Apple announces Q1 2013 earnings: record $54.5 billion in revenue, 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads sold

Apple announces Q1 2013 earnings

Yesterday was Google, tomorrow is Microsoft — stuck in the middle? Apple. The unholy trinity of tech are going back-to-back-to-back with their quarterly earnings reports and Cupertino, faced with a steeply declining stock price, posted $54.5 billion in revenue — just shy of Wall Street estimates. Still, that represents a record quarter for the company which has been rumored to be facing diminished demand for its flagship iPhone. While it may be a while ’til we know for sure if demand for the handset is tapering off, we can report that the 47.8 million iPhones sold in Q1 of 2013 represents a new high water mark. While revenues were a bit shy of estimates, the earnings per share of $13.82 were above what was expected, as was the record $13.08 billion in net profits. Year-over-year, profit was relatively flat ($13.06 billion in 2012), while revenues were up significantly from the $46.33 billion posted in Q1 of 2012.

Carrying the day were record sales of iPhones and iPads — the latter of which sold 22.9 million units during the quarter, up from 15.4 million a year ago and 14 million last quarter. Other products, however, continued their slow descent towards potential obsolescence. Only 4.1 million Macs and 12.7 million iPods were shipped during the quarter, compared to 5.2 million and 15.4 million, respectively, the same time last year.

As usual, the vast majority of Apple’s revenue, $20.3 billion to be exact, comes from the US. But other markets are growing quickly. In particular, revenues from China are up 67 percent year-over-year to 6.8 billion, while Japan and Asia Pacific are up 88 and 89 percent, respectively, just from last quarter.

Through all this Apple has continued to build an enormous war chest, with $196 billion in assets at its disposal. So, should the allure of its brushed aluminum lineup fade, the company should be able to carry on for some time before falling on dire straits. If you’d like to dig in to all the financial details check out the PR after the break and tune in here for updates when the earnings call gets under way at 5PM ET.

Update: The call is done and all the important tidbits are after the break.

Updates:

5:04PM Tim Cook just let us know that “well over half a billion iOS devices” have been sold as of the end of the quarter. That’s a pretty decent jump from June’s 400 million number.

5:12PM Peter Oppenheimer gave China a special shout out, where he says iPhone sales have doubled.

5:14PM Oppenheimer laid some of the blame for slow Mac sales on delays getting the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and iMac to market in some regions.

5:17PM iCloud usage appears to have skyrocketed, with Oppenheimer claiming 250 million accounts now active.

5:20PM Apparently over 75 million iOS devices were sold in this quarter alone. Not too shabby.

5:24PM Tim Cook says that, despite competitors going big, he feels no need to follow their lead. When it comes to smartphone screen sizes, Apple has “picked the right one” he says.

5:34PM Tim Cook admits that, while the short ramp up time for shipping new iMacs may have hurt sales for the quarter, he’s sure there “has been some cannibalization” from the iPad.

5:46PM Apple TV, the perpetual Cupertino hobby, is apparently doing quite well, with 2 million units being sold in the quarter — a jump of 60 percent year-over-year according to Tim Cook.

5:54PM Tim Cook doesn’t see cannibalization as a problem necessarily, but as a “huge opportunity.” As he explained, if they held back on the iPad due to fear of cannibalizing Mac sales another company would simply come along, fill that niche and eat into Apple’s bottom line anyway.

6:02PM Cook just sneaked in a mention that 36 new carriers with LTE will be adding the iPhone 5 next week, including those in countries like Italy, Denmark, and Switzerland.

6:05PM That’s all folks, thanks for tuning in.

Show full PR text

Apple Reports Record Results
47.8 Million iPhones Sold; 22.9 Million iPads Sold

CUPERTINO, Calif., Jan 23, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Apple(R) today announced financial results for its 13-week fiscal 2013 first quarter ended December 29, 2012. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, in the 14-week year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to 44.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Average weekly revenue was $4.2 billion in the quarter compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The Company sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold a record 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.1 million Macs, compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 12.7 million iPods in the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on February 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 11, 2013.

“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”

“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.”

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 second quarter:

* revenue between $41 billion and $43 billion

* gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent

* operating expenses between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion

* other income/(expense) of $350 million

* tax rate of 26%

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2013 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 23, 2013 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq113 . This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company’s estimated revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income/(expense), and tax rate. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company’s international operations; the Company’s reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company’s products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2012, and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 29, 2012 to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple’s PR website ( www.apple.com/pr ), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.

