NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 30 April
30-04-2009
by Emmet Cole
Telecoms firm invests in NI | Record drop in handset sales
Global mobile handset shipments fell at the fastest rate in history during the first quarter of 2009, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Handset vendors shipped 245 million mobile phones worldwide during the quarter, a 13 percent fall from the same period last year. All of the top five handset vendors grew at negative rates. Nokia shipped 93.2 million handsets, down 19 percent from 115.5 million units in the year-ago quarter. Second-place Samsung shipped 45.8 million handsets worldwide, down 1 percent, while LG saw shipments drop 7 percent to 22.6 million handsets. Motorola shipped 14.7 million handsets worldwide, representing a substantial year-on-year drop of 46 percent. Sony Ericsson sold 14.5 million handsets, a 40 percent drop from 24.2 million units. Strategy Analytics predicts that 266 million units will be shipped globally in the second quarter -- an annual decline of 10 percent.
Meanwhile, Motorola's first quarter figures reveal sales of USD5.4 billion in the first quarter of 2009, with mobile devices accounting for USD1.8 billion of that figure. Mobile devices sales were down 45 percent on last year's figures. Within the mobile devices segment, operating losses widened to USD509 million, compared to losses of USD418 million in the year-ago quarter. With 14.7 million mobile handsets shipped during the quarter, Motorola estimates it controls around 6 percent of the global market. Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Mobile Devices, put a positive spin on the results: "In the quarter at Mobile Devices, we implemented aggressive actions to reduce costs and also gained solid traction on improving operational effectiveness. Customer feedback on our smartphone roadmap remains very positive, and we plan to have differentiated Android-based devices in stores in time for the fourth-quarter holiday season."
Invest Northern Ireland has secured two investment projects by Cambridge-based telecoms firm Magdalene. A telecoms services and engineering support centre in Belfast will create 34 new jobs, while a network operations centre will be built later this year, creating a further 18 positions. Invest NI offered STG394,000 in investment support for the projects, which are expected to generate more than STG1.4 million annually in salaries by 2011. Magdalene supplies solutions and services for private and public operators including fixed and mobile operators, airports, highway agencies, police and major utility companies.
Irish-owned private dialysis provider Wellstone has invested EUR250,000 in a custom-built renal patient software system to manage its renal dialysis facilities in Kilkenny and Galway. Developed in-house over an 18-month period by Wellstone's parent company, PEI Healthcare, the system is designed to integrate IT systems within dialysis units and was built with input from consultant nephrologists and renal dialysis nurses.
Some 2,000 secondary school students are participating in SciFest 2009 over the next two weeks, with schools from around Ireland exhibiting almost 900 science and technology projects at 14 Institutes of Technology. The SciFest programme was created to encourage the pursuit of science and provide an opportunity for students to display their scientific discoveries. Over 200 local students took part in the Dublin event at DIT Kevin Street on Thursday with 97 projects on display in total. Nearly 900 projects have entered this year, compared to 680 projects in 2008. SciFest is jointly funded by Intel and Discover Science and Engineering with support from a number of other partners.
Sustainable Energy Ireland has announced details of four new categories to come under the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme, which aims to encourage businesses to purchase energy efficient equipment by allowing them to write off the cost of the purchase for one year against taxable income. The new categories are -- information & communications technology (ICT); heating and electricity provision; process and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) control systems; and electric and alternative fuel vehicles.
Google traffic statistics for Ireland reveal that internet searches rose in April by 1,600 percent as people went online in their droves to find information about the Government's 'emergency' Budget. Both Google Maps and AA Route Planner saw increased activity during the Easter period as people planned trips for the holidays. And as the Lotto jackpot reached more than EUR14 million, Lotto related searches rose by 70 percent. Meanwhile, following the introduction of five penalty points for car owners without valid NCT certification, searches for the NCT website increased by 450 percent.
The inaugural UCD Quinn School 'Student of the Year Award' was won by Andrew Flood, chief operating officer with Prodigy Learning. Prodigy Learning supplies learning solutions for Microsoft products and serves the academic, commercial and public sectors in Ireland and the UK. Flood graduated from UCD Quinn School in 2008.
Citrix has posted a 2 percent drop in revenue in the first quarter of 2009, from USD377 million in 2008 to USD369 million. Net income (GAAP) for the quarter was USD7 million, or USD0.04 per diluted share, compared to USD34 million, or USD0.18 per diluted share for the year-ago quarter. The GAAP results include a restructuring charge of approximately USD21 million. Compared to the first quarter of 2008, product licence revenue decreased 24 percent, while revenue from licence updates grew 11 percent year-on-year. The company said it expects net revenue to remain flat throughout 2009. Citrix also announced that its board of directors has authorised it to repurchase up to an additional USD300 million of its common stock.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 