things well.” That means you can expect high production values, and an amazing live stream that is archived in HD, check out youtube.com/leweb.

Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid has produced a tailor-made sketch around the theme, check it out below.

Readers of TechCrunch can claim £100 off the regular LeWeb London ticket price by applying the discount code TECHCRUNCH at check-out when purchasing.

The startup ticket price is £750 on request on the site. Not bad for a two day conference, international speakers, food, top venue, drinks, wifi, live stream etc.

Check out details of the LeWeb London start-up competition here and apply here.

We’ll be there so see you then!

Here’s Loic:



Fab.de Hits Half A Million Users, Revenue Reaches 1.5M Euro Per Month

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 08:03 AM PDT

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Fab has just released new figures on its growth in Germany and Austria, following February’s acquisition of Casacanda, a top flash sales site previously serving Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And the news is good, it seems. As of today, the German vertical Fab.de has 500,000 users, having added 300,000 over the past month. And revenue per month is up by over half a million euro.

The increase in user base, for obvious reasons, is also helping improve sales and revenue, the company is reporting.

For the six months prior to the acquisition, Casacanda did less than 1 million euro in revenue total. Now under the new “Fab” brand, the service is doing 1.5 million euro per month.

(Below, revenue per day)

In terms of orders per day, you can see in the chart below how much Fab.de has grown following the acquisition. While Fab declined to provide exact figures, the number of orders per day for Fab.de are now approaching 900.

Fab started working with Casacanda in January, then formerly acquired them in February for $11 million, making Germany the first major Fab center outside the U.S.  The news hit three weeks after  the launch of Samwer Fab clone Bamarang in Germany, the UK, France, Brazil and Australia.

At the time, Casacanda grown to over 250,000 members since its September 2011 launch, and was delivering around 15,000 orders per month. CEO Jason Goldberg estimated then that the company would generate at least 10% to 20% of its overall revenue from international in 2012.

The company says it’s now forecasting 20% of revenue from outside the U.S. this year. The U.S., however, continues to be well ahead with plans to hit $100 million in revenue in 2012.



AT&T Opening Watson Speech Recognition To Developers With New APIs In June

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:59 AM PDT

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Hot off of a AT&T Labs event held in New York City, AT&T has just announced they will be opening up their Watson speech recognition technology to developers this June.

Though Watson has been open to licensing for years now (Vlingo inked their licensing deal with AT&T in 2009, for instance), the release of the APIs means that developers of every stripe will soon be able to access AT&T’s voice transcription engine.

Tackling and interpreting voice input is no easy feat, and AT&T wants to help alleviate any potential headaches by tailoring multiple APIs for use in different specific contexts. Among the examples they list are APIs meant for interpreting web searches and questions respectively, as well as APIs for local business search, voicemail to text (a little Google Voice competition is nice to see), text messaging, and general dictation.

AT&T’s John Donovan is quick to reassure us that there’s much more to come — APIs meant for use in gaming and social media are also reportedly in the works, though they’ll actually be made available is another story entirely.

AT&T Labs has been working on Watson for over a decade now, and we’ve seen the service branch out into some familiar environments over the years. Perhaps as a shot across Ford and Nuance’s collective bow, AT&T (along with partners Panasonic and QNX) announced their plans to develop a car-centric voice command system at this year’s CES. Perhaps unsurprisingly, AT&T also made reference to an API geared toward their U-Verse television service that is specially tuned to handle voice inputs like movie title and actor names — not exactly the first time AT&T has made an overture for the living room.

That AT&T would eventually bring Watson into the mobile space may have been a given, especially considering the technology is prominently featured in existing apps like the AT&T Translator. Still, with the APIs nearly in place — not to mention forthcoming Speech Kit SDK that sends snippets of voice input to Watson servers for transcription — we could be on the verge of seeing the next big voice-powered apps.



Struq Secures $8.5 million From Reed Elsevier, Pentech, Allen & Co

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:46 AM PDT

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The problem with internet advertising – and there are many – is that while there are plenty of users who interact with ads, the hard part is working out which users are actually the most valuable to advertisers. While the advertising industry normally sends one brand message and blasts it out across all channels, Struq, an advertising platform startup, works out which users show behavioral patterns that make them statistically more likely to purchase. But instead of showing them the one brand message it shows video or display ads most likely to chime with that user. To that end it’s attracted the attention of major backers today, with a significant $8.5 million funding round from Reed Elsevier Ventures, Pentech Ventures and Allen & Company LLC.

The company has certainly garnered attention. It’s already working with 200 of the world's leading retailers across 19 markets (including Adidas, Hilton Hotels and Levis). Its Ad Personalization platform operates dynamically and in real time. As a result it claims to be able to deliver 12 times higher click through rates than standard retargeted ads and says its platform can generate up to $30 in revenues for every $1 spent in marketing spend.

Sam Barnett, founder and CEO of Struq, says Reed Elsevier Ventures' experience in big data (an early investor in Palantir Technologies, now the 11th most valuable start up globally), combined with Pentech's experience in Personalization (an early investor in Maxymiser,), and Allen & Company's advisory history, will provide valuable experience in scaling the company up.

Kevin Brown, General Partner at Reed Elsevier Ventures calls Barnett “one of the most talented young entrepreneurs in Europe,” which is high praise indeed given the current field of EU CEOs which is probably the best it’s ever been.



Badoo Hires Google Exec Ben Ling As New COO To Push Its Platforms And US Growth

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:16 AM PDT

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Dating/meeting-people site Badoo has been putting together a 147 million registered user base over the last six years, with a huge run on Facebook helping it to reach around the world last year. And today, it follows up on the momentum with a key hire. It has appointed long-time Google executive Benjamin Ling as chief operating office to help push it out across mobile and Web platforms.

He’ll oversee product, engineering, business operations, partnerships and corporate development. Badoo has been best known for expanding into emerging markets like Russia and Brazil but it’s now growing in the US where it already has eight million users.

Ling joins Badoo from Google, where he was product management director of Search Products and Local Business Products. His tenure at that company spanned roles including Google's search, commerce and Local Business products, to Google's Commerce products, to senior roles at YouTube. He also had a brief stint helping to lead Facebook’s developer platform in the early days.

Ling will begin his new role at Badoo in May, based at its London headquarters.



Screenfeeder Is A Gorgeous Way To Display Social Feeds On Your iPhone, iPad Or TV

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:07 AM PDT

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Screenfeeder is a gorgeous new app for the iPhone, iPad or TV (via Apple TV’s AirPlay), which displays your social feeds on the screen from services like Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and Dribble. But the interface doesn’t use columns like TweetDeck – it just flashes the updates as they arrive against an ever-changing background of images and colors. The idea may not be as practical for serious news watchers who follow thousands of accounts, sorted into multiple lists, but for the everyday user whose tweets flow a bit slower, Screenfeeder offers an attractive interface to view them in.

The app uses the background images and color schemes from your Twitter friends’ own Twitter profile pages to help you associate the tweets with who they’re from, and it even lets you track or mute hashtags as they appear by tapping on the link in the tweet. This latter feature could make the app ideal for conferences, perhaps, but the other tweets continued to flow even when you begin tracking a tag. So for that to work, you would have to use Screenfeeder from a dedicated Twitter account that wasn’t following anyone else. However, one of the app’s creators, Gernot Poetsch, tells me that in a future update, you’ll be able to deactivate all your streams and only show the hashtag streams.

For the Foursquare checkins, Screenfeeder displays a map in the background to show your friends’ vicinity, and its zoom level is dependent on how close you are to the checkin. Instagram and Dribble images are shown on top of a blurred backdrop copy of the same photo, which makes for a nice visual experience.

My only complaints are that you can’t use the app for viewing Twitter lists, and the updates sometimes seem too fast. Poetsch says that the minimun display time is five seconds – which seems like long enough – but with the ever-changing background images, which requires your brain to adjust to the new content and layout, it would be nice to slow the pace a bit. We’re told they might add a mechanism for slowing the pace in a forthcoming version.

The app was built by German design agency Edenspiekermann, and nxtbthng an app development shop in Berlin who makes the official Soundcloud iOS apps.

You can grab Screenfeeder from here in iTunes.



Nokia May Be Down, But They’re Not Out

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 06:50 AM PDT

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As bad as Nokia’s financials look right now – a $4 billion drop in sales won’t make anyone’s day – don’t consider the Windows Phone move a failure just yet. They’ve done what many phone companies have thus far failed to do – namely change swiftly with the times – and, more important, they’ve done it quite admirably.

If you’ll recall, the first real Android phone was HTC’s G1. Considered a clunker by all but the most die-hard of users, the device sold fairly well (1 million in 2008). But it did something more important than make T-Mobile the first Android carrier – it grabbed a certain contingent of user who understood Android, understood the framework, and would follow Android to the grave. The popularity of the G1 was a direct reaction to the burgeoning iOS platform. The same thing happened in the WebOS space, but WebOS was exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time and is a disaster distinct from the Android launch.

Over time, the maker of the G1, HTC, got better and better at making Android phones. The experience gained from the G1 allowed manufacturers to rejigger their sales strategy, leading to the famous Droid marketing campaign and the hysteria for Google’s Nexus line.

Nokia is in a similar space. An outside software product is trying to take market share and will probably flounder for the first few months. Nokia has pivoted completely. Their popular Symbian smartphones are essentially dead and their Windows Phone line is curtailed until popular adoption grows. Most important, they’re taking a bath on the Lumia line by pricing it at or below the comfort level of most casual smartphone buyers

They’re essentially selling loss leaders in order to gain market share. Microsoft knows it and Nokia knows it and I assure you HTC, Samsung, and LG know it. They only folks who shouldn’t be worried – yet – are Apple yet I suspect Microsoft is definitely on their radar.

I can say one thing without equivocation: Windows Phone is than Android. WinPho is monolithic, there are no issues of branching or hardware compatibility, and UI familiarity will soon be bolstered by millions of Windows 8 installs around the world. Android is great if you’re a small manufacturer and you just want to dump a stack onto what would have once been called a feature phone. Windows Phone is great if you want the largesse, the popularity, and the trustworthiness of Microsoft behind your product.

