With the release of the Ovi application store, Nokia takes the first step towards becoming a power house in software and services. Ovi enables application developers to release, on a single platform, applications for Symbian-based handsets. Due to differences in Symbian OS platforms, the applications will need to be developed for specific OS versions.

Many have jumped to the conclusion of comparing Ovi with the Apple application store. We suspect that Nokia has much more planned for Ovi than being just a me-too service. Read more

Sony today full year results for FY2009, and reported revenue of yen 7,730 billion (down 12.9% in the year). This sharp decline in revenue is attributed to weakening of the consumer market and due to a strong local currency. Still, it is not common in the technology industry that we see such strong downturns in the top line figures. Operating loss amounted to yen 227.8 billion (down from an operating income of 475.3 a year ago). Given the overall weakness in the results, Sony delivered a net loss of yen 98.9 billion for the year, which is down from a net income of yen 369.4 billion in 2008.

The Japanese industry is in a tough position. The yen is very strong, while the Korean won is weak. This gives the Korean electronics industry a competitive advantage in export markets over the Japanese companies as their profit margins increase due to favourable exchange rates. As we commented in Samsung's latest results, this is what is called "bugger thy neighbour". Wealth within a country is created by keeping its own currency low so that imports are made more expensive while exports are made cheaper. Read more

Samsung released its Q1 C2009 financials today, and overall the results are positive compared to a very weak and soft Q4 2008 quarter. There were some questions whether the company's reorganisation early in the quarter would have a negative impact on its focus and ability to execute in the market. It appears that so far this has not occurred. It is worth bearing in mind that along with the reorganisation of Semiconductor and LCD to Device solutions, and Telecoms and digital Media to Digital Media & Communication, Samsung also dismissed 20 top executives in an attempt to revitalise the company. Given the current economic climate and the company structure changes as well as changes at senior executive level, Samsung has performed well in the market and delivered a 9% top line increase for the quarter. However, as we will point out, we suspect that much of this growth and bottom line impact is due to favourable exchange rates. Read more

Today Sony presented its fourth quarter 2008 results, and even if Sony warned the market last week of weakened sales and profits, yet the results provided few bright spots as sales of consumer electronics products declined sharply and Electronics turned from healthy profits to substantial losses. Read more