(C) 2013 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Apple Inc.
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In millions, except number of shares which are reflected in
thousands and per share amounts)
Three Months Ended
————————————-
December 29, December 31,
2012 2011
—————- —————-
Net sales $ 54,512 $ 46,333
Cost of sales (1) 33,452 25,630
——– ——–
Gross margin 21,060 20,703
——– ——–
Operating expenses:
Research and development (1) 1,010 758
Selling, general and administrative (1) 2,840 2,605
——– ——–
Total operating expenses 3,850 3,363
——– ——–
Operating income 17,210 17,340
Other income/(expense), net 462 137
——– ——–
Income before provision for income taxes 17,672 17,477
Provision for income taxes 4,594 4,413
——– ——–
Net income $ 13,078 $ 13,064
======== ======== ======== ========
Earnings per share:
Basic $ 13.93 $ 14.03
Diluted $ 13.81 $ 13.87
Shares used in computing earnings per share:
Basic 938,916 931,041
Diluted 947,217 941,572
Cash dividends declared per common share $ 2.65 $ 0
(1) Includes share-based compensation expense as follows:
Cost of sales $ 85 $ 63
Research and development $ 224 $ 160
Selling, general and administrative $ 236 $ 197

Apple Inc.
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In millions, except number of shares which are reflected in
thousands)
December 29, September 29,
2012 2012
—————— ——————
ASSETS:
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents $ 16,154 $ 10,746
Short-term marketable securities 23,666 18,383
Accounts receivable, less allowances of $119 and $98, respectively 11,598 10,930
Inventories 1,455 791
Deferred tax assets 2,895 2,583
Vendor non-trade receivables 9,936 7,762
Other current assets 6,644 6,458
——— ———
Total current assets 72,348 57,653
Long-term marketable securities 97,292 92,122
Property, plant and equipment, net 15,422 15,452
Goodwill 1,381 1,135
Acquired intangible assets, net 4,462 4,224
Other assets 5,183 5,478
——— ———
Total assets $ 196,088 $ 176,064
========= ========= ========= =========
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY:
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable $ 26,398 $ 21,175
Accrued expenses 13,207 11,414
Deferred revenue 7,274 5,953
——— ———
Total current liabilities 46,879 38,542
Deferred revenue – non-current 2,938 2,648
Other non-current liabilities 18,925 16,664
——— ———
Total liabilities 68,742 57,854
——— ———
Commitments and contingencies
Shareholders’ equity:
Common stock, no par value; 1,800,000 shares authorized; 938,973 and 17,167 16,422
939,208 shares issued and outstanding, respectively
Retained earnings 109,567 101,289
Accumulated other comprehensive income 612 499
——— ———
Total shareholders’ equity 127,346 118,210
——— ———
Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity $ 196,088 $ 176,064
========= ========= ========= =========

Apple Inc.
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(In millions)
Three Months Ended
————————————-
December 29, December 31,
2012 2011
—————- —————-
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the period $ 10,746 $ 9,815
——– ——– ——– ——–
Operating activities:
Net income 13,078 13,064
Adjustments to reconcile net income to cash generated by operating
activities:
Depreciation and amortization 1,588 721
Share-based compensation expense 545 420
Deferred income tax expense 1,179 1,456
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable, net (668) (3,561)
Inventories (664) (460)
Vendor non-trade receivables (2,174) (1,206)
Other current and non-current assets 413 (962)
Accounts payable 6,145 4,314
Deferred revenue 1,611 1,296
Other current and non-current liabilities 2,373 2,472
——– ——–
Cash generated by operating activities 23,426 17,554
——– ——–
Investing activities:
Purchases of marketable securities (37,192) (40,175)
Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities 3,460 3,038
Proceeds from sales of marketable securities 23,002 21,472
Payments made in connection with business acquisitions, net (284) 0
Payments for acquisition of property, plant and equipment (2,317) (1,321)
Payments for acquisition of intangible assets (138) (108)
Other (52) (34)
——– ——–
Cash used in investing activities (13,521) (17,128)
——– ——–
Financing activities:
Proceeds from issuance of common stock 76 91
Excess tax benefits from equity awards 404 333
Dividends and dividend equivalent rights paid (2,493) 0
Repurchase of common stock (1,950) 0
Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards (534) (355)
——– ——–
Cash (used in)/generated by financing activities (4,497) 69
——– ——–
Increase in cash and cash equivalents 5,408 495
——– ——–
Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period $ 16,154 $ 10,310
======== ======== ======== ========
Supplemental cash flow disclosure:
Cash paid for income taxes, net $ 1,890 $ 1,474