So ignore Nokia at your peril. Their strategy is just right at just the right time. Remember: nobody ever got fired for installing Microsoft. Not even Stephen Elop.



Enterprise Data Software Company Splunk Prices IPO At $17 Per Share; Valued At $1.6B

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 06:22 AM PDT

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Splunk, an enterprise data company, will be making its debut on the public markets this morning after pricing its IPO at $17.00 per share (this is up from the range of $11 to $13 per share). At this price, Splunk is valued at a whopping $1.57 billion. Splunk, whose stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq today under the symbol "SPLK," raised $230 million in the offering.

Splunk is a provider of intelligence software used to monitor, report and analyze real-time machine data as well as terabytes of historical data–located on-premise or in the cloud. For example, Splunk indexes and makes searchable data from any app, server or network device in real-time including logs, config files, messages, and alerts. Clients can also monitor distributed deployment across thousands of servers in multiple data centers; manage the infrastructure of a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS); monitor performance of cloud- delivered SaaS solutions and monitor hybrid SaaS/hosted models.

Clients include Credit Suisse, Bank Of America, Comcast, Salesforce, Zynga, LinkedIn, T-Mobile, Swisscom, Shutterfly, Heroku and the US Departments of Labor and Energy. The company has over 3,700 customers, including a majority of the Fortune 100.

For fiscal 2009, 2010 and 2011, Splunk’s revenues were $18.2 million, $35 million and $66.2 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 93% for 2010 and 89% growth for 2011. For the fiscal 2012 year ended Jan. 31, Splunk pulled in $121 million in revenue, an 83 percent increase from the previous year. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, the company took a net loss of $14.8 million, $7.5 million and $3.8 million, respectively. In 2012, Splunk’s losses increased to $11 million

Splunk has raised $40 million in funding from August Capital, JK&B Capital, Ignition Partners and Sevin Rosen Funds.

For Splunk, this IPO has been in the works for some time now. In 2010, Splunk’s CEO Godfrey Sullivan told us that the company had plans for an offering in 2012. We’ll see what enterprise companies take Splunk’s lead in entering the public markets in 2012.



The TC NYC Mini-Meet Up Is Go! Here Are The Details

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 05:50 AM PDT

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As we mentioned before, we were floating the idea of a mini meet up in our own back yard and we definitely got quite a bit of interest. So here we go: Get ready for the TC NYC Mini-Meet Up on May 8 at Bar13. We’ll run from 6pm until about 10pm, with potential evening activities for those still in the mood.

Note that the date and location have changed since our last post. We would have completely filled the AOL offices if we tried to do it there.

This isn’t a seminar, panel, a conference, or really anything that requires people to sit down at a desk and look through a PowerPoint. Instead, we simply want to look upon your beautiful faces and hear about how you plan on disrupting the world through technology. Over beers.

To recap:

We’ll meet on May 8 (that’s a Tuesday) at Bar13, located at 35 East 13th St. and University Pl. The meet-up will begin promptly at 6pm and will end around 10pm, at which point we can all caravan to a bar for an after party.

We’re also looking for sponsors. The more the merrier (since that means more beer). If you’re interested in a sponsorship, please send an email to john (at) techcrunch dot com with the subject: NY Meetup Sponsorship.

To RSVP to the event, head over to our PlanCast page.

Finally, if you’d like to connect with us pre-show time, you can follow me on Twitter at @jordanrcrook or John at @johnbiggs.


Sponsors

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TuneUp Takes On Shazam With Free (And Ad-Free) Mobile Music ID App

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 05:00 AM PDT

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TuneUp, the service that cleans up your iTunes or Windows Media music collection, is moving into mobile from an unexpected angle.

Unlike the TuneUp iTunes and Windows Media plugins, the main feature of the new iPhone app isn’t its ability to correct song titles and supply missing album artwork. Instead, you can activate the app when you’re listening to music that you don’t recognize, then it will identify the song based on the audio. (You can also look up the lyrics, and there’s a link to download the song from iTunes.) In other words, yes, the experience is pretty similar to Shazam and SoundHound.

I tested TuneUp Mobile by playing some of the music on my laptop, and it identified the correct songs without fail. That’s not to say that TuneUp is better than the competition, but it holds its own. The real differentiator is monetization, specifically the lack thereof — the app offers unlimited song identifications for free, and there are no ads either. (Both SoundHound and Shazam offer free apps, but they’re ad-supported.)

Founder and CEO Gabe Adiv says he’s “not concerned with monetization of the mobile app right now.” It’s much harder to convince consumers to pay for something on smartphones than it is on their desktops or laptops, so rather than trying to squeeze money from the app, TuneUp is treating it as a sales tool for its desktop product. In addition to the song identification, the app also provides a “free diagnostic” of the music on your phone, identifying ways that the TuneUp plugin could improve your collection. So in some ways, even though it’s ad-free, the app itself is functioning as an ad for the TuneUp plugin.

In the future, Adiv says he wants to bring more of TuneUp’s features the phones — and perhaps his view on monetization will change then.

You can download the app here. And speaking of the plugin, TuneUp also just announced that it has crossed 9 million registered users.



BranchOut Hits 25 Million Users, Nabs $25M In Series C Funding

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 04:00 AM PDT

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BranchOut is officially going for the big time. The company, which makes a professional social network that runs on top of Facebook, is announcing today it has closed on $25 million in new funding, bringing its total venture capital investment to $49 million.

This latest batch of money, which serves as BranchOut’s Series C round, was led by the Mayfield Fund with the participation of previous investors Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures. Tim Chang of Mayfield will join BranchOut’s board of directors. The money will be used mainly for hiring more employees to add to BranchOut’s current full-time staff of 45, founder and CEO Rick Marini said in an interview, which you can watch in full in the video embedded above.

Big Funding Following Big Growth

At less than two years old, BranchOut certainly seems to be on a fast track when it comes to funding. But according to Marini, the money is only following the company's very real growth. BranchOut now has more than 25 million registered users, more than half of which — 13.5 million — are active on the app each month. To put those numbers into context, more than three new users are joining BranchOut every second. When BranchOut first debuted in July 2010, it was often characterized as a “LinkedIn for Facebook” — but it’s becoming apparent that BranchOut is carving out a very clear identity of its own. Marini explains its position like this:

“LinkedIn is a great company, and I think they do a really good job of addressing the ten percent of the global workforce that are white-collar executives. And we, of course, address that market as well. But if you think about the other 90 percent, these are the people on Facebook. So it’s anywhere from a recent college grad, maybe returning military [personnel], cashiers, customer service, all the way up to accountants, software engineers and CEOs. All of those people are on Facebook, and what we’ve done is finally given all of those people a professional identity for the first time.”

The real key to BranchOut hitting the tipping point in terms of growth has been its mobile app, which launched in December and is now driving 40 percent of BranchOut’s total traffic. That has helped the company grow both in the United States and internationally, Marini said, noting that today about half of the new users joining BranchOut are coming from outside the US.

Going Big, Exit Strategy-Wise

Right now BranchOut makes money in two ways: Through job postings on Facebook and its Recruiter Connect product. Marini declined to provide any specific revenue numbers or detail how close BranchOut is to profitability, but he did say the company is generally more focused on growth than on monetization at the moment. “I would say right now we’re in investment mode,” Marini said.

Large funding rounds like the one BranchOut just took on bring the topic of “exit strategies” a bit closer to the forefront. When asked if BranchOut could emerge as an attractive acquisition target for the likes of Facebook, Marini said that right now he’s all about staying independent — and alluded to being on the IPO track. “We are heads down growing a big company… We’re not even thinking about selling. We want to go big on this one.”

Make sure to watch our full interview embedded above to get Marini’s thoughts on how Facebook’s IPO will impact BranchOut and the larger startup ecosystem, how today’s tech atmosphere compares to 1999, and more.



Lots Of Pain, No Gain: Nokia Reports $4B Drop In Q1 Sales To $9.7B, Blames Restructuring, Competition

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 03:13 AM PDT

Nokia-Logo

Nokia warned us last week that it would be reporting some worse-than-expected numbers, and here they are: sales for Q1 are down by $4 billion (€3.4 billion) to $9.7 billion (€7.4 billion), with a corresponding fall in earnings per share, down by a quarter of a euro and now at a loss per share of just over $0.10 (€0.08). Smartphones, the core of Nokia’s fightback strategy, declined by more than 50 percent both in revenues and unit sales.

According to the results (pdf here) out just now, Nokia also swung to an operating loss of $1.7 billion, blaming the double-whammy of competition from Apple/Google as well as restructuring costs, as the company has pushed to put a stronger emphasis on its new line of smartphones in a race to gain back its rapidly disappearing market share in the higher-margin end of the smartphone market.

Overall, the company saw an eye-watering 40 percent drop in revenues from devices, its biggest business. They are now at €4.2 billion.

The biggest decline, perhaps most unfortunately, is that China sales have gone down by 70 percent over last year.This has been one of the big future hopes for the company in its recovery strategy, but that has been hit hard by competition from cheap Android device makers, and Apple, with consumers in the country increasingly turning to smartphones over lower-end devices. As a measure of what a decline this was: this time last year Greater China was Nokia’s second-biggest market; today it’s the third-smallest (after Latin America and North America, which had been in the bottom-two before as well).

The company also appears to be trying out one more executive change to stem that sales tide: Colin Giles, EVP and member of the Nokia Leadership Team, is leaving at the end of June. The reason given by the company is to be closer to his family. Nokia is not replacing him, saying that it is taking the moment to “reduce a layer of sales management to ensure greater customer focus.” The regional sales heads will now report directly to Niklas Savander, EVP of markets.

On a volumes level, Nokia’s mobile sales were down by 24 percent down to 82.7 million units. Smartphone volumes declined 51 percent, down to 11.9 million units.

Sales of smartphones were down by 52 percent to €1.7 billion. And margins on devices nearly halved too: they are now at 15.6 percent compared to 28.9 percent. One bright spot: the average selling price declined by only two percent and is now at €143. Nokia blamed declines in Symbian primarily for the problem, rather than sales in Windows Phone devices, which are now at 2 million units sold.

