TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Despite a pretty successful launch, Palm’s Pre arrived too late to pull the company out of the red. The Sunnyvale-based company posted its fourth quarter fiscal earnings yesterday, reporting a net loss of $105 million – or $.78 per diluted share. This continues an unfortunate trend for the company, which saw a $43.4 million loss in the year ago quarter.

Palm shies away from any in-depth figures regarding the Pre, but it does claim to have collectively shipped 351,000 smartphones during the fourth fiscal quarter. This is up 6% from the third quarter, and a year over year decline in shipments of 62%. The company’s total revenue for the 2009 fiscal year was $86.8 million, with a gross profit of $20.1 million and a gross margin of 23.1%.

Palm’s chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, sees the launch of webOS and Pre as a significant milestone, one that has “reentered” the company into the race. He recognizes that there is more to accomplish, but feels that the groundwork is laid for a “very promising future.”

Hot on the heels of a major patent victory against Dish Network, TiVo is reportedly getting ready to expand by elbowing its way “onto every U.S. pay-television system.” According to a Bloomberg report, the company is currently in talks with Time Warner Cable and other providers to license its time-shifting technology for third-party hardware or software.

The DVR maker already has licensing agreements with Comcast, DirecTV and Cox cable. These range from the cable providers simply rebranding TiVo’s actual software for their own customers, to just a license agreement. Cox, for example, integrates TiVo features like Season Pass and WishList to its own set-top boxes. Nothing is final yet, but TiVo’s patents have withstood nearly every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so it seems the company has some serious leverage here. We’ll have to wait and see where this goes.

Global PC shipments declined more than anticipated during this year's first quarter as economic woes caught up with the industry. Research firm iSuppli reported figures that are lower than they've ever recorded. Sales sunk to 66.5 million units in the first quarter of 2009, an 8.1% decrease from 72.3 million in the year ago quarter, and 77.6 million in the closing quarter of 2008. Eating most of the blame, the desktop sector saw a 23% drop in unit sales from 2008’s opening quarter, whereas notebook shipments rose 10%.

Meanwhile, the industry’s top five PC manufacturer list remained unchanged. With a market share of 19.7% and moving 13 million units, HP matched its sales from last year. Dell saw an 18.7% drop in units sold at 8.8 million PCs; the company now holds about 13.2% of the market. The other three positions were held by Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba with market shares of 11.1%, 6.7% and 5.2%, respectively. In terms of growth among the top five OEMs, Toshiba took the cake with shipments rising by 13.5%.

It’s no secret that netbooks are increasingly popular and their sales are expected to reflect such in 2009. iSuppli is predicting that the mini-notebooks will be attributed with 14% of global laptop sales this year – a 5% improvement over 2008.

Broadband adoption in the United States has jumped over the past year, according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which claims 63% of adults in the country now enjoy a permanent Internet connection at home. That’s quite an improvement compared 55% a year earlier. But while increasing broadband penetration is to be expected, prices appear to have gone up as well.

Survey participants indicate that the average monthly bill for basic broadband services went from $32.80 to $37.10 in the past twelve months, while the average monthly bill for those with speedier broadband plans was about $44.60 in 2009, compared to $38.10 in 2008. Despite the recession and prices returning to 2004 levels, Pew found that people are twice as likely to cut cell phone or cable TV service before they get rid of broadband.

The study also reveals that for 32% of those who do not have broadband Internet access, cost is the main concern; 20% said they would not upgrade anyway; and 17% said that broadband is not available in their area. These latest figures help outline the challenges facing the Obama administration as it determines how to distribute $7 billion in economic stimulus money for expanding broadband access.

Intel is furthering its investment in UQ Communications, a Japanese-based WiMAX service provider, with a $43 million cash injection. The money from the company’s investment arm, Intel Capital , will help to fund UQ's goal of covering 90 percent of the country by 2012 with the wireless broadband technology; and comes just ahead of the official commercial launch next month. The service offers download speeds up to 40Mbps and uploads up to 10Mbps.

Intel has been one of the world's largest promoters of WiMAX, making a series of investments worldwide to push the technology forward. The company is also working with other computer and communications makers to embed WiMAX-enabled chipsets in devices, though last Friday it abruptly halted production of its 'Rosedale 2' WiMAX chipset due to dropping demand in economic slowdown.

Intel is reportedly paying $884 million for embedded systems firm Wind River to accelerate its efforts in breaking past its core PC markets. The semiconductor behemoth is said to be bidding for the firm’s common stock at $11.50 per share. Although the deal has been okayed by Wind River’s board, the bid has met a standstill until approval is seen from shareholders and regulators.

