Q1

Why Apple shouldn’t pass on the rumored Jet White iPhone 7

On Tuesday, Apple afficionados were treated to a new wave of white shell iPhone 7 mock-ups and purported leaks hitting the internet, advancing the notion that the Cupertino-based company could plan to release a white counterpart to their Jet Black coating some time around March 2017.

From an aesthetic standpoint, everyone is going to have their two cents on the necessity of it in the grand scheme of things. Simply by moving the discussion from the fashion sphere to the finance department though, the ambivalence in regard to whether or not this iPhone release is genuinely necessary quickly crumbles and clearly comes down on one side of the fence.

As we will learn in late January, Apple’s first quarter of the fiscal year 2017 is going to look after itself nicely, but in view of the Q2 figures and a long summer following, Jet White definitely needs to happen. Two key reasons must be paid attention to in order to understand the imperative of a Jet White iPhone for a healthier bottom line in the fiscal year of 2017.

Sprint activates 1.5M iPhones in Q1, 43 percent to new customers

Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, Wednesday posted its fiscal 2013 first quarter earnings. The telco saw strong smartphone sales of five million units, with iPhone sales exceeding 1.5 million with 43 percent to new customers.

A whooping 86 percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones. Sprint described the 43 percent of iPhone sales that were to new customers as a rate "that continues to outperform larger competitors"...

Verizon in Q1 activated 4M iPhones out of 7.2M smartphones

Verizon just posted its calendar 2013 first quarter earnings. The nation's top wireless carrier activated four million iPhones on its network throughout the quarter, half of which were the iPhone 5. The figure beats the 3.5 million unit consensus and represents a 25 percent increase over the 3.2 million iPhones Verizon activated a year ago. Representing just over 55 percent of all smartphone activations for the quarter, the iPhone during Q4 2012 represented nearly two-thirds of activations, which isn't surprising given the holiday rush, iPhone 4/4S price cuts and the iPhone 5 launch hype.

The company added 720,000 net new subscribers, including 677,000 people who signed two-year contracts, up 35 percent year-over-year. Turnover rate increased slightly to 1.01 percent from 0.96 percent a year ago. Smartphones represented 61 percent of contract subscribers, a record smartphone penetration. Shares climbed 1.94 percent during Thursday’s pre-market session...

Foxconn expectedly experiences sales lull amid seasonal iPhone decline

Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, assembles many Apple products, including iPhones and iPads.

And with an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its revenues owed to the Apple orders account, Foxconn's earnings are scrutinized for any possible hint which could point to increasing or decreasing demand for Apple products.

Today, the contract manufacturer has posted a nineteen percent decline in sales in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. As you'd expect, Reuters immediately speculated the numbers are down because the company is "hurt by disappointing demand for the iPhone"...

Samsung to preempt the iPhone 5S with the Galaxy S IV rocking a full HD display

South Korea-based Samsung through its subsidiary Samsung Electronics is expected to update the flagship Galaxy S III smartphone in the first quarter of this year. The Galaxy S IV successor is expected to make much noise ahead of Apple's next iPhone release, especially with its full HD 1080p five-inch display and powerful innards thought to run Samsung's new quad-core system-on-a-chip.

And if you consult Samsung's latest AMOLED release schedule, the first device incorporating the firm's full HD mobile display is coming in the first quarter of 2013...