Thursday, July 21, 2011

Nokia: further losses in the second quarter

The world of mobile phones, Finnish Nokia, published Thursday, July 21, further losses in the second quarter. Nokia, struggling for over three years, suffered a net loss more severe than expected, from 368 million euros, against a profit of 227 million euros a year earlier, according to his financial report.

Analysts on average expected a loss of 104 million euros, according to Dow Jones, the second negative result after the historic loss for the third quarter of 2009. In the second quarter, Nokia posted a further decline in sales of 7% to 9.28 billion euros, slightly less than feared. The number of phones sold plunged 20% to 88.5 million units, against 111 million a year earlier.

Baidu launches its own Web browser

The group of Chinese search engine Baidu launches into the battle of cybernavigateurs. Available in beta for Windows operating systems, the browser interface is very similar to Baidu's Chrome, by Google. The user can, for example, from the home page, download extensions and customize the software. It is also possible to directly access the search engine Baidu, the Web address bar.

But beyond this similarity in the interface Chrome, the new browser also borrows the engine of Internet Explorer. By venturing into the area of Web browsing, Baidu wants to strengthen its presence in the Chinese market. The last census of the Chinese authorities reported 485 million Internet users in the country.

eBay exceeds expectations in the second quarter

The online trading company published Wednesday, July 20, quarterly results better than expected, thanks to the sustained growth of its subsidiary PayPal. Ebay posted a net profit of 283.4 million dollars (199 million), against $ 412 million the same quarter last year. Lower earnings were due in part to the cost of the acquisition of GSI Commerce this year.

The group also performed on a quarterly revenue of $ 2.8 billion, representing an increase of 25% over the second quarter of 2010. 100 million PayPal accounts Results from Ebay are particularly driven by the performance of its online payment subsidiary, PayPal, just enregistrer100 million active accounts.

Google Labs goodby

Google loses one of its most charismatic services, GoogleLabs, testing laboratories open to users. In this space were born some of the most innovative products were launched after a formal way. In a brief statement in one of the blogs of the company specifically how it will change. It can still visit the page but not to play with new programs, but to see how they evolve.

According to Bill Coughran, vice president of the company this service has already fulfilled its mission. "Although we have learned a lot by throwing prototypes Labs, we believe it is crucial to a greater focus on the challenges of the future", published in the blog. One of the services born from this laboratory has been Body interactive Browser, something like a Google Maps of the human body with advanced visualization.

The end of the Minitel scheduled in 2012

The Minitel, a French invention which has equipped up to nine million households in France, will disappear for mid-2012. With the rise of the Internet, the end of the small plastic cube, especially famous for access to its services "3615", had already been proclaimed many times. France Telecom, which launched in 1982, he was finally granted a reprieve last nine months, announced, Wednesday, July 20, the end of the Minitel to June 30, 2012.

Intel exceeds expectations in the second quarter

The world of microprocessors, Intel, published Wednesday, July 20, quarterly results better than expected, with a 2% increase in net profit to $ 3 billion. Sales for "record" for its part, increased 21% to 13 billion dollars. "The strong business demand for our most advanced technologies, the rise of portable devices and Internet traffic, which has fueled growth in data centers, as well as the rapid growth of IT in emerging countries, have led to record results, "said the CEO, Paul Otellini, said in a statement.

Touch pads: Samsung wants to compete with Apple

South Korea's Samsung Electronics unveiled Wednesday, July 20, in its home market, a new version finer and lighter in its tablet Galaxy, hoping to narrow the gap with Apple iPad. This new device has a screen of 10.1 inches against seven for its predecessor launched in October. Moved from 500 dollars in the United States, the same price as the iPad 2 the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be in competition with more than hundreds of products most of which work with the operating system Google's Android.