In the context of the declines in the smartphone segment, the declines in lower-end devices are relatively better. Down 32 percent to €2.3 billion and 16 percent in volumes to 70.8 million, with margins on the devices dropping by only about 2 percent.

Nokia Corporation Q1 2012 Interim Report

Nokia Corporation
Interim report
April 19, 2012 at 13.00 (CET+1)

This is a summary of the first quarter 2012 interim report published today. The complete first quarter 2012 interim report with tables is available athttp://www.nokia.com/results/Nokia_results2012Q1e.pdf. Investors should not rely on summaries of our interim reports only, but should review the complete interim reports with tables.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

- Q1 2012 net sales of EUR 7.4 billion (Q1 2011: EUR 10.4 billion)

- Non-IFRS EPS of EUR -0.08 and reported EPS of EUR -0.25

- Losses incurred due to greater than expected competitive challenges and seasonality; reported losses also primarily driven by charges related to restructuring activities

- Implementation of smartphone strategy proceeding:
- Expansion of Lumia portfolio to cover higher and lower price points (Lumia 900 and Lumia 610 announced in Q1)
- Expansion of geographic coverage to 45 countries currently (31 new countries in Q1)
- Encouraging launch of Lumia 900 with AT&T in US in April

- Renewing feature phone portfolio with 7 new Asha products ramping up

- Taking action to drive improvements in the trajectory of Lumia sales and to support feature phone sales
- Plans to accelerate and substantially deepen Devices & Services cost savings, consistent with strategic focus. Nokia will share further details as quickly as possible.
- Balance sheet remains strong with EUR 9.8 billion of gross cash at end-Q1; EUR 4.9 billion of net cash at end-Q1
- Estimates that current annual IPR royalty income run-rate is approximately EUR 0.5 billion

Commenting on the Q1 results, Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, said: “We are navigating through a significant company transition in an industry environment that continues to evolve and shift quickly. Over the last year we have made progress on our new strategy, but we have faced greater than expected competitive challenges.

We have launched four Lumia devices ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim. The actual sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging.

At the same time, the lower price tiers of our industry are undergoing a structural change, and traditional feature phones are challenged by full touch devices. As a result we are taking deliberate measures to continue to renew our Series 40 platform, and we plan to strengthen our line-up in Q2 2012. We are making investments in our Mobile Phones business unit aimed at addressing the gaps in our offering.

We have a clear sense of urgency to move our strategy forward even faster. We are pursuing step function changes by having launched the Lumia 610 and Lumia 900 in the first quarter, expanding market coverage, increasing advertising, introducing key customer-requested features and broadening our most successful go-to-market activities. At the same time, we have focused our efforts in the low-end of smartphones and feature phone asset to drive improved business results and conserve cash.

We are confident in our strategy and focused on responding urgently in the short term and creating value for our shareholders in the long term.”

SUMMARY FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The following table sets forth selective line items for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

Reported and Non-IFRS first quarter 2012 results1,2

EUR million

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY
Change

Q4/2011

QoQ
Change

Nokia
Net sales

7 354

10 399

-29%

10 005

-26%

Operating profit

-1 340

439

-954

Operating profit
(non-IFRS)

-260

704

478

EPS, EUR diluted

-0.25

0.09

-0.29

EPS, EUR diluted
(non-IFRS)3

-0.08

0.13

0.06

Net cash from
operating
activities

-590

-173

634

Net cash and
other liquid
assets4

4 872

6 372

-24%

5 581

-13%

Devices &
Services5
Net sales

4 246

7 087

-40%

5 997

-29%

Smart Devices
net sales

1 704

3 528

-52%

2 747

-38%

Mobile Phones
net sales

2 311

3 407

-32%

3 040

-24%

Mobile device
volume
(mn units)

82.7

108.5

-24%

113.5

-27%

Smart Devices
volume
(mn units)

11.9

24.2

-51%

19.6

-39%

Mobile Phones
volume
(mn units)

70.8

84.3

-16%

93.9

-25%

Mobile device
ASP6

51

65

-22%

53

-4%

Smart Devices
ASP6

143

146

-2%

140

2%

Mobile Phones
ASP6

33

40

-18%

32

3%

Operating
profit

-219

729

203

Operating
profit
(non-IFRS)

-127

733

292

Operating
margin %

-5.2%

10.3%

3.4%

Operating margin %
(non-IFRS)

-3.0%

10.3%

4.9%

Location &
Commerce5
Net sales

277

232

19%

306

-9%

Operating profit

-94

-132

-1 205

Operating profit
(non-IFRS)

36

-16

29

24%

Operating
margin %

-33.9%

-56.9%

-393.8%

Operating
margin %
(non-IFRS)

12.9%

-6.9%

9.5%

Nokia Siemens
Networks5,7
Net sales

2 947

3 171

-7%

3 815

-23%

Operating profit

-1 005

-142

67

Operating profit
(non-IFRS)

-147

3

176

Operating
margin %

-34.1%

-4.5%

1.8%

Operating
margin %
(non-IFRS)

-5.0%

0.1%

4.6%

Note 1 relating to non-IFRS results: Non-IFRS results exclude special items for all periods. In addition, non-IFRS results exclude intangible asset amortization, other purchase price accounting related items and inventory value adjustments arising from (i) the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks and (ii) all business acquisitions completed after June 30, 2008. More specific information about the exclusions from the non-IFRS results can be found in note 2 below and for Q1 2012 and Q1 2011 in our complete Q1 2012 interim report with tables on pages 20-22 and 24, and for Q4 2011 in our complete Q4 and full year 2011 report with tables on pages 4-5, 20-22 and 24 published on January 26, 2012.

Nokia believes that these non-IFRS financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information to both management and investors regarding Nokia’s performance by excluding the above-described items that may not be indicative of Nokia’s business operating results. These non-IFRS financial measures should not be viewed in isolation or as substitutes to the equivalent IFRS measure(s), but should be used in conjunction with the most directly comparable IFRS measure(s) in the reported results. A reconciliation of our Q1 2012 and Q1 2011 non-IFRS results to our reported results can be found in our complete Q1 2012 interim report with tables on pages 18 and 20-24. A reconciliation of our Q4 2011 non-IFRS results to our reported results can be found in our complete Q4 and full year 2011 report with tables on pages 17 and 20-24 published on January 26, 2012.

Note 2 relating to non-IFRS exclusions:

Q1 2012 – EUR 1 080 million consisting of:
- EUR 772 million restructuring charge and other associated items in Nokia Siemens Networks
- EUR 10 million restructuring charge in Location & Commerce
- EUR 91 million restructuring charge in Devices & Services
- EUR 86 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks and the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets
- EUR 120 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the acquisition of NAVTEQ
- EUR 1 million of intangible assets amortization and other purchase price related items arising from the acquisition of Novarra, MetaCarta and Motally in Devices & Services   

Q1 2012 taxes – EUR 135 million valuation allowance for Nokia Siemens Networks deferred tax assets impacting Nokia taxes.

Q1 2011 – EUR 265 million consisting of:
- EUR 28 million restructuring charge and other associated items in Nokia Siemens Networks
- EUR 117 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks
- EUR 116 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the acquisition of NAVTEQ
- EUR 4 million of intangible assets amortization and other purchase price related items arising from the acquisition of OZ Communications, Novarra, MetaCarta and Motally in Devices & Services

Q4 2011 – EUR 1 432 million (net) consisting of:
- EUR 1 090 million partial impairment of goodwill in Location & Commerce
- EUR 25 million restructuring charge in Location & Commerce
- EUR 119 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the acquisition of NAVTEQ
- EUR 100 million restructuring charge and EUR 36 million associated impairments in Devices & Services
- EUR 2 million of intangible assets amortization and other purchase price related items arising from the acquisition of Novarra, MetaCarta and Motally in Devices & Services
- EUR 86 million of intangible asset amortization and other purchase price accounting related items arising from the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks and the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets
- EUR 23 million restructuring charge and other associated items in Nokia Siemens Networks
- EUR 49 million positive item from a cartel claim settlement  

Note 3 relating to non-IFRS Nokia EPS: Nokia taxes continued to be unfavorably impacted by Nokia Siemens Networks taxes as no tax benefits are recognized for certain Nokia Siemens Networks deferred tax items. In Q1 2012, one-quarter tax expenses in Devices & Services also had an unfavorable impact. If Nokia’s estimated long-term tax rate of 26% had been applied, non-IFRS Nokia EPS would have been approximately 2.1 Euro cents higher in Q1 2012.

Note 4 relating to Nokia net cash and other liquid assets: Calculated as total cash and other liquid assets less interest-bearing liabilities.

Note 5 relating to operational and reporting structure: We adopted our current operational structure during 2011 and have three businesses: Devices & Services, Location & Commerce and Nokia Siemens Networks and four operating and reportable segments: Smart Devices and Mobile Phones within Devices & Services, Location & Commerce and Nokia Siemens Networks. Smart Devices focuses on smartphones and Mobile Phones focuses on mass market feature phones. Devices & Services also contains Devices & Services Other which includes net sales of our luxury phone business Vertu, spare parts and related cost of sales and operating expenses, as well as intellectual property related royalty income and common research and development expenses. Location & Commerce focuses on the development of location-based services and local commerce. Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the leading global providers of telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software and services.

Note 6 relating to average selling prices (ASP): Mobile device ASP represents total Devices & Services net sales (Smart Devices net sales, Mobile Phones net sales, and Devices & Services Other net sales) divided by total Devices & Services volumes. Devices & Services Other net sales includes net sales of Nokia’s luxury phone business Vertu and spare parts, as well as intellectual property royalty income. Smart Devices ASP represents Smart Devices net sales divided by Smart Devices volumes. Mobile Phones ASP represents Mobile Phones net sales divided by Mobile Phones volumes.

Note 7 relating to Nokia Siemens Networks: Nokia Siemens Networks completed the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets on April 30, 2011. Accordingly, the results of Nokia Siemens Networks for the first quarter 2012 are not directly comparable to its results for the first quarter 2011.

