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Samsung is the world’s biggest maker of memory chips.

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects to post a 35% drop in operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2023, missing expectations by a wide margin as a rebound in semiconductor prices likely narrowed losses in the South Korean company’s biggest profit-driving segment.

Samsung said that for the October-December quarter, operating profit is likely to be 2.8 trillion South Korean won ($2.13 billion), down 35% from the same period a year ago where the firm reported an operating profit of 4.31 trillion won. Operating profit was 2.43 trillion won in the previous quarter.

The profit guidance fell far short of LSEG’s SmartEstimate of 3.7 trillion won, which is weighted more heavily toward expectations of analysts who have been consistently more accurate.

'Huge miss': Samsung's operating profit expected to drop 35% in fourth quarter, missing earnings consensus

Fourth-quarter revenue likely fell 4.9% from the same period a year ago to 67 trillion won, the firm said in a preliminary earnings statement.

Samsung is the world’s largest maker for dynamic random-access memory chips which are found in consumer devices such as smartphones and computers.

“[Samsung is] very good at making some of the best semiconductors in the world, at least in making them and getting them done. But their yields are so much worse than competitors like TSMC,” said Cory Johnson, chief market strategist at The Futurum Group, on Tuesday.

Samsung's yields for semiconductors are 'so much worse' than competitors like TSMC, says analyst

“… so bad yields can turn into really bad earnings results,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” after Samsung’s earnings preview.

The company is set to announce detailed earnings on Jan. 31, according to a filing.

Memory prices rebound

The demand for AI across all major applications will drive the overall semiconductor sales market to recover in 2024.

Galen Zeng

IDC

In late October, Samsung and SK Hynix – the world’s second-largest DRAM memory chip maker – signaled during their third quarter earnings calls that weak demand may have finally bottomed out following production cuts.

“We expect further price hikes in 1H24 and a marked rebound in earnings for memory makers in 2H24 and 2025,” said Kim of Daiwa Capital Markets, referring to the first and second half of this year.

“As such, we anticipate tailwinds for share prices in the near term.”

Memory chip prices have started increasing since the start of November, thanks to “memory manufacturers’ strict control of supply and output,” according to Galen Zeng, senior research manager of semiconductor research at IDC.

“The demand for AI across all major applications will drive the overall semiconductor sales market to recover in 2024,” said Zeng in a Dec. 21 report.

“The semiconductor supply chain, including design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing, will bid farewell to the downturn in 2023.”

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Fortnite approved by Apple, returns to U.S. App Store 5 years after removal

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Fortnite approved by Apple, returns to U.S. App Store 5 years after removal

Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Apple approved the Epic Games title Fortnite on Tuesday, returning the first-person shooter game to the App Store in the U.S., five years after its removal.

Fortnite was kicked off the App Store in 2020 after Epic updated its game over the web to take payments directly, instead of through Apple’s in-app payment mechanism, which takes fees up to 30%. The move angered Apple and kicked off a years-long legal battle.

Last month, Epic scored a victory in court, when a judge ruled that Apple wasn’t allowed to charge a commission when apps link out for payment, or dictate whether the links look like buttons. Epic said last week that it had submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store. To return, Fortnite had to pass App Review, Apple’s process in which new apps or updates are reviewed by Apple employees to ensure they work and adhere to the company’s guidelines.

Apple had dragged out its approval process for the app since May 9, when Epic submitted it to Apple. Last week, Epic filed a legal challenge, and on Monday, a judge said that Apple had to explain why Fortnite hadn’t been approved yet or come to a resolution with Epic over the game’s status.

Apple is appealing the latest court order, and looking to get a pause enabling it to roll back changes the company has already made to the App Store in response. An Apple representative didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Last month’s ruling led major app makers such as Amazon and Spotify to change their apps to accommodate links to buy content. For example, users can now buy Kindle books inside the Kindle app on an iPhone.

Amazon and Spotify were able to update existing apps that had already been approved with changes enabled by last month’s order. After Epic sued Apple, the iPhone maker revoked Epic’s developer account in addition to booting Fortnite.

Epic was able to get a European developer account and now offers Fortnite in Europe through a third-party app store under the Digital Markets Act, which went into effect last year. IPhone users can also play Fortnite through cloud gaming services. But even in Europe, Apple tried to terminate Epic’s account before backing off, Epic said.

The fees that Apple takes from the App Store are an increasingly important part of Apple’s business. They’re reported in Apple’s Services business, which also includes advertising, AppleCare warranties, payments, and subscription offerings such as Apple TV+. Apple reported nearly $27 billion in services revenue during the March quarter.

WATCH: Interview with Epic Games CEO

Epic Games CEO: Apple can either determine its own destiny or 'face the onslaught' of litigation

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Waymo says it reached 10 million robotaxi trips, doubling in five months

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Waymo says it reached 10 million robotaxi trips, doubling in five months

A Waymo self-driving car, seen with a driver, stops at a red light outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 31, 2025.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told CNBC on Tuesday that the Alphabet-owned ride-hailing company has reached 10 million trips, doubling in the past five months.

“These are all paid trips, and they represent people who are really integrating Waymo Driver into their everyday lives,” said Mawakana, speaking at the Google I/O developer conference. The 10 million figure includes rides in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Phoenix area.

Waymo is delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides a week, Alphabet said in its April earnings report. On Monday, Waymo said it had won approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.

The robotaxi company is part of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” unit. Revenue in the overall category fell 9% in the first quarter from a year earlier to $450 million, and operating loss grew from to $1.23 billion from $1.02 billion a year ago.

While those figures include a number of businesses, Mawakana confirmed that Waymo is not yet profitable but that the company is “super focused on building a sustainable business.”

“We’re proving out that it can be a profitable business,” she said. “There’s a path to profitability.”

Waymo faces potential competition from Tesla, which has promised to launch its robotaxi service in Austin next month. Tesla CEO Elon Musk told CNBC on Tuesday that the plan was still on track, and that the company will start with about 10 vehicles and rapidly expand to thousands if the debut goes well with no incidents.

Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin launch. He has previously claimed Tesla’s “generalized” approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo’s. Tesla primarily relies on camera-based systems and computer vision instead of using sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar in its vehicles.

Mawakana said that Waymo has taken what it views as the “safest path.”

“There’s probably a lot of ways it can be done, but we’re the only ones that have done it,” she said. “We’ve been doing it 24 hours a day for almost five years. And so to us, it’s really important to focus on safety, not focus on safety and then cost — not cost and then safety.”

WATCH: Waymo co-CEO announces 10 million autonomous trips milestone

Waymo co-CEO announces 10 million autonomous trips milestone

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Xreal debuts first glasses to run Google’s Android XR operating system to take on Meta and Apple

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Xreal debuts first glasses to run Google's Android XR operating system to