Inside AMD's numbers

แท็กของ Technorati: {กลุ่มแท็ก} AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. officials say they are encouraged by the company's improvements in the third quarter of 2007, but maintain that there are still some hurdles to overcome before the chip maker can become profitable.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD reported Q3 revenue of $1.632 billion, an 18-per-cent increase compared to its Q207 revenue of $1.378 billion, and a 23-per-cent improvement over Q306's revenue of $1.328 billion. In an analyst conference call, Dirk Meyer, the company's president and CEO, said the increase in revenue was "fueled by a steady flow of new products and robust demand for our offerings," such as mobile processors, which saw a record revenue increase of 43 per cent.

AMD's desktop processor business also saw strong performance, particularly in the channel, "where we sold record unit volume in the quarter," Meyer said. He also noted that this was the quarter when AMD began shipping its new Barcelona quad-core Opteron processor, a move that was met with customer excitement and high demand.

"Based on the input we're getting from our customers and end users, there is a lot of demand for Barcelona," Meyer said. "We're just seeing people licking their chops and ready to get their hands on the product. Clearly, going from two cores to four cores is a big incremental increase in capability in the Opteron line that we think is going to provide some benefit to the business here."

Graphics segment revenues also grew 29 per cent sequentially, due to customer adoption of the ATI Radeon HD 2000 family. "We're encouraged by the widespread and growing customer response to AMD-based platforms," said Meyer, adding that AMD is particularly pleased with Toshiba's recent announcement that it will introduce commercial notebooks based on AMD's Turion 64 processors and 690 chipset.

Third-quarter gross margin was 41 per cent, compared to 33 percent in Q207 and 51 per cent in Q306. The increase from the prior quarter was "largely driven by record microprocessor shipments, improved manufacturing efficiencies, inventory management, and a richer microprocessor and graphic product mix," said AMD's CFO Bob Rivet.

Despite revenue and margin increases, AMD still suffered an operating loss of $226 million, and a net loss of $396 million, or 71 cents per share. Third quarter results included a negative impact of $120 million, or 22 cents per share, due to ATI acquisition-related, integration and severance charges and impairment of assets. Still, Q3's operating loss was an improvement over the company's $457-million operating loss in Q2.

According to Hector Ruiz, AMD's CEO, the company has "made solid progress on (its) plan toward a profitable model" and plans to continue exercising operating cost control and improving efficiencies across the board. "We are very encouraged by our progress, but are dissatisfied with our financial results," he said. "We're working diligently to bring this company back to profitability as soon as possible."

In order to reach profitability, AMD will have to approach the $2-billion revenue mark and keep margins north of 40 per cent, said Rivet. "We're on a path. We made good progress in the third quarter" with gross margin passing the 40-per-cent mark, he said. "(We're) clearly not there in the sales level. We'll see in fourth quarter. Our goal is to break even, and maybe we have a shot at it" if revenue reaches $2 billion, he said.

The one thing AMD will not do is cut its way to prosperity, Rivet noted. Rather, reaching profitability is about "growing the top line and getting the appropriate margin from the manufacturing organization and making appropriate investments in R&D to pull us into even higher growth rates."

AMD expects revenue to increase in line with seasonality in Q4. Analysts at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC estimated that seasonal growth is based on a historical average increase of seven to 10 per cent quarter-over quarter. In a research note, the analysts wrote that while they expect Q407 mobile processor units to grow nine to 10 per cent, "blended (average selling prices) will likely trend slightly lower, due to price concessions to customers, resulting in about seven to eight per cent quarter-over-quarter revenue growth." The analysts predicted eight-per-cent revenue growth in Q4, combining mobile processor predictions with the expectation that graphics processor growth will be relatively flat quarter-over-quarter, since AMD's new Spider platform is not expected to be launched until mid-November.

Thomas Weisel also predicted gross margin of 42.5 per cent in Q4 and 43.9 per cent in 2008, as well as a six-per-cent increase in operating expenses quarter-over-quarter in Q4. Despite AMD's revenue and margin growth predictions, "under the current operating model, break-even by year-end is unlikely," the analysts wrote.

 

http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=22559

AMD: Still not a Profitable Business

Although Advanced Micro Devices Inc., or AMD – as this company is commonly known, has seemed to find its own way in the industry, the financial reports for this year’s third financial quarter have brought the same bad news as usually. AMD has reported its fourth straight quarter of net financial losses and that is not a good thing! The analysts are saying that Intel’s rival is still carrying the weight of costs that are related to its 2006’s acquisition of the graphics vendor ATI Technologies.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has reported a net loss of no less than $396 million, meaning $0.71 per share, for the third financial quarter of the current year. The losses have also included a $120 million charge related to AMD’s last year acquisition of ATI Technologies.

However, the revenue that AMD has recorded for the current year’s third quarter has been of $1.632 billion, which means 18 percent year-over-year increase for the popular Intel’ rival.