NOKIA OUTLOOK

- Nokia expects its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in the second quarter 2012 to be similar to or below the first quarter 2012 level of negative 3.0%. This outlook reflects that the first quarter 2012 benefit related to lower warranty costs is expected to be non-recurring, as well as expectations regarding a number of factors including:
- competitive industry dynamics continuing to negatively affect the Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units;
- timing, ramp-up, and consumer demand related to new products; and
- the macroeconomic environment.

- Nokia continues to target to reduce Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses by more than EUR 1 billion for the full year 2013, compared to the full year 2010 Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses of EUR 5.35 billion. Nokia plans to accelerate and substantially deepen Devices & Services cost savings, consistent with its strategic focus. Nokia will share further details as quickly as possible.
- Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks expect Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin to clearly improve in the second quarter 2012 compared to the first quarter 2012 level of negative 5.0%. Due to the nature of the restructuring program as well as prevailing uncertain macroeconomic conditions, the timing of improvements in profitability is uncertain and therefore Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS operating margin in 2012 is expected to be volatile.
- Nokia Siemens Networks continues to target to reduce its non-IFRS annualized operating expenses and production overheads by EUR 1 billion by the end of 2013, compared to the end of 2011.

FIRST QUARTER 2012 FINANCIAL AND OPERATING DISCUSSION

NOKIA GROUP

We adopted our current operational structure during 2011 and have three businesses: Devices & Services, Location & Commerce and Nokia Siemens Networks and four operating and reportable segments: Smart Devices and Mobile Phones within Devices & Services, Location & Commerce and Nokia Siemens  Networks. Smart Devices focuses on smartphones and Mobile Phones focuses on mass market feature phones. Devices & Services also contains Devices & Services Other which includes net sales of our luxury phone business Vertu, spare parts and related cost of sales and operating expenses, as well as intellectual property related royalty income and common research and development expenses. Location & Commerce focuses on the development of location-based services and local commerce. Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the leading global providers of telecommunications infrastructure hardware, software and services.

The following discussion includes non-IFRS results information. Non-IFRS results exclude special items for all periods. In addition, non-IFRS results exclude intangible asset amortization, other purchase price accounting related items and inventory value adjustments arising from (i) the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks and (ii) all business acquisitions completed after June 30, 2008.

The following table sets forth the year-on-year and sequential growth rates in our net sales on a reported basis and at constant currency for the periods indicated.

FIRST QUARTER 2012 NET SALES, REPORTED & CONSTANT CURRENCY1

YoY

Change

QoQ

Change

Group net sales – reported

-29%

-26%

Group net sales – constant currency1

-29%

-28%

Devices & Services net sales – reported

-40%

-29%

Devices & Services net sales – constant currency1

-38%

-30%

Nokia Siemens Networks net sales – reported

-7%

-23%

Nokia Siemens Networks net sales – constant currency1

-9%

-24%

Note 1: Change in net sales at constant currency excludes the impact of changes in exchange rates in comparison to the Euro, our reporting currency.

The following table sets forth Nokia Group’s reported cash flow for the periods indicated and financial position at the end of the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

NOKIA GROUP CASH FLOW AND FINANCIAL POSITION
EUR million

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net cash from operating activities

-590

-173

634

Total cash and other liquid assets

9 793

11 056

-11%

10 902

-10%

Net cash and other liquid assets1

4 872

6 372

-24%

5 581

-13%

Note 1: Total cash and other liquid assets minus interest-bearing liabilities.

Year-on-year, net cash and other liquid assets decreased by EUR 1.5 billion primarily due to payment of the dividend, cash outflows related to the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets and capital expenditures, partially offset by a EUR 500 million equity investment in Nokia Siemens Networks by Siemens, the receipt of quarterly platform support payments from Microsoft and positive overall net cash from operating activities.

Sequentially, net cash and other liquid assets decreased by EUR 0.7 billion primarily due to unfavorable and mostly non-recurring net working capital changes in Devices & Services as well as operating losses, capital expenditure and cash outflows related to restructuring, partially offset by a positive contribution from Nokia Siemens Networks and the receipt of a quarterly platform support payment from Microsoft.

Sequentially, Devices & Services net working capital changes in the first quarter 2012 had a negative impact on net cash and other liquid assets. The working capital change was primarily due to accounts payable balances declining more than the combined declines in accounts receivable and inventory balances. The end-of-quarter days of sales outstanding was higher sequentially resulting from a lower proportion of net sales in regions with faster payment terms, including India and China. The end-of-quarter days of sales in inventory was higher sequentially resulting from the ramp-up of Lumia devices. Unless there are similar fluctuations in the composition of Devices & Services net sales and inventory, we expect the unfavorable impact of Devices & Services working capital changes in the first quarter 2012 to be mostly non-recurring.  We are focused on improving Devices & Services working capital performance, and we see opportunities to improve inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable management over the remainder of 2012.

In the first quarter 2012, Nokia Siemens Networks’ contribution to net cash from operating activities was approximately EUR 410 million. This was primarily driven by working capital improvements, partially offset by operating losses.  In the first quarter 2012, Nokia Siemens Networks’ working capital performance improved by approximately EUR 540 million, primarily related to significantly improved accounts receivables collection as well as higher advanced payments from customers.

Our agreement with Microsoft includes platform support payments from Microsoft to us as well as software royalty payments from us to Microsoft.  In the first quarter 2012, we received a quarterly platform support payment of USD 250 million (approximately EUR 189 million).  We have a competitive software royalty structure, which includes minimum software royalty commitments. Over the life of the agreement, both the platform support payments and the minimum software royalty commitments are expected to measure in the billions of US Dollars. The total amount of the platform support payments is expected to slightly exceed the total amount of the minimum software royalty commitments.

DEVICES & SERVICES

The following table sets forth a summary of the results for our Devices & Services business for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

DEVICES & SERVICES RESULTS SUMMARY

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net sales (EUR million)1

4 246

7 087

-40%

5 997

-29%

Mobile device volume (million units)

82.7

108.5

-24%

113.5

-27%

Mobile device ASP (EUR)

51

65

-22%

53

-4%

Non-IFRS gross margin (%)

24.4%

28.8%

25.8%

Non-IFRS operating expenses (EUR million)

1 123

1 322

-15%

1 262

-11%

Non-IFRS operating margin (%)

-3.0%

10.3%

4.9%

Note 1: Includes IPR royalty income recognized in Devices & Services Other net sales.

Net Sales
The year-on-year and sequential decline in our Devices & Services net sales are discussed below under our Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units. We estimate that our current annual IPR royalty income run-rate is approximately EUR 0.5 billion. At constant currency, Devices & Services net sales would have decreased 38% year-on-year and 30% sequentially.

The following table sets forth the net sales for our Devices & Services business for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates, by geographic area. IPR royalty income is allocated to the geographic areas contained in this chart.

DEVICES & SERVICES NET SALES BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA
EUR million

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Europe

1 352

2 082

-35%

1 922

-30%

Middle East & Africa

737

1 088

-32%

1 065

-31%

Greater China

577

1 902

-70%

1 008

-43%

Asia-Pacific

945

1 317

-28%

1 297

-27%

North America

93

140

-34%

53

75%

Latin America

542

558

-3%

652

-17%

Total

4 246

7 087

-40%

5 997

-29%

On a year-on-year basis Devices & Services net sales in the first quarter 2012 declined in all regions, particularly in China, primarily due to competitive industry dynamics adversely affecting both our Mobile Phones and Smart Devices net sales. On a sequential basis, Devices & Services net sales in the first quarter 2012 declined in all regions, except for North America, where sales were driven by the introduction of the Nokia Lumia 710 with T-Mobile.

Volume
The following table sets forth the mobile device volumes for our Devices & Services business for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates, by geographic area.

DEVICES & SERVICES MOBILE DEVICE VOLUMES BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA
million units

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Europe

15.8

23.4

-32%

25.3

-38%

Middle East & Africa

21.4

22.2

-4%

25.9

-17%

Greater China

9.2

23.9

-62%

14.7

-37%

Asia-Pacific

26.1

27.3

-4%

34.7

-25%

North America

0.6

1.2

-50%

0.5

20%

Latin America

9.6

10.5

-9%

12.4

-23%

Total

82.7

108.5

-24%

113.5

-27%

On a year-on-year basis, the decline in our total Devices & Services volumes in the first quarter 2012 was driven by significantly lower volumes in both Mobile Phones and Smart Devices volumes as discussed below.

The sequential decline in our total Devices & Services volumes in the first quarter 2012 was driven by significantly lower Mobile Phones volumes and Smart Device volumes, including lower seasonal demand for our devices, as discussed below.

During the first quarter 2012, our overall channel inventory increased on a sequential basis. We ended the first quarter 2012 around the high end of our normal 4 to 6 week channel inventory range, but on an absolute unit basis, channel inventories declined sequentially.

Average Selling Price
On a year-on-year basis, the overall decrease in our Devices & Services ASP in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by the lower ASP in Mobile Phones, a higher proportion of Mobile Phones sales and the negative impact from foreign currency hedging, partially offset by higher IPR royalty income.

On a sequential basis, the overall decrease in our Devices & Services ASP in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by a product mix shift towards Mobile Phones and the negative impact from foreign currency hedging, partially offset by a positive impact from the depreciation of the Euro against certain currencies.

Gross Margin
On a year-on-year basis, the decline in our Devices & Services non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by the significant gross margin decline in Smart Devices and, to a much lesser extent, in Mobile Phones, partially offset by higher IPR royalty income.

On a sequential basis, the decline in our Devices & Services non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by gross margin declines in both Smart Devices and Mobiles Phones, partially offset by a positive impact from lower warranty costs, which is expected to be non-recurring, and higher IPR royalty income.

Operating Expenses
Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses decreased 15% year-on-year and 11% sequentially in the first quarter 2012. On both a year-on-year and sequential basis, operating expenses related to Mobile Phones increased 22% and 10%, respectively, in the first quarter 2012, whereas operating expenses related to Smart Devices decreased 33% and 24%, respectively, in the first quarter 2012. These year-on-year and sequential changes resulted, in addition to the factors described below, from the proportionate allocation of operating expenses being impacted by the relative mix of sales and gross profit performance between Mobile Phones and Smart Devices. This resulted in higher and lower relative allocations to Mobile Phones and Smart Devices, respectively. In addition, both the year-on-year and sequential decline in Smart Devices was driven by the cost savings actions related to our Symbian and MeeGo activities.