Apple Inc.
Q1 2013 Unaudited Summary Data
(Units in thousands, Revenue in millions)
Q1’13 (a) Q4’12 (a) Q1’12 (a) Sequential Change Year/Year Change
——————- ——————- ——————- —————— —————–
Operating Segments Revenue Revenue Revenue Revenue Revenue
———– ———– ———– ———- ———
Americas $ 20,341 $ 13,810 $ 17,714 47% 15%
Europe 12,464 8,023 11,256 55% 11%
Greater China (b) 6,830 5,427 4,080 26% 67%
Japan 4,443 2,367 3,550 88% 25%
Rest of Asia Pacific 3,993 2,110 3,617 89% 10%
Retail 6,441 4,229 6,116 52% 5%
—— —— —— ———- ———
Total Apple $ 54,512 $ 35,966 $ 46,333 52% 18%
— ——
Q1’13 (a) Q4’12 (a) Q1’12 (a) Sequential Change Year/Year Change
——————- ——————- ——————- —————— —————–
Product Summary Units Revenue Units Revenue Units Revenue Units Revenue Units Revenue
—— ———– —— ———– —— ———– —– ———- —– ———
iPhone (c) 47,789 $ 30,660 26,910 $ 16,645 37,044 $ 23,950 78% 84% 29% 28%
iPad (c) 22,860 10,674 14,036 7,133 15,434 8,769 63% 50% 48% 22%
Mac (c) 4,061 5,519 4,923 6,617 5,198 6,598 – 18% – 17% – 22% – 16%
iPod (c) 12,679 2,143 5,344 820 15,397 2,528 137% 161% – 18% – 15%
iTunes/Software/Services (d) 3,687 3,496 3,020 5% 22%
Accessories (e) 1,829 1,255 1,468 46% 25%
—— —— —— ———- ———
Total Apple $ 54,512 $ 35,966 $ 46,333 52% 18%

via Engadget

How to Fix Instagram to Facebook Authentication Error

instaface-facebook-instagram

 

If you are one of Instagrams 90 million users who also owns an iOS device and have been receiving an error message whenever you attempt to upload a picture to both Instagram and Facebook, you are not alone. My editor and I are both avid Instagram users and we have both encountered this error for the past few weeks.

photo

After checking every setting in our iPhones and deleting both the Instagram app as well as the Facebook app the error still occurred. Then after some research we found the solution to the problem.

If you are having the same problem don’t throw your iPhone or reinstall anything.

First you are going to head to your computer and log into your Facebook account and search Instagram in the top Facebook search bar. Click on the option that is listed as Instagram App. You will now be on the below page.

Instagram

Once you are here all you need to do to fix your error message is click the Send to Mobile button and you will receive a notification on your iOS device from Facebook.

photo-1 copy

Your Instagram app will now be able to upload to your Facebook account as well without anymore errors.

 

 

via Life On My Mobile

Samsung’s road to global domination

Samsung’s road to global domination  —  South Korea’s Samsung is trampling rivals and gunning for Apple.  Can its hot streak last?  —  FORTUNE — To understand how Samsung — yes, Samsung — became America’s No. 1 mobile phonemaker and thorn in Apple’s side, it’s helpful to rewind to last fall.

via Techmeme

Google’s Larry Page Talks Improving Nexus Hardware Supply, Motorola’s Opportunities For Device Innovation

nexus4-8

Google’s conference call regarding its quarterly earnings mostly rehashed themes we’ve heard before – cross-platform remains a priority. But Google CEO Larry Page had a few words to share about hardware in his own kick-off spiel. Page reiterated what we’ve heard recently about hardware supply levels from the Google Play store, and dropped (it’s a pun, you’ll see why later) a hint around what Motorola is doing at Google in terms of hardware.

Page said that there is “work to be done managing our supply better… and that is priority for the teams.” While it isn’t very detailed, it is at least acknowledgement that the issues around low supply for the hard-to-get and very much in demand Nexus 4 are fully recognized by the very top brass at Google. Page’s comments didn’t go so far as French LG Communications Director Cathy Robin, who promised better supply by February last week, but they show both Google and LG are working together to resolve the backlog.