Becoming a subsidiary of Intel, the firm will continue to sell embedded software as such. The purchase is apparently fueled by Intel’s plan to expand its market from PC and server domains to embedded devices, car and infotainment systems, mobile Internet devices and other gadgets. The chip maker foresees the acquisition bringing “complementary, market-leading software assets.”

Wind River is based in Alameda, California – a mere hour drive north of Intel’s headquarters. Having been founded in 1981, the company employs 1,600 people and turned over $359.7 million last year. It is the self-proclaimed world leader in “device software optimization.”

Intel and other notebook manufacturers have found themselves in the clear this week, with a recent legal issue coming to an end. Psion, owner of the netbook trademark, sought to capitalize on the popularity of netbooks through lawsuits, earning them a bit of fame in recent history for suing anybody who used the netbook name including companies like Intel and Dell. Now, despite Psion's demands for injunctions and compensation, they have agreed to drop their case and not sue anyone over the term again. Further, they've agreed to stop sending their cease and desist orders to the various companies that are manufacturing netbooks.

This is the result of an out of court settlement between Psion and Intel, after some vicious legal battles between the two. Both Intel and Dell had gone on the offensive after Psion threatened them. While details are sparse, it does seem that no netbook manufacturer will be accepting liability – and hence Psion is admitting they didn't do anything wrong. Whether or not Psion is being compensated out of court isn't mentioned, but hopefully the issue can now be put to rest.

Dell is hoping to be a leader in the Asian PC market by 2012. In a teleconference with reporters, senior executive Steve Felice said this is not so much a projection as it is an aspiration, adding his believe that it’s possible with the help of a healthy economy.

According to research firm IDC, Dell is ranked third in Asia excluding Japan and is behind China’s Lenovo and HP, but ahead of Acer and Founder. Despite the desired growth, Felice stressed that the company would focus on balancing it with profitability, commenting on how adversaries such as Lenovo and Acer are currently trying to push an absent demand.

Dell saw a 20% revenue drop in Asia during the first quarter from the previous year, as large companies cut back on technology spending. While business expenditure is down, consumer figures grew in China and India. China in particular is embarking on stimulus strategies which should encourage the consumption of electronic goods. Felice noted that in light of the stimulus efforts, the company has seen some traction in the health care and education sectors.

He didn’t specify much in the way of job cuts, but said although staff had been reduced in certain areas; it was still expecting overall employee growth in Asia. Dell’s shares have seen about a 12% rise so far this year, outperforming a 4% decline on the Dow Jones share index.

As most companies are scrambling to cut jobs in the midst of a harsh financial atmosphere, Research in Motion is looking to create them. The telecommunications company is looking to construct a datacenter in the Atlanta area, on 40 acres near Alpharetta’s North Point Mall.

In conjunction with the new facility, they will hire up to 200 people, including a technical staff to work on next-generation BlackBerry devices. On their website’s “Careers” section, quite a few positions can be found for the Atlanta and Alpharetta area, for those that are interested.

Not long ago, the company posted a 26% rise in fourth-quarter net profit to $518.3 million, on revenue up 83% at $3.5 billion. They concluded the fiscal year with a 46% increase in net income to $1.9 billion, on revenue up 84% at $11.1 billion. RIM's recent success has mostly been attributed to the high sales figures of their flagship BlackBerry handset series.

Last we heard about Psystar they were touting some small but significant progress in their ongoing legal battle against Apple. However, in an interesting turn of events, it is now being reported that the unauthorized Mac clone maker has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company pins its financial mess on the poor economy and its suppliers’ increasingly difficult credit terms, though others speculate the Psystar bankruptcy may indicate that its legal backers may have dropped out.

Apple has maintained that Psystar received considerable financial backing from one or more unknown third-parties that want to see OS X licensing policies loosened. No names have ever been confirmed, but if such an arrangement has been taking place, the companies in question would be exposed on June 5, the date of the bankruptcy hearing. In the meantime, the company will be to continue to do business, but all legal actions against them will be put on hold as the bankruptcy court begins its proceedings.

During a recent phone interview with CNet, Tom McCoy, AMD’s senior vice president of legal affairs discussed a few critical moments when its rivalry with Intel got particularly nasty. He believes that whenever AMD came up with new-generation technologies that could to pose a threat to Intel, the latter would just turn up the heat and break the law; citing the introduction of Athlon in 1999 as an example.