Devices & Services non-IFRS research and development expenses decreased 22% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012. On a sequential basis, Devices & Services non-IFRS research and development expenses decreased 11% in the first quarter 2012. Both the year-on-year and sequential declines were primarily due to a reduction in Symbian and MeeGo related costs as well as ongoing cost controls. This was partially offset by an increase in Mobile Phones research and development expenses primarily due to investments in product development to bring new innovations to the market in support of our strategy to bring the internet and information to the next billion.

Devices & Services non-IFRS sales and marketing expenses decreased 8% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012. On a sequential basis, Devices & Services non-IFRS sales and marketing expenses decreased 16% in the first quarter 2012. Year-on-year, marketing expenses declined primarily due to lower marketing expenditure on Symbian, partially offset by higher marketing expenditure on Lumia. Sequentially, marketing expenses declined primarily due to lower marketing expenditure on MeeGo and Symbian.

Devices & Services non-IFRS administrative and general expenses decreased 5% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012 as near-term cost controls were partially offset by shared function cost categorization. On a sequential basis, Devices & Services non-IFRS administrative and general expenses increased 26% in the first quarter 2012 due to shared function cost categorization.

In the first quarter 2012, Devices & Services non-IFRS other income and expense had a negative year-on-year and sequential impact on profitability. Reported other income and expense was significantly adversely impacted in the first quarter 2012 primarily as a result of restructuring-related expenses discussed below, which were recognized in Devices & Services Other.

Cost Reduction Activities and Planned Operational Adjustments
We continue to target to reduce our Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses by more than EUR 1 billion for the full year 2013, compared to the full year 2010 Devices & Services non-IFRS operating expenses of EUR 5.35 billion. We plan to accelerate and substantially deepen Devices & Services cost savings, consistent with our strategic focus. Nokia will share further details as quickly as possible.

During the first quarter 2012, Devices & Services recognized net charges of EUR 91 million related to restructuring activities. As of the end of the first quarter 2012, we had recognized cumulative charges of EUR 888 million related to restructuring activities.

While the total extent of the restructuring activities is still to be determined, we currently anticipate cumulative charges in Devices & Services of around EUR 900 million before the end of 2012 in relation to our previously announced cost reduction target of more than EUR 1 billion. We also believe total cash outflows related to our Devices & Services restructuring activities will be below the level of the cumulative charges related to these restructuring activities.

SMART DEVICES

The following table sets forth a summary of the results for our Smart Devices business unit for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

SMART DEVICES RESULTS SUMMARY

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net sales (EUR millions)1

1 704

3 528

-52%

2 747

-38%

Smart Devices volume (million units)

11.9

24.2

-51%

19.6

-39%

Smart Devices ASP (EUR)

143

146

-2%

140

2%

Gross margin (%)

15.6%

28.9%

19.9%

Operating expenses (EUR millions)2

556

834

-33%

732

-24%

Contribution margin (%)2

-18.3%

5.3%

-7.0%

Note 1: Does not include IPR royalty income. IPR royalty income is recognized in Devices & Services Other net sales.
Note 2: The year-on-year and sequential decreases in operating expenses resulted from the proportionate allocation of operating expenses being impacted by the relative mix of sales and gross profit performance between Mobile Phones and Smart Devices, resulting in lower relative allocations to Smart Devices in the first quarter 2012.

Net Sales
The year-on-year decline in our Smart Devices net sales in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to significantly lower Symbian volumes. On a sequential basis, the decline in our Smart Devices net sales in the first quarter 2012 was also due to lower Symbian volumes, partially offset by growing sales of Nokia Lumia devices.

Volume
The year-on-year decline in our Smart Devices volumes in the first quarter 2012 continued to be driven by the strong momentum of competing smartphone platforms relative to our Symbian devices. All regions showed a significant year-on-year decline in the first quarter 2012 except for Latin and North America, which showed slight year-on-year growth.

On a sequential basis, the decline in our Smart Devices volumes in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by lower Symbian volumes in all regions, as well as lower seasonal demand for our products, which more than offset the sequential increase in Nokia Lumia device volumes.

Average Selling Price
The year-on-year decline in our Smart Devices ASP in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by price erosion due to the competitive environment and a higher proportion of sales of lower priced Symbian devices. This was partially offset by sales of Nokia Lumia devices at an ASP of approximately EUR 220, as well as a positive impact related to deferred revenue on services sold in combination with our devices.

Sequentially, the slight increase in our Smart Devices ASP in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by a positive mix shift towards the sales of Nokia Lumia devices, and a positive impact related to deferred revenue on services sold in combination with our devices, partially offset by price actions taken related to specific products across our portfolio due to the competitive environment.

Gross Margin
The significant year-on-year decline in our Smart Devices gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by greater price erosion than cost erosion within our Symbian portfolio due to the competitive environment, partially offset by a positive impact related to deferred revenue related on services sold in combination with our devices and lower warranty costs.

On a sequential basis, the decline in our Smart Devices gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by greater price erosion than cost erosion mainly related to our Symbian and Nokia N9 smartphones, targeted price reductions of the Nokia Lumia 710 to accelerate growth as well as higher per unit fixed costs related to our Symbian devices due to declining volumes. The overall sequential decline was partially offset by lower Symbian-related allowances and lower warranty costs.

MOBILE PHONES

The following table sets forth a summary of the results for our Mobile Phones business unit for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

MOBILE PHONES RESULTS SUMMARY

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net sales (EUR millions)1

2 311

3 407

-32%

3 040

-24%

Mobile Phones volume (million units)

70.8

84.3

-16%

93.9

-25%

Mobile Phones ASP (EUR)

33

40

-18%

32

3%

Gross margin (%)

25.9%

27.9%

27.7%

Operating expenses (EUR million)2

472

387

22%

429

10%

Contribution margin (%)2

4.6%

16.5%

13.5%

Note 1: Does not include IPR royalty income. IPR royalty income is recognized in Devices & Services Other net sales.
Note 2: The year-on-year and sequential increases in operating expenses resulted from the proportionate allocation of operating expenses being impacted by the relative mix of  sales and gross profit performance between Mobile Phones and Smart Devices, resulting in higher relative allocations to Mobile Phones in the first quarter 2012.

Net Sales
On a year-on-year basis, our Mobile Phones net sales in the first quarter 2012 decreased due to the lower ASP and volumes.  On a sequential basis, the decline in our Mobile Phones net sales in the first quarter 2012 was due to lower volumes.

Volume
On a year-on-year basis, the decline in our Mobile Phones volumes in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by our reduced portfolio of higher priced feature phones compared to the first quarter 2011, partially offset by sales of recently introduced products which represented a higher proportion of our portfolio. In addition, the year-on-year decline was due to distributors and operators purchasing fewer of our feature phones during the first quarter 2012 as they reduced their inventories of our feature phones compared to increasing their inventories in the first quarter 2011. The year-on-year decline in our Mobile Phones volumes in the first quarter 2012 was most pronounced in China and Europe primarily due to competition from more affordable smartphones and increased competition from competitors with broader portfolios of feature phones with more smartphone-like experiences, such as full touch devices.

On a sequential basis, the decline in our Mobile Phones volumes in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by lower seasonal demand for our feature phones and aggressive price competition, especially in entry-level feature phones, partially offset by sales of recently introduced products which represented a higher proportion of our portfolio. The sequential decline was also due to distributors and operators purchasing fewer of our feature phones during the first quarter 2012 as they reduced their inventories of our feature phones compared to increasing their inventories in the fourth quarter 2011. In addition, we faced increased competition from more affordable smartphones and competitors with broader portfolios of feature phones with more smartphone-like experiences, such as full touch devices. The sequential decline in our Mobile Phones volumes in the first quarter 2012 was most pronounced in India and Europe, primarily due to the factors mentioned above.

Average Selling Price
The year-on-year decline in our Mobile Phones ASP in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by an increased proportion of sales of lower priced devices and the negative impact from foreign currency hedging, partially offset by sales of recently introduced higher priced devices, including the Asha family.

On a sequential basis, our Mobile Phones ASP increased slightly in the first quarter of 2012 due to a mix shift towards recently-introduced higher priced devices, including the Asha family, as well as the positive impact from the depreciation of the Euro against certain currencies, partially offset by general price erosion and the negative impact from foreign currency hedging.

Gross Margin
The year-on-year decline in our Mobile Phones gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to greater price erosion than cost erosion, a negative product mix shift towards lower gross margin feature phones, partially offset by lower warranty costs.

The sequential decrease in our Mobile Phones gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to greater price erosion than cost erosion, partially offset by a positive impact related to deferred revenue on services sold in combination with our devices and lower warranty costs.

LOCATION & COMMERCE

The following table sets forth a summary of the results for Location & Commerce for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

LOCATION & COMMERCE RESULTS SUMMARY

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net sales (EUR millions)

277

232

19%

306

-9%

Non-IFRS gross margin (%)

77.7%

81.0%

77.8%

Non-IFRS operating expenses (EUR millions)

174

205

-15%

206

-16%

Non-IFRS operating margin (%)

12.9%

-6.9%

9.5%

Net Sales
The year-on-year increase in Location & Commerce net sales in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by higher recognition of deferred revenue related to sales of map platform licenses to Smart Devices and, to a lesser extent, by higher sales of map content licenses to vehicle customers due to higher consumer uptake of vehicle navigation systems as well as higher sales to portable navigation devices (PND) customers.

Sequentially, the decrease in Location & Commerce net sales in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to seasonally lower sales to portable navigation devices (PND) customers as well as lower sales of map update content licenses in the vehicle segment.

Gross Margin
On a sequential basis, the Location & Commerce non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 remained unchanged.

On a year-on-year basis, the decline in Location & Commerce non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to a shift of research and development operating expenses to cost of sales as a result of the divestiture of the media advertising business.