Also on the hardware front, Page talked briefly about Motorola, and what they’re doing in terms of delivering innovation on that front from their new position under the Google umbrella. Page was even more cagey on this front, but he did come up with possibly telling examples of what kinds of issues they could be looking at. “Battery life is a huge issue,” and he added that you shouldn’t have to constantly worry about your devices, noting that, for example, “When you drop your phone, it shouldn’t go ‘splat.’”

Clearly, these are obvious pain points for mobile devices: durability and longevity in terms of battery life. If Motorola’s hardware engineering team is genuinely being put to work on making real improvements to these and other major smartphone sore spots, I’m content to wait and let things percolate a while longer before we see the union bear fruit. We haven’t yet seen what Google will do once it holds the reins with Motorola’s hardware division, because as Google’s Patrick Pichette pointed out on the call, the company is still working through Motorola’s existing hardware pipeline, which he said accounted for about 12-18 months of releases at the time of acquisition.

via TechCrunch

The End of an Era: Intels Desktop Motherboard Business to Ramp Down Over Next 3 Years

Today Intel made a sobering, but not entirely unexpected announcement: over the next 3 years Intel will be ramping down its own desktop motherboard business. Intel will continue to supply desktop chipsets for use by 3rd party motherboard manufacturers like ASUS, ASRock and Gigabyte, but after 2013 it will no longer produce and sell its own desktop mITX/mATX/ATX designs in the channel. We will see Haswell motherboards from the group, but that will be the last official hurrah. Intel will stop developing desktop motherboards once the Haswell launch is completed. All Intel boards, including upcoming Haswell motherboards, will carry a full warranty and will be supported by Intel during that period.

This isn’t a workforce reduction. Most of the folks who worked in Intel’s surprisingly small desktop motherboard division will move on to other groups within Intel that can use their talents. Intel’s recently announced NUC will have a roadmap going forward, and some of the desktop board folks will move over there. Intel will continue to produce barebones motherboards for its NUC and future versions of the platform.

Intel will also continue to produce its own form factor reference designs (FFRDs) for Ultrabooks and tablets, which will be where many of these employees will end up as well. As of late Intel has grown quite fond of its FFRD programs, allowing it a small taste of vertical integration (and the benefits that go along with it) without completely alienating its partners. This won’t be a transfer of talent to work on smartphone FFRDs at this time however.

The group within Intel responsible for building reference designs that are used internally for testing as well as end up as the base for many 3rd party motherboards will not be impacted by this decision either. The reference board group will continue to operate and supply reference designs to Intel partners. This is good news as it means that you shouldn’t see a reduction in quality of what’s out there.

It’s not too tough to understand why Intel would want to wind down its desktop motherboard business. Intel has two options to keep Wall Street happy: ship tons of product with huge margins and/or generate additional profit (at forgiveably lower margins) that’s not directly tied to the PC industry. The overwhelming majority of Intel’s business is in the former group. The desktop motherboards division doesn’t exactly fit within that category. Motherboards aren’t good high margin products, which makes the fact that Intel kept its desktop board business around this long very impressive. Intel doesn’t usually keep drains on margins around for too long (look how quickly Intel exited the de-emphasized its consumer SSD business).

The desktop motherboard business lasted so long as a way to ensure that Intel CPUs had a good, stable home (you can’t sell CPUs if motherboard quality is questionable). While there was a need for Intel to build motherboards and reference designs 15 years ago, today what comes out of Taiwan is really quite good. Intel’s constant integration of components onto the CPU and the resulting consolidation in the motherboard industry has helped ensure that board quality went up.

There’s also the obvious motivation: the desktop PC business isn’t exactly booming. Late last year word spread of Intel’s plans for making Broadwell (14nm Core microprocessor in 2014) BGA-only. While we’ll continue to see socketed CPUs beyond that, the cadence will be slower than what we’re used to. The focus going forward will be on highly integrated designs, even for the desktop (think all-in-ones, thin mini-ITX, NUC, etc…). Couple that reality with low board margins and exiting the desktop motherboard business  all of the sudden doesn’t sound like a bad idea for Intel.

In the near term, this is probably good for the remaining Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers. They lose a very competent competitor, although not a particularly fierce one. In the long run, it does highlight the importance of having a business not completely tied to desktop PC motherboard sales.

via AnandTech – The End of an Era: Intels Desktop Motherboard Business to Ramp Down Over Next 3 Years.

