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Huawei’s annual earnings report is out and it’s a mixed bag, since while turnover increased by 11.7 percent to 203.9 RMB ($32.3 billion), profits plummeted 53 percent to 11.6 billion RMB ($1.8 billion). Revenue from overseas sales (138.4 billion RMB) equated for over half the company’s total income and it boasted of having sold 150 million consumer devices, including 20 million smartphones in the year. The company didn’t provide reasons for the drop in profit, emphasizing that it’s increased R&D spending by 34.2 percent to 23.7 billion RMB ($3.75 billion) and that in any event, it’s got around $30 billion of assets that can shoulder the brunt of a bad year.

However, the company may not see a rosy 2012 either, after both America and Australia refused to give the company big infrastructure deals (Huawei’s bread and butter) thanks to allegedly close relationships between the company and the Chinese government. It seems to be following a similar trajectory to rival ZTE, which also felt margins squeeze as it entered the global retail space and felt the heat when its political dealings were thrown in the spotlight.

Continue reading Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent

Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While you impatiently await the release of Precise Pangolin this Thursday, we’ve got some news to hold your little aubergine-loving heart over. Canonical’s own Mark Shuttleworth took to the web to announce Ubuntu 12.10, codenamed Quantal Quetzal. If you were hoping the Linux distro would take the tongue-twisting titles down a notch with the next release, well, you’re out of luck. We don’t have too many details to share release, but Shuttleworth does say that Unity will continue to be tweaked and improved. A visual overhaul is expected to get underway starting with Quetzal, to work out all the bugs in time for the next LTS release, 14.04. Now all you have to do is wait till October 18th for its proper release. (For the more impatient and daring, the first alpha is scheduled to land on June 7th and the first beta on September 6th.) Thankfully, there should be enough new stuff to play with in 12.10 to distract you for at least a little while.

[Image via Fabio Bretto]

Ubuntu 12.10 gets christened Quantal Quetzal ahead of Pangolin launch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Norton’s Identity Safe is a free online service that aims to end the curse of forgotten passwords. If you’ve got a few social networking accounts, then keeping track of all your keys can be tough. This service remembers all of your log-in details and inputs them automatically when you next visit. It’ll warn you about malicious websites and even lock away sensitive data (credit card numbers, social security codes) so if your paperwork goes missing — you aren’t in too much trouble. The companion smartphone / tablet app offers the same integration across all of your devices and is available now for Windows, OS X, iOS and Android gear from today.

Continue reading Norton Identity Safe locks your passwords in the cloud, spares your failing memory

Norton Identity Safe locks your passwords in the cloud, spares your failing memory originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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