Operating Expenses
Location & Commerce non-IFRS research and development expenses decreased 19% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012 reflecting a shift in expenses from research and development to costs of sales related to the divestiture of the media advertising business. Location & Commerce non-IFRS research and development expenses decreased 18% sequentially in the first quarter 2012 primarily driven by cost reduction actions.

Location & Commerce non-IFRS sales and marketing expenses decreased 14% year-on-year and 17% sequentially. On a year-on-year and sequential basis, the primary driver for the decrease was cost reduction actions. In addition, reduced marketing spend contributed to the sequential decline.

Location & Commerce non-IFRS administrative and general expenses increased 25% year-on-year and 11% sequentially in the first quarter 2012, primarily due to higher use of services provided by shared support functions.

NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS

Nokia Siemens Networks completed the acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ networks assets on April 30, 2011. Accordingly, the results of Nokia Siemens Networks for the first quarter 2012 are not directly comparable to its results for the first quarter 2011.

The following table sets forth a summary of the results for Nokia Siemens Networks for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates.

NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS RESULTS SUMMARY

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Net sales (EUR millions)

2 947

3 171

-7%

3 815

-23%

Non-IFRS gross margin (%)

26.6%

26.9%

29.2%

Non-IFRS operating expenses (EUR millions)

937

852

10%

943

-1%

Non-IFRS operating margin (%)

-5.0%

0.1%

4.6%

Net Sales
The following table sets forth Nokia Siemens Networks net sales for the periods indicated, as well as the year-on-year and sequential growth rates, by geographic area.

NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS NET SALES BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA
EUR millions

Q1/2012

Q1/2011

YoY Change

Q4/2011

QoQ Change

Europe

930

1 001

-7%

1 272

-27%

Middle East & Africa

270

307

-12%

394

-31%

Greater China

209

322

-35%

438

-52%

Asia-Pacific

877

988

-11%

909

-4%

North America

283

169

67%

293

-3%

Latin America

378

384

-2%

509

-26%

Total

2 947

3 171

-7%

3 815

-23%

The year-on-year decrease in Nokia Siemens Networks’ net sales in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by a decline in sales of infrastructure equipment, which more than offset a slight increase in sales of services. The sequential decline in Nokia Siemens Networks’ net sales in the first quarter 2012 was driven primarily by industry seasonality.

At constant currency, Nokia Siemens Networks’ net sales would have decreased 9% year-on-year and 24% sequentially.

Gross Margin
The slight year-on-year decline in Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily due to an unfavorable mix towards lower gross margin services revenues, partially offset by improved performance in infrastructure equipment. On a year-on-year basis, Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was negatively impacted by an unfavorable regional sales mix.

On a sequential basis, the decrease in Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was driven by an unfavorable product mix towards lower margin services as well as lower seasonal revenues. On a sequential basis, Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS gross margin in the first quarter 2012 was negatively impacted by an unfavorable regional sales mix.

Operating Expenses
Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS research and development expenses increased 14% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012 primarily due to the addition of the research and development operations related to the acquired Motorola Solutions networks assets as well as investments in strategic initiatives. On a sequential basis, Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS research and development expenses in the first quarter 2012 were approximately flat.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS sales and marketing expenses decreased 3% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012 primarily due to the lower net sales, partially offset by the addition of the sales and marketing operations related to the acquired Motorola Solutions networks assets. On a sequential basis, Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS sales and marketing expenses decreased 3% in the first quarter 2012 primarily due to the lower net sales.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS administrative and general expenses increased 22% year-on-year in the first quarter 2012 primarily reflecting the addition of Motorola Solutions’ network assets. Sequentially, Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS administrative and general expenses increased 6% in the first quarter 2012 primarily due to higher legal costs.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS other income for the first quarter 2012 was approximately flat on both a year-on-year and sequential basis.

Operating Margin
The lower year-on-year Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin in the first quarter 2012 was primarily driven by lower net sales and increased operating expenses.

The sequential decline in Nokia Siemens Networks’ non-IFRS operating margin in the first quarter 2012 primarily reflected the lower seasonal net sales, lower gross margin and flat operating expenses.

Strategy Update and Global Restructuring Program
On November 23, 2011 Nokia Siemens Networks announced its strategy to focus on mobile broadband and services and the launch of an extensive global restructuring program.

Nokia Siemens Networks continues to target to reduce its non-IFRS annualized operating expenses and production overheads by EUR 1 billion by the end of 2013, compared to the end of 2011. While these savings are expected to come largely from organizational streamlining, the company will also target areas such as real estate, information technology, product and service procurement costs, overall general and administrative expenses, and a significant reduction of suppliers in order to further lower costs and improve quality.

In the first quarter of 2012, Nokia Siemens Network recognized restructuring charges and other associated items of EUR 772 million related to this restructuring program. While the total extent of the restructuring activities is still to be determined, we currently anticipate cumulative charges in Nokia Siemens Networks of around EUR 1 billion before the end of 2012. We also believe total cumulative cash outflows related to the Nokia Siemens Networks restructuring activities will be around the same level as the cumulative charges related to these restructuring activities.

Cash preservation is a clear priority at Nokia Siemens Networks, and the company intends to be self-funding in all aspects of its operations.  Nokia Siemens Networks’ restructuring program, combined with the company’s focus on improving its financial performance, is designed to enable the company to end 2012 with higher net cash than at the end of 2011.

FIRST QUARTER 2012 OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

NOKIA OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
- Nokia announced planned changes at its factories in Komarom in Hungary, Reynosa in Mexico and Salo in Finland. The measures followed a review of smartphone manufacturing operations that Nokia announced last September and aim to increase the company’s competitiveness in the diverse global mobile device market. These three factories are planned to focus on smartphone product customization, serving customers mainly in Europe and the Americas. Device assembly is expected to be transferred to Nokia factories in Asia, where the majority of component suppliers are based.
- Nokia, and De’ Longhi SpA, a global leader in household appliances, agreed terms for De’ Longhi to acquire Nokia’s production facility in Cluj, Romania. The transaction was completed in March 2012.
- Nokia appointed Marko Ahtisaari as Executive Vice President, Design, and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team, effective February 1, 2012. He reports directly to President and CEO Stephen Elop.

DEVICES & SERVICES OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

SMART DEVICES
- Nokia has continued to expand the breadth and depth of its Lumia range of Windows Phone-based smartphones since their debut in November 2011. Consumers in 45 markets around the world can now purchase a Lumia smartphone, with more markets being added in the coming weeks and months. Key highlights in the growth of Lumia in the first quarter included:
- In January, Nokia and T-Mobile commenced sales of the Nokia Lumia 710, the first Lumia product for the United States.
- In January, Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 900 with AT&T in the United States. The Lumia 900 is the first of Nokia’s Windows Phone-based range to feature high-speed LTE connectivity. The device, which has a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display, went on sale in April.
- In February, at the 2012 Mobile World Congress, Nokia announced that it is bringing the Nokia Lumia 900 to other markets outside the United States in a DC-HSPA variant, for high speed data connection (42Mbits download) in countries where LTE is not available. The device is expected to begin shipping during the second quarter.
- In February, Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 610, the company’s fourth and most affordable Lumia smartphone, designed as the perfect introduction to Windows Phone for a younger audience. The device is expected to ship during the second quarter 2012.
- In February, Nokia announced Nokia Reading, providing a single, integrated reading hub experience. Nokia Reading makes it easier and faster to enjoy news, books, and audio books including an extensive catalogue of local language reading material and the ability to access content offline.
- In March, Nokia and China Telecom announced the Nokia 800C, the first CDMA Windows Phone in China and Nokia’s first Lumia phone for the world’s largest smartphone market. The device went on sale in early April.

- In February, Nokia announced the Nokia 808 PureView, the first smartphone to feature Nokia PureView imaging technologies, bringing together high resolution sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed algorithms, which will support new high-end imaging experiences for future Nokia products. The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor and new pixel oversampling technology. The device is expected to ship during the second quarter 2012.

MOBILE PHONES
- Nokia has continued to expand the breadth and depth of its Asha family of feature phones since their debut in late 2011. Consumers in more than 100 markets around the world can now purchase an Asha device. Key highlights in the growth of the Asha family in the first quarter included:
- In February, Nokia announced the Nokia Asha 302, the first Series 40-based phone to support Mail for Exchange. The Asha 302 went on sale during the first quarter.
- In February, Nokia announced the Nokia Asha 202, which combines a traditional keypad with a touch screen and features Nokia’s dual SIM Easy Swap technology. The Asha 202 is expected to ship during the second quarter 2012.
- In February, Nokia announced the Asha 203, a single SIM phone which combines a traditional keypad with a touch screen. The Asha 203 is expected to ship during the second quarter 2012.

- Nokia announced an evolution of Nokia Life Tools, now known as Nokia Life, which provides life-enhancing information across the range of Nokia Series 30 and Series 40 products. Since its 2009 launch in India, the SMS-based service has expanded to China, Indonesia and Nigeria. To date, more than 50 million people have experienced its benefits.
- Nokia Browser, Nokia’s cloud-accelerated browser for Series 40 devices, continued to grow rapidly with support for 38 devices in 87 languages and more than 200 countries. During the first quarter, we released a significant upgrade to the product improving speed and access to web apps. Nokia Browser is the first of its kind to support web apps, and since the release of the SDK in 2011, developer support has continued to grow.