Mozilla’s First Firefox OS Phones Are Here, and You Can’t Have One

The first two official Firefox phones are here, but you¿ll likely never be able to buy either one of them. On Tuesday, Mozilla and Spanish phonemaker Geeksphone announced the first two Firefox OS developer preview handsets ¿ the Keon and the Peak.

via Wired Top Stories

Google Announces They Made $14.4 Billion In Revenue, $2.89 Billion Profit In Q4 2012

googlebuilding

Google just announced its earnings for Q4 2012, and guess what? They made a ton of money. We’re shocked.

Actually, Q4 2012 was really great for Google. The company earned $14.4 billion in revenue, which is 36% better than what they did last year. While we tend to think of Google as an American company, only $5.99 billion of that revenue came from the U.S. while the rest was made in international markets.

 

With $1.51 billion in revenues, Motorola Mobility accounted for 11 percent of Google’s total revenue for the quarter. Even though Google made a lot of money, they only netted $2.89 billion in net income, which is still a lot, but only slightly better than the $2.71 billion they pulled in during Q4 of 2011.

Google_revenues

To put Google’s profit in comparison, Apple netted $13.06 billion in profit for Q4 last year and is expected to shatter that mark during their financial report tomorrow. Cult of Mac will be listening to Apple’s financial earnings call tomorrow to provide a full breakdown on the latest results.

Source: Google

via Cult of Mac

AT&T bus Alltel, 780 million

AT&T today announced that it has agreed to purchase Atlantic Tele-Network’s Alltel assets for a total of $780 million. The agreement includes wireless spectrum licenses in the 700, 850, and 1900MHz bands, network assets, retail stores, and 585,000 subscribers. Alltel Wireless was purchased by Verizon Wireless in 2008. As part of the acquisition, Verizon was required by the Federal Communications Commission to divest some assets. AT&T picked up some of those assets and Atlantic Tele-Network picked up the rest. Atlantic Tele-Network continued to run those assets under the Alltel brand across portions of six states, covering some 4.6 million POPs. AT&T is now hoping the FCC will allow it to purchase those assets from Atlantic Tele-Network. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close during the second half of the year.

Nexus 4 demand 10 times higher than Google expected

Ten times as many British phone fans want the Nexus 4 than Google expected. LG has once again blamed Google for stock issues with the perenially sold-out smash-hit Android phone, saying the Big G had no idea of the potential demand. Speaking to Challenges, LG France boss Cathy Robin pointed the finger at Google. LG says it simply built as many phones as Google asked for, a number based on the sales of previous Nexus phones, such as the Nexus S. It turns out that Google severely misunderestimated how many people would actually buy the phone. Fair enough: who woulda thunk that a quad-core smart phone with the latest Jelly Bean software and a high-definition screen costing £240 would be super-popular? Who could have seen that coming? You’d have to be some kind of visionary or something. It’s not just here in Blighty that the new Nexus has struck a chord. As it turns out, ten times as many phone fans bought the Nexus 4 as anticipated in both Britain and Germany. LG says it takes about six weeks to increase the frequency of deliveries. Happily, from mid-February, LG will ramp up production of the Nexus 4. Finally! The Nexus 4 went on sale at the end of last year — for about an hour. Since then it’s been sold out at Google Play almost continually, barring the odd day here and there. If you’re not one of the lucky few who managed to get in fast and bag a phone, the only way to get hold of the Nexus 4 is to get it on a contract from a phone network — which costs a heck of a lot more than £240, in the long term. But which is better: an expensive real phone, or a cheap hypothetical phone? Virgin Media announced this week it’s adding the Nexus 4 to its line-up. Virgin joins O2 and Three in selling the phone. Should Google have seen the demand coming http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/nexus-4-demand-10-times-higher-than-google-expected-50010190/

Kim Dotcom’s Mega Claims 1 Million Users Within 24 Hours

Kim Dotcom’s new “Mega” cloud service appears to be a hit. According to Dotcom over 1 million have signed up for their free 50 gigabytes of storage. Although that is about 1% of the Dropbox user base, it’s not a bad start. From the article: “Mega quickly jumped up to around 100,000 users within an hour or so of the site’s official launch. A few hours after that, Mega had ballooned up to approximately a quarter of a million users. Demand was great enough to knock Mega offline for a number of users attempting to either connect up or sign up for new accounts, and Mega’s availability remains spotty as of this articles’ writing.”

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