Recently, AMD has eventually released its latest quad-core Barcelona microprocessor. Barcelona has seen the spotlight after months of delays and also after rival Intel Corp. has hit the market with its similar tough products. Intel Corp. has shipped about 2 million quad-core microprocessors during the year’s third quarter, as the company has announced on Tuesday.

Will AMD be able to eventually find its way?

แท็กของ Technorati: {กลุ่มแท็ก} AMD , ATi

Nokia 'Mosh' Announces "Seek"

Nokia has announced "Seek", the third dimension of its mobile sharing site called 'Mosh'.
'Mosh' is a two months old mobile social networking site focused on the sharing of mobile content. The service is available on all mobile devices and not just limited to Nokia devices.

"Seek" is the third phase in the evolution of 'Mosh'. The first was the ability to upload, and share content with a global audience; the second was downloading and customizing your device; and now "Seek", true-to-its-name, provides the ability to seek content and interact with the community.
Officially launching on December 14 this year, "Seek" will allow the global 'Mosh' community to connect with each other, and obtain content that is difficult to find elsewhere. Users can even get customized responses for their mobile needs.
"Seek" will allow users to not just share or ask for content, but also reply with suggestions or custom-created content.
According to Nokia, with "Seek", the possibilities are endless: mobile scavenger hunts, sponsored "Seek" competitions, or collaboration on applications by developers in India, Russia, and USA.

Nokia N81 8GB price and availability

(http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/2440/nokia-n81-8gb-price-availability/)

The Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB multimedia phones are now available globally. Designed for the best in music and mobile gaming, these multimedia phones come with dedicated music and game keys and are loaded with flash memory so you can store more music files and play more games. The Nokia N81 has a new 3D Multimedia menu which allows users to enjoy a new way of navigation and operation. The new navigation menu makes it easy to discover and enjoy your content and the internet, and share your experiences with other people....

 

http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/2440/nokia-n81-8gb-price-availability/

Nokia Widens Cell-Phone Lead in Third Quarter

According to market researcher iSuppli, Nokia is still outselling its competitors in the mobile-phone handset market by more than two to one, and the company's market share increased from the second quarter.

The analyst firm said that Samsung remains Nokia's closest competitor. Nokia, however, controls 39.5 percent share of the market, while Samsung shipped only 15.1 percent of those phones sold during the third quarter.

Motorola, Sony, and LG rounded out the top five, although iSuppli cautioned that Motorola's market share estimate should be considered preliminary until Motorola reports its earnings later on Thursday morning. Motorola recorded a 12.9 percent market share, while Sony and LG recorded 9.2 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.

As usual, the only market Nokia has had difficulty in is North America. iSuppli analyst Tina Teng said in an email that the third-quarter sales figures for the North American market were not available yet. Through the end of 2006, Nokia had roughly 15 percent of the North American market, placing it fourth behind Motorola, with a market share of 40 percent. LG and Samsung almost tied for second and third, respectively, she said.

Xbox Live Arcade Review: Fatal Fury Special

Published September 10, 2007

A year after the re-imagining of the Fatal Fury series in Fatal Fury 2, SNK blew everyone away. The third entry, while it may seem like a quick cash-in, is easily one of the best games of the core Fatal Fury series. Special throws everything into one title, including the compelling gameplay, and comes through with one of the best fighters from the early era of the Geo hardware.

Resurrecting characters that were dropped from the sequel, the massive roster containing 15 fighters easily beat out any other fighter on the market for its time. It now competes amongst the Live Arcade offerings as well. Bosses Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser were playable for the first time. Sprites from the first sequel are been re-used, while others like Duck King were upgraded to fit in.

Gameplay has hardly been compromised. All special moves were performed on any stage, so there are no limits depending on the chosen character. The same feel is here, with somewhat floaty jumping that may turn people off from what they're accustomed. Even with the all the characters, the balance here is spectacular, and the two head bosses are toned down in multi-player struggles.

The biggest gripe is here, the multi-plane fighting field. It has always felt out of place, and even though it's a trademark for the franchise, gameplay benefits are unfounded. It can bring a quick end to an otherwise tense struggle, and in a fighting game, that's hard to forgive. It's too easy to accidentally move up or down as well in this four button brawler, leading to unintended moves.

All of that is seemingly forgotten as player's battle in Krauser's stage, which is unforgettable. It's widely considered the pinnacle of fighting game stages, where any of the quirks of the engine are instantly ignored. Blaring Mozart in the background was a brilliant move that adds to the majesty of knocking out one of the top characters in the game. Other stages have been taken from Fatal Fury 2, while others have been revamped for the better (Tung Fu Rue especially).

Online play is the obvious addition for Live fans. While play is smooth, the number of current players is staggeringly low. The only other change are the filtered graphics, with no option to turn them off to their original pixilated glory. With those being the only edits, you can't stretch the screen on a widescreen display.

This is a classic Geo game, easily catching up to the Street Fighter series with each new addition. While further efforts such as Mark of Wolves would become a new standard, Special's simplicity makes it oddly compelling and easier to get into.