LOCATION & COMMERCE OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
Nokia’s Location & Commerce business continued to strengthen its location-based offerings during the first quarter:
- Location & Commerce updated Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for Nokia’s Lumia smartphones twice. With these updates, Nokia Maps now also features a real-time traffic view in selected markets and enables the creation and collection of favorite places as well as route sharing via SMS, email or social networks, while Nokia Drive is now supporting a full offline experience from route calculation to navigation and rerouting. Nokia Drive also features a new dashboard that includes speed limit alerts and provides options between estimated time of arrival, time to destination and distance to destination.
- Location & Commerce launched Nokia Transport, a mobile application for Nokia’s Lumia smartphones providing underground, tram, suburban train and bus directions for more than 500 cities in 46 countries in the most convenient way.
- Location & Commerce released the beta version of Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 for its Nokia Belle smartphones, bundling a number of individual maps applications like Drive, Maps, Public Transport into one convenient package, offering new features such as up-to-date, location-aware weather forecasts, and a home screen widget to explore places nearby and letting people see their geo-tagged photos on the map at the places they were taken.
- Location & Commerce introduced walk navigation (beta) for its HTML5 based mobile web offering on m.maps.nokia.com that lets people use Nokia Maps on non-Nokia devices running Android and iOS.
- Location & Commerce updated Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for the Nokia N9.
- Location & Commerce launched a new shared map design with Bing Maps, jointly developed with Microsoft.
- Nokia announced that it is planning to integrate Groupon deals into Nokia Maps and leverage location information from Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport, so that people can find local deals in the places they go to most often, or plan to visit.
- Location & Commerce launched NAVTEQ Traffic(TM) in India, making the real-time traffic service available to more than 26 million people in Delhi and Mumbai.
- NAVTEQ® Maps was selected by Yandex, Russia’s premier internet company, to supply map data for their global web portal properties.
- NAVTEQ® Maps was selected by Nikon to power map display and geotagging capabilities on the COOLPIX AW series of digital cameras.

NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
- Nokia Siemens Networks announced a number of mobile broadband deals in the first quarter, including: upgrading Saudi Telecom Company’s nationwide GSM and 3G networks and expanding its commercial 4G network; working with Bharti Airtel to build and operate a large-scale TD-LTE 4G network in Maharashtra, India; transforming mobile broadband efficiency for Telkomsel in Indonesia; becoming a mobile broadband and infrastructure services provider for KT in Korea; and working with T-Mobile and Orange in Poland to deploy and upgrade GSM and HSPA networks, paving the way for transition to LTE.
- Nokia Siemens demonstrated its commitment to staying at the forefront of mobile broadband innovation with the opening of a mobile broadband testing and development facility which opened in Silicon Valley in the United States in February.
- At Mobile World Congress in February, Nokia Siemens Networks launched its “FlexiZone” approach to mobile broadband coverage, which will deliver faster and more flexible 4G across areas with a very high user density more efficiently and cost effectively. During the first quarter the company also achieved world record data speeds, exceeding 1.4 Gbps using its LTE-Advanced 4G system.
- In March, Nokia Siemens Networks and Juniper Networks announced the launch of the “Integrated Packet Transport Network”, addressing the need for service providers to simplify network architecture and giving operators more flexibility in their transport networks in a cost effective way, reflecting Nokia Siemens Networks Liquid Net approach to transforming networks to cope with unpredictability and increasing network demand.
- The launch of the Customer Experience Management (CEM) on Demand portal allowed Nokia Siemens Networks to showcase a new way of handling relationships with the world’s six billion mobile users. The single entry point portal, accessible from across entire operator organizations, is designed to offer dashboard views of mobile operators’ key performance indicators and recommend actions they can take to improve their customer experience. Telkomsel has signed up to use the new service, enabling it to view real-time metrics and provide improved service quality for its customers across Indonesia.
- In Managed Services, Bharti Airtel extended its contract with Nokia Siemens Networks to continue to provide its managed services for a further five years.
- In December 2011, Nokia Siemens Networks signed a forward starting term and multicurrency revolving credit facilities agreement with major international banks for EUR 1 255 million to replace its existing revolving credit facility when it matures in June 2012.  By April 2012 this new commitment had been increased to EUR 1 500 million.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
It should be noted that certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) the expected plans and benefits of our partnership with Microsoft to bring together complementary assets and expertise to form a global mobile ecosystem for smartphones; B) the timing and expected benefits of our new strategies, including expected operational and financial benefits and targets as well as changes in leadership and operational structure; C) the timing of the deliveries of our products and services; D) our ability to innovate, develop, execute and commercialize new technologies, products and services; E) expectations regarding market developments and structural changes; F) expectations and targets regarding our industry volumes, market share, prices, net sales and margins of our products and services; G expectations and targets regarding our operational priorities and results of operations; H) expectations and targets regarding collaboration and partnering arrangements; I) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation; J) expectations regarding the successful completion of acquisitions or restructurings on a timely basis and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such acquisition or restructuring; and K) statements preceded by “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “foresee,” “target,” “estimate,” “designed,” “aim”, “plans,” “will” or similar expressions. These statements are based on management’s best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our success in the smartphone market, including our ability to introduce and bring to market quantities of attractive, competitively priced Nokia products with Windows Phone that are positively differentiated from our competitors’ products, both outside and within the Windows Phone ecosystem; 2) our ability to make Nokia products with Windows Phone a competitive choice for consumers, and together with Microsoft, our success in encouraging and supporting a competitive and profitable global ecosystem for Windows Phone smartphones that achieves sufficient scale, value and attractiveness to all market participants; 3) the difficulties we experience in having a competitive offering of Symbian devices and maintaining the economic viability of the Symbian smartphone platform during the transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform; 4) our ability to realize a return on our investment in next generation devices, platforms and user experiences; 5) our ability to produce attractive and competitive feature phones, including devices with more smartphone-like features, in a timely and cost efficient manner with differentiated hardware, software, localized services and applications; 6) the intensity of competition in the various markets where we do business and our ability to maintain or improve our market position or respond successfully to changes in the competitive environment; 7) our ability to retain, motivate, develop and recruit appropriately skilled employees; 8) our ability to effectively and smoothly implement the new operational structure for our businesses, achieve targeted efficiencies and reductions in operating expenses; 9) the success of our Location & Commerce strategy, including our ability to maintain current sources of revenue, provide support for our Devices & Services business and create new sources of revenue from our location-based services and commerce assets; 10) our success in collaboration and partnering arrangements with third parties, including Microsoft; 11) our ability to increase our speed of innovation, product development and execution to bring new innovative and competitive mobile products and location-based or other services to the market in a timely manner; 12) our dependence on the development of the mobile and communications industry, including location-based and other services industries, in numerous diverse markets, as well as on general economic conditions globally and regionally; 13) our ability to protect numerous patented standardized or proprietary technologies from third-party infringement or actions to invalidate the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 14) our ability to maintain and leverage our traditional strengths in the mobile product market if we are unable to retain the loyalty of our mobile operator and distributor customers and consumers as a result of the implementation of our strategies or other factors; 15) the success, financial condition and performance of our suppliers, collaboration partners and customers; 16) our ability to manage efficiently our manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety, security and timely delivery of our products and services; 17) our ability to source sufficient amounts of fully functional quality components, sub-assemblies, software and services on a timely basis without interruption and on favorable terms; 18) our ability to manage our inventory and timely adapt our supply to meet changing demands for our products; 19) any actual or even alleged defects or other quality, safety and security issues in our product; 20) the impact of a cybersecurity breach or other factors leading to any actual or alleged loss, improper disclosure or leakage of any personal or consumer data collected by us or our partners or subcontractors, made available to us or stored in or through our products; 21) our ability to successfully manage the pricing of our products and costs related to our products and operations; 22) exchange rate fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan, as well as certain other currencies; 23) our ability to protect the technologies, which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we have infringed third parties’ intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our products and services; 24) the impact of economic, political, regulatory or other developments on our sales, manufacturing facilities and assets located in emerging market countries; 25) the impact of changes in government policies, trade policies, laws or regulations where our assets are located and where we do business; 26) the potential complex tax issues and obligations we may incur to pay additional taxes in the various jurisdictions in which we do business; 27) any disruption to information technology systems and networks that our operations rely on; 28) unfavorable outcome of litigations;  29) allegations of possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile products and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 30) Nokia Siemens Networks ability to implement its new strategy and restructuring plan effectively and in a timely manner to improve its overall competitiveness and profitability; 31) Nokia Siemens Networks’ success in the telecommunications infrastructure services market and Nokia Siemens Networks’ ability to effectively and profitably adapt its business and operations in a timely manner to the increasingly diverse service needs of its customers; 32) Nokia Siemens Networks’ ability to maintain or improve its market position or respond successfully to changes in the competitive environment; 33) Nokia Siemens Networks’ liquidity and its ability to meet its working capital requirements; 34) Nokia Siemens Networks’ ability to timely introduce new competitive products, services, upgrades and technologies; 35) Nokia Siemens Networks’ ability to execute successfully its strategy for the acquired Motorola Solutions wireless network infrastructure assets; 36) developments under large, multi-year contracts or in relation to major customers in the networks infrastructure and related services business; 37) the management of our customer financing exposure, particularly in the networks infrastructure and related services business; 38) whether ongoing or any additional governmental investigations into alleged violations of law by some former employees of Siemens may involve and affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks; and 39) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting from ongoing or any additional governmental investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks, as well as the risk factors specified on pages 13-47 of Nokia’s annual report Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011 under Item 3D. “Risk Factors.” Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

Nokia, Helsinki – April 19, 2012

Media and Investor Contacts:

Corporate Communications, tel. +358 7180 34900
Investor Relations Europe, tel. +358 7180 34927
Investor Relations US, tel. +1 914 368 0555

- Nokia plans to publish its second quarter 2012 interim report on July 19, 2012.
- Nokia’s Annual General Meeting will be held on May 3, 2012.

www.nokia.com



WPP Makes Big Leap Into E-Commerce, Leads On $10 Million mySupermarket Investment

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 02:52 AM PDT

mysupermarket

The media and advertising giant WPP is taking a big step into e-commerce and how it can use it to leverage its other digital investments: today it has announced that it is investing $7 million into the grocery comparison shopping site mySupermarket, part of a $10 million round that also includes participation from existing investors Greylock and Pitango.

WPP says that it plans to use the investment to help extend its digital portfolio, and specifically help in the marketing and other services that it offers to is customers in packaged goods — the FMCG segment is one of the most important in WPP’s client base. The deal will see WPP become a minority shareholder in Dolphin Software, the company that makes mySupermarket.