Back then, AMD's processor showed superior performance compared to the reigning champion, Pentium III, in pretty much every benchmark. McCoy claims the same happened in 2003 with the introduction of Opteron for the server market, whose use of an integrated memory controller and its focus on energy efficiency caught Intel off guard. Furthermore, he claims that AMD doesn't care about the $1.45 billion fine the European Commission slapped on Intel, but rather about the injunction on these kinds of practices that prevent their technology from getting to market.

Intel however believes the market already does a good job regulating itself, claiming that if Intel technology did not perform well and their product roadmap was not strong enough, customers would simply go elsewhere. Of course, AMD’s whole case was based on the fact that Intel paid or offered hidden rebates to manufacturers and retailers so that they only use their chips, leaving customers with nowhere else to go.

It’s rare to meet someone without a TV, especially in the US, and it would seem high-definition TVs in particular are becoming less scarce. According to a recent Nielsen report, as of February 2009 over 33% of US households owned HDTVs, which is up from 19.3% the previous February. A Nielsen blog post said that no new TV technology has been so swiftly adopted since color TV was introduced over half a century ago.

The information collected by the research firm found that at 41.8%, Asian households were the most likely to own HDTVs. This compares to about 34.3% of Caucasians, 32% of Hispanics and 25.9% of African Americans, who were the least likely to own HDTVs. The study reported that while high-def TV purchases are on the rise, people are relocating their old sets and making use of them in other rooms.

In a statement, Nielsen’s senior vice president, Steve McGowan said that despite a poor economic climate, “HD remains on course to become the benchmark in TV viewing.” In addition to the digital transition creating new opportunities to promote HD, he believes that high-def sets will continue to fly off shelves as prices descend.

Microsoft has been slapped with yet another patent infringement fine recently for willfully including a Canadian company's technology in its Word 2003 and Word 2007 programs. The dispute centers on how the custom XML tagging features of these applications, which are used for encoding and displaying information, infringed on a patent from Toronto-based i4i.

The software giant must now pay $200 million in damages – though they are expected to appeal this decision. A Microsoft representative said the company was “disappointed” by the verdict, adding that the i4i patent is invalid, and would seek to have it reversed. This is the second time in two months that Microsoft has been found guilty of violating smaller firms’ patents. Back in April, the company was ordered to pay $388 million in damages for infringing a patent held by anti-piracy software maker Uniloc – which they are also appealing.

AMD’s fortunes could finally see an important shift later this year after ten consecutive quarterly losses and the restructuring of its business. According to CEO Dirk Meyer, the company anticipates its core business to make a net profit by the end of the year, with a potentially-stronger personal computer market expected in the second half of 2009. The catch, of course, lies in his “core business” wording.

While AMD only has a 34% stake in the GlobalFoundries spinoff, it consolidates its results with those of the foundry firm for financial reporting – and according to a spokesperson for the company they “will not show a profit.” AMD badly needs to return to profitability as continued losses affect the company’s ability to invest into new technologies and hence deliver competitive products; which they claim will be easier over time now that the European Commission has slammed Intel with a hefty fine for its anti-competitive behavior.

On a bright note, Meyer also said that with the recession-plagued industry showing signs of stability, AMD was done with restructuring and job cuts.

Telecommunications giant, AT&T, has stated that they plan to offer web-based corporate data storage services, making use of cloud computing technologies created by EMC, a data storage equipment developer. AT&T plans to partner with IBM, Amazon, Symantec, Iron Mountain and others to give companies the ability to transfer data to remote storage facilities. The company will initiate the service from two US-based data centers, but they are seeking to expand overseas.

While the industry is still in its infancy, market researcher Gartner predicts that revenue from cloud-based storage services will leap 22% this year, to some $400 million. The storage services will charge companies for space as it’s consumed, with a fixed mutual price per GB each month. This could, in theory, allow companies to reduce storage-related costs by not having to pay for equipment upfront or maintenance thereof.

Time has taken a dip into the recent history of tech blunders. They describe the article as a look at the best-funded and most-publicized tech launches of the last ten years which ended in failure. Some of the products and services listed aren’t much of a surprise, while others were quite unexpected.

They open the list up with Windows Vista, one of the more recognized bloopers of modern times. The OS was supposed to deliver improved security over its predecessor Windows XP, which it somewhat failed at - not to mention that it runs more sluggishly. Microsoft’s attempt at an iPod killer, the Zune, also made the list for obvious reasons.

Other companies, services and technologies to make the list include Gateway, HD DVD, Vonage, YouTube, Sirius XM, Palm, Iridium and Segway. Most of which probably don’t require an explanation, but I have to admit that YouTube was entirely unforeseen on my end. The article suggests that despite YouTube’s vast hold on the personal video sharing market, Google’s investment of $1.65 billion is unlikely to bring a future return profit.

Just as analysts predicted, the global recession has hit Sony hard, with the company reporting its first annual loss in 14 years. It lost 98.9 billion yen, or about $1 billion, in the fiscal year through March 2009 and projected it would lose even more money this year amid a slump in consumer demand for electronics goods. This is in sharp contrast to profits of more than $3 billion recorded a year earlier by the electronics giant.

Sony is pushing through a restructuring program in order to get their finances back on track, which involves the closure of eight factories and eliminating some 8,000 jobs by year's end, mostly through forced retirement. The path to recovery is not one that will happen straight away, though, as Sony has projected a 120 billion yen ($1.2 billion) loss for the fiscal year through March 2010.

Like several other Japanese companies, their business has been hurt by the strong yen which makes exports more expensive. The company saw a sales drop in each segment. Electronics sales for instance, usually Sony’s bread and butter, were down 17 percent, while its gaming segment took an 18 percent hit despite stronger PlayStation 3 and PSP sales this year. Revenue from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, the company's mobile phones joint venture with Ericsson, also fell by 19 percent on account of lower volumes.

Following a massive round of layoffs earlier this year affecting 800 workers, hard drive maker Seagate has announced it is cutting a further 1,100 jobs as it moves to lower costs and return to profitability. The latest layoffs, to be completed by the end of July, will result in restructuring charges of around $72 million (largely from severance payments) but should also represent some $125 million in annual savings for the company.

In its most recent quarter, Seagate reported a net loss of $273 million on $2.1 billion of revenue. That followed a $496 million net loss during the previous quarter and the closure of several facilities. Since the beginning of their fiscal year 2009 last July, the company has shed more than one quarter of its workforce costs, and says it will continue to “assess options to further reduce manufacturing operating costs” in the months ahead.

The European Commission's lengthy investigation has resulted in a record fine for Intel who must pay €1.06 billion ($1.45 billion), after being found guilty of violating antitrust laws in Europe. According to the Commission, between 2002 and 2007 the chip maker paid manufacturers and a retailer to favor its products over rival AMD's. The fine dwarfs Microsoft’s, who was ordered to pay €427 million ($663 million) back in 2004 for abusing its market dominance.

Intel’s greatest adversary brought the case to the EU’s attention back in 2000, with additional complaints filed in 2003 and 2006. The Commission believes that Intel had dispensed hidden rebates to Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC if they agreed to only use Intel chips. Furthermore, Media Saturn, who owns Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer Media Markt, had been paid to exclusively sell computers with Intel processors.

In a statement, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes affirmed that “Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years.” In an unsurprising response to the ruling, CEO Paul Otellini stated that “Intel takes a strong exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace.” He went on to deny that any harm had been caused to consumers, and that Intel would appeal the decision.

According to a recent online survey, consumers still prefer DVDs and Blu-ray discs to downloaded and online videos. The survey, conducted by market researcher NPD Group, revealed that in the past three months sales and rentals of the two formats represent 88% of consumer home video spending. In those three months, the average US consumer paid around $25 per month buying and renting videos. Broken down, it came to 63% on DVD purchases, 18% on rentals, 9% on video on demand, 7% on Blu-ray disc purchases, and a low 3% on digital downloads.

Although the sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs are still going strong, there has been an increase in consumers who are watching videos online. Last year only 5% of consumers with Internet access reported watching movies online, while this survey shows that the number has risen to 9%. As for renting movies online, the numbers have moved from 4% to 8% in the past year.

Russ Crupnick, an entertainment industry analyst for NPD, stated that discs are still dominating the home video scene, but consumers are starting to be turned on to “digital options.” He went on to say that consumers who are viewing and renting videos online are often those who still buy many DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Whether or not both discs and digital videos can thrive simultaneously is yet to be seen.

Echoing a similar report from Mercury Research last week, the latest IDC figures on worldwide microprocessor shipments indicate AMD has gained some ground over chief rival Intel during the first quarter of 2009 – despite an overall decline of the market. The company saw its hold of the market reach 22.3% for the quarter, a sequential growth of 4.6%, while Intel’s share slipped 4.7% to a still dominating 77.3% during the same period.

The increase is attributed to a pricing advantage over Intel and a strong increase in desktop shipments. Intel on the other hand was mostly affected by a decline in netbook processor sales, where AMD still isn’t a player, as it saw demand for its Atom chip plunge 33% in the first quarter of 2009. This Atom decline lines up with what Intel reported for its Q1 results last month, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the netbook craze is completely over – instead IDC claims it is partly due to suppliers holding back on purchases as they tried to clear up excess inventory.

Microprocessor sales in general were also down 10.9 percent compared to the previous calendar quarter, while revenues fell by 25.1 percent in the same period – although some decline from Q4 to Q1 is to be expected.

Although the recession could be seen as an opportunity for online retailers to take market share away from their weakened “brick and mortar” rivals, a new report suggests many of them might be missing out on this opening. According to ForeSee Results’ annual Online Retail Satisfaction Index, consumers are losing their enthusiasm for Internet shopping, with overall satisfaction levels dropping almost 3 percent from last year to an aggregate score of 73 on a 100-point scale.

The research employs the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and is based on surveys of over 22,000 visitors to the top 100 e-retail websites by sales volume. Of these top 100 sites, scores for 55 of them dropped year-over-year while only 16 increased. Online retail giants Netflix, which scored 85, and Amazon, at 84, maintained their top spots for the fifth year in a row.


On the computer and electronics front, websites weighed in with an average overall score of 74. Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com led this category with the highest satisfaction scores at 81 and 79 respectively – both up one point compared to last year. On the other hand Apple.com, a “perennial customer satisfaction favorite,” slipped five points to 75 and is now trailing Dell.com and HPShopping.com.

Not surprisingly, one major factor in Apple’s decline is that consumers are more price-sensitive than in previous years. The stakes are pretty high, too. To put these figures into perspective, ForeSee claims that a single point increase in online satisfaction translates to a 9 percent increase in revenues.

Preliminary results from the NHIS survey conducted by the CDC from July through December of 2008 are in, with an interesting set of findings. Having interviewed the members of 12,597 U.S. households, the survey suggests that the number of homes having only cell phones is now more common than those that have just conventional landlines; 20% compared to 17%. This is a 3% shift in homes relying on mobile over landline phones from the first to second half of 2008.

Although the trend has been evolving for years, the cell adoption rate is said to have been accelerated by the recession. In the first half of 2003, a mere 3% of households were wireless only, while 43% kept to landlines. The survey’s data also hints that 15% of homes have both the traditional wired phone and wireless handsets but take little to no calls on their landlines. In combination with those relying only on cells, basic math implies that 35% of households are in essence only available via mobile phones.

As would be expected, one in three people aged between 18 and 24 live among those cell-exclusive households, and it gets increasingly less common as the members go up in age. You can read more about their findings here.

Earlier this year, in January, Microsoft announced their first large-scale round of layoffs in 32-years of history – a sign of how even the biggest and most profitable companies are being stung to some degree by the recession. The company said it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the following 18 months, and began by eliminating 1,400 positions across a number of divisions at that time.

Today, continuing with its efforts to cut costs, Microsoft has announced a second wave of layoffs that will affect some 3,000 employees in the United Stated and abroad. In an email sent to the company’s staff, CEO Steve Ballmer described the layoffs as difficult news to share, adding that they are “mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations.” He said the company is closely monitoring the economic downturn and is prepared to take further action, including more layoffs, if things continue to be bad.

Microsoft has also committed to re-hiring as soon as the economic meltdown eases, however, and apparently plans to hire 2,000 to 3,000 workers this year in some growing areas of focus, such as its online services business.

An investigation is underway by the Federal Trade Commission regarding two directors on the boards of Apple and Google. Now under the microscope, the conglomerates face a potential violation of antitrust laws. Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson occupy seats on the boards of both companies.

The basis of the inquiry revolves around the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which bars an individual from holding a presence on the board of rival companies when it would lessen competition between them. It is speculated that a competition is brewing between the two companies in the mobile phone and operating systems markets. Both companies have been notified of the FTC’s interest in the matter, and all parties are presently declining comments.

Google is becoming more familiar with legal action being taken against them in the name of antitrust. Just last year, the Justice Department threatened to open suit to prevent a proposed advertising relationship between Google and adversary Yahoo. To top it off, people familiar with the matter have said the Justice Department is also beginning investigations into whether or not Google’s proposed settlement in the recent copyright debacle is anticompetitive.

Is the search-giant catching underserved flak, or is the heat warranted?

The European Union appears close to formally take action Intel for what they see as anticompetitive business practices in the region. The size of the penalty is to be discussed by representatives from 27 EU governments in early May, according to reports, but legal experts estimate it could total a record $1.33 billion – more than two times the $663 million fine Microsoft faced back in 2004.

The European Commission can theoretically go as far as 10% of a firm's global sales. To put that into perspective, $1.33 billion is equivalent to about 3.46% of Intel's revenue of $37.6 billion in 2008. Regulators would presumably impose a fine that high only in the event of cartel behavior, however, not to an individual company.

The Commission has been investigating Intel ever since receiving a complaint from AMD in 2000. The charges include offering inducements to European retailers for not buying processors from AMD, paying “a leading OEM” to delay the launch of products with an AMD inside, and giving substantial rebates to the same OEM if it bought only CPUs from Intel. The latter of course maintains that its actions were within legal boundaries.

Cell phone producer Motorola has posted another loss in profits, and experts predict that the numbers will keep on dwindling. This quarter, the company saw a net loss of $231 million, or $0.13 per share, as compared to a net loss of $194 million in the year-ago quarter. Company revenue fell 28% throughout the first quarter to $5.4 billion, and the mobile phone division reported an operating loss of $509 million dollars.

The Illinois-based company reportedly shipped 14.7 million handsets during this period, giving it an even 6% share of the global handset market. This number is down significantly from a more reassuring 17.5% share of the market two years ago, after it enjoyed a bout of success with the then trendy Razr cell phone.

According to co-chief executive Sanja Jha, the company has set its sights on reducing annual costs for the deteriorating mobile devices division at more than $1.3 billion. Division CEO, Jha went on to say that the company has implemented aggressive actions as a means of reducing costs, and have gained solid traction on improving operational effectiveness. He also stated that the company is on track to deliver Android-based phones in the fourth quarter of this year.

The home and networks and enterprise solutions divisions have experienced a more forgiving quarter, posting operating incomes of $115 and $156 million. Despite that fact, analyst Douglas Mclntyre of 247WallSt.com, believes Motorola is “slowly disappearing” and has “no chance” of spinning-off the mobile division to shareholders.

Nokia has announced today that it plans on slashing as many as 450 jobs worldwide in an attempt to reorganize its service units and rack up savings. The frugal move is scheduled to target those employed in North America and Europe, with up to 100 terminations in Finland alone. The services unit is responsible for developing Internet based services for mobile phone users, such as map and game applications. The world’s top cell phone maker has announced more than 3,000 job cuts since the start of the year as an on-going plan to reduce spending.

It also reported an unfortunate 90% decrease in first-quarter net profit to €122 million. Nokia blames the slump on a decreasing number of mobile customers and the economic downturn causing people to purchase less costly devices. Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo believes that it is still too early to surmise that end-consumer demand has sunk to the bottom, as there have been signs of improving market conditions.

Cablevision announced today a plan that will bring speeds of 101Mb/s downstream and 15Mbps upstream to its 3 million customers. To take advantage of the new service, subscribers will be given the option to upgrade their cable Internet to DOCSIS 3.0 for $99.95 per month. The high-speed Internet access is expected to deliver full-length high-definition movies in less than 10 minutes or upload 750 digital photos or 150 songs in one minute.

To compete with Verizon’s FiOS service, the New York-based ISP intends on doubling the speed of its Wi-Fi wireless Internet service to 3Mbps, which will be free for Cablevision subscribers. As a comparison, the FiOS service runs about $140 per month, while other competing companies such as Comcast and Charter only offer a more costly 50Mbps.

Cablevision reports that they’re coughing up $300 million, at least $70 per user, to offer both DOCSIS 3.0 access and free Wi-Fi. The new service is expected to debut market-wide beginning May 11. Will you be upgrading?

The longstanding scuffle over intellectual property rights has come to an end, with Qualcomm agreeing to pay its rival Broadcom $891 million over the duration of four years. An initial payment of $200 million will be made in the quarter ending June 30. The agreement is intended to dismiss all litigation between the companies, including all patent infringement claims in the International Trade Commission, the European Commission and the Korean Fair Trade Commission.

Some other terms of the agreement specify that Broadcom and Qualcomm will refrain from asserting patents against each other for their respective integrated circuit products among certain other products and services. Broadcom has agreed to not assert its patents against Qualcomm’s customers for their integrated circuit products incorporated in cellular products and Qualcomm won’t be forced to change the model that it uses to license its own chip technology. The companies have vaguely spoken of a multiyear patent agreement, but there are no specifics on the financial details.