The investment announced today takes the total amount invested in mySupermarket up to $23.4 million.

mySupermarket, which has offices in London, New York, Tel Aviv and Tokyo, has been in business since 2006, with its service focusing on letting consumers compare a product, or a whole cart of groceries, across a range of retailers to see which offers the cheaper price, and it offers a compelling and disruptive service that falls squarely in favor of the consumer:

In the UK, the range of stores covered by mySupermarket includes nine major retailers – Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Ocado, Sainsburys, Boots, Superdrug, Majestic and Virgin Wines. It lets users not only check the prices for goods across these places, but then allows them to quickly swap their products over to the cheapest retailer to buy them.

mySupermarket says that it trawls about 30,000 special offers every week and lets customers cut their bill by up to 20 percent. It says it has 2 million monthly unique users in the UK with sales growing 100 percent year-on-year.

Allon Bloch, the CEO, tells me that it will be using the investment to go into the U.S. and other markets, and is looking to expand into further sectors — a most recent addition is health and beauty — as well as a “major push into mobile.”

Bloch also notes that while the company “had term sheets from VCs” for this round, the company decided that WPP was a better strategic fit in terms of how the business wanted to develop. “WPP provides more domain expertise and their breadth of relationship is unparalleled in both the data and advertising worlds,” Bloch said.

You can see how this will work with WPP: it currently makes just over a quarter of its revenues from digital — $4.8 billion out of a total of $16 billion in 2011 — but is always looking for ways to increase that share, as part of its strategy to be making 40 percent of revenues from digital in the next five years. Here they can help their clients develop offers for their products, as part of larger digital marketing campaigns, and then help connect those offers directly with consumers.

It will also help the company pick up an enormous amount of consumer data, helpful for future campaigns.

The two biggest digital divisions at the moment for WPP are Wunderman and OgilvyOne, with revenues of over $950 million and over $900 million respectively — these might be the agencies that we will see working most closely with mySupermarket in future.



Another Siri-Like App, Voice Answer, Hits The App Store For Those Of Us Without The iPhone 4S

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 11:41 PM PDT

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Looks like Apple might be loosening its grip even more on voice recognition apps? Or, it simply just feels that the competition is not as good as its own native Siri. We’ve just gotten word from Netherlands-based developer Sparkling Apps that its voice-response app, Voice Answer — rejected by Apple for nearly three months — has been approved by Apple and is now live in the App Store, and usable on any iPhone, iPod or iPad running iOS 4.2 or later.

It took “almost three months of negotiating, tweaking and pushing,” developer Martijn van der Spek tells TechCrunch. Like Siri, the app is based on data from Wolfram Alpha, among other sources, and lets users ask questions by either speaking to the app or typing in a question. It’s priced at £2.49 ($3.99).

He says the company is now going “full speed ahead” implementing more features into the app. These include location-based place finding and email/SMS and more voice function commands. Additionally it’s adding in a bit of sci-fi kitsch: it’s planning to create an animated robot for the interface. You can see the video of how that will look below.

The news comes on the back of other voice recognition apps making a splash and then facing rejection issues with Apple, perhaps most notably Evi.

Sparkling Apps in March had a free voice recognition app, Talk to Eve, also rejected for being “too similar to Siri” that was subsequently approved in March.

With the voice-recognition space currently very active, the big question is whether any of these third-party developers will be able to gain traction against Apple, and what they will all do next to make themselves relevant and indispensable to users. Offering APIs to other app developers could be one lucrative route.



Kixeye Is The Lucrative Dark Horse of Facebook Gaming

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 08:57 PM PDT

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While Zynga and other gaming companies seem to be doing everything possible to claw their way off the Facebook canvas, at least one San Francisco company is still in. Big time.

With just shy of 5 million monthly active users on Facebook, Kixeye is ranked a dismal 72nd on the developer leaderboard behind Zynga, EA and Angry Birds-maker Rovio, according to tracking service AppData.

But the astonishing revenue Kixeye makes per user has the company on track to gross more than $100 million in total revenue this year. That’s up from between $25 to $50 million last year, according to an independent source familiar with Kixeye’s financials. For comparison, Zynga earned $1.1 billion in 2011 on 240 million monthly active users according to its year-end financial report.

Kixeye is part of a class of companies that is taking Facebook gaming far from its “Cow Clicker” past. The company doesn’t target the stereotypical 35-year-old female demographic that Zynga is well-known for, but rather a subset of hardcore gamers that are willing to pay up.

Think fewer virtual potatoes and more epic sea battles with pirates.

“We haven’t sold our souls,” said Kixeye’s chief executive Will Harbin, who plays the company’s games for a few hours every day. “We have found a formula where we can make games that we’re super proud of and that are efficient at contributing to our bottom line.” (That’s Harbin in the picture at the top. Yes, really.)

The company only has a few games under its belt, but they have a longer life cycle than other Facebook games as players stick around for longer.

Battle Pirates is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the entire Earth is submerged under water (kind of like Waterworld minus Kevin Costner). Players have to build and defend bases against the Draconian Empire. Then there’s Backyard Monsters, which has had a surprisingly long lifespan for a Facebook game after launching more than two years ago. The real-time strategy game has players building and raising a monster army. It’s gotten edgier over its life as Kixeye has gotten more comfortable with its demographic.

That strategy of building very immersive games for a smaller, but more lucrative, segment of the market represents a shift that's happened on the Facebook platform over the past year. Games on the platform are becoming a lot more diverse than the casual, resource-management or simulation games that have dominated over the past two years. There are games with rich storylines, hidden object titles and bingo. The audience that Kixeye and other similar developers like Kabam and KlickNation, which EA acquired, is just one corner of this changing landscape.

Facebook seems eager to embrace this change too. “It’s our job in the ecosystem to make sure that quality is highly-rewarded,” said Matt Wyndowe, a product manager for games at Facebook. “Developers are finding that there is enormous potential in higher-quality gaming brackets.”

Meanwhile, casual mass-market developers are finding a tougher competitive landscape. You can see a visible slowdown in Zynga’s bookings growth over the past year as Facebook’s 30 percent revenue share ate into the company’s margins. Other social game developers like Kabam, Crowdstar, Funzio and perhaps most notably, OMGPOP, have diversified onto mobile platforms like iOS and Android in the face of thinning profit margins on Facebook.

“Frankly, we don’t need the viral bullshit that other developers depend on,” Harbin said in his characteristically blunt way. “We have the luxury to make the games we want to make.”

Just to give you a rundown of how sticky Kixeye’s games are, the company shared some stats on engagement. The average session length in a Kixeye title is more than 30 minutes and the company’s daily active users have been playing its titles for more than seven months on average. While the average social game might make 4 cents per day per user, Kixeye makes about 20 times that on a per-user basis. (Zynga’s was 6.1 cents per day in the fourth quarter of last year, according to its earnings report.)

Surprisingly, Harbin says he’s not that interested in mobile for the time being. He’s laser-focused on browser-based games. Of course, the long-term question is about how large Kixeye’s market opportunity will ultimately be. Their approach is niche by definition, so how far can it scale?

“Our market is maybe 8 percent saturated,” Harbin said.

To grow its base, Kixeye is looking to launch a web destination off Facebook sometime in the summer. He says Facebook gaming still has a certain stigma attached to it and Kixeye’s hardcore players might feel more comfortable on a site that the company wholly owns.

By next year, the company would like to have a 50-50 split in revenue from Facebook and from its own destination. Kixeye is also looking to staff up to about 300 people by year-end. To do so, they’ve stocked up on these ads with wolves (pictured below) that you might have seen while riding the BART trains around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The company’s momentum has piqued the interest of both investors and prospective buyers. When Andrew Trader, who was part of Zynga’s founding team, came onto the company’s board of directors last fall, Kixeye’s $18 million funding round was so oversubscribed that he couldn’t get his venture firm Maveron into the deal.

“Kixeye’s execution has been incredible,” Trader said. “They’re able to monetize revenge. When one of my friends comes to blow up my base in Battle Pirates, I can’t wait to repay the favor and I’ll pay for the privilege to speed that up.”

Born under the name Casual Collective, Kixeye has raised $19 million to date from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jafco Ventures and Trinity Ventures. This raises the long-term question of whether Kixeye wants to stay independent or join a larger entity. Another company focused on the same demographic, KlickNation, was acquired by EA last fall.

Like many CEOs I talk to, Harbin deflects the question.

“We’re financially independent. We don’t need funding. We don’t need to sell,” he said. “ But obviously, at some point we’ll have to provide liquidity for our shareholders.”

There are interesting candidates out there. Nexon, the Asian freemium gaming company that went public just days before Zynga did, is focused on immersive games. And just because EA did KlickNation, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t consider another gaming company like Kixeye.

Although Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus has said he’s willing to put the company’s $1.8 billion in cash and short-term securities to work on acquisitions, a Kixeye deal would frankly be an odd fit. Zynga’s mission is to do mass-market, casual and social games. While Kixeye has social titles, they are neither casual nor mass-market.

Plus, given how much Harbin harps on the strategy of other casual game-makers, it seems like he would rather be struck by a lightning bolt than be bought by Zynga. Never say never though.



Dorsey Pitching Square At $4B Valuation To Legg Mason, Fidelity And Other Institutional Investors

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 08:11 PM PDT

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Payments company Square is raising another major round of funding, but is targeting institutional investors first because of the enormous size of the round, we hear from sources. Square’s CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey and COO Keith Rabois have met with both Fidelity and Legg Mason over the past week, and as AllThingsD reported earlier, Square is looking to raise at a $4 billion valuation, which we’ve confirmed as well.

In addition, we are also hearing that the company is raising around $250 million, which was originally reported in the New York Times. We hear Dorsey wrapped up the 10-day trip to the East Coast to conduct the raise.

Owen Thomas of the Daily Dot was the first to notice Dorsey’s and Rabois’ trips (broadcasted via Twitter) to Baltimore and Boston, where Legg Mason and Fidelity are based, respectively. Another potential institutional investor, T. Rowe Price, is also based in Baltimore as well. It’s notable that Rabois’ previous company, Slide, raised funding from Fidelity as well.

Square just raised $100 million in funding last year at a $1 billion valuation, so a $4 billion pre-money valuation is a huge jump. You also have to wonder what Square is raising another big round for. International expansion is on the horizon for 2012, and we know that the company is ramping up on marketing spend with a new TV commercial. Perhaps Square could be looking to make strategic acquisitions as well in the near future?

A spokesperson for Square says the company declined to comment on rumor or speculation.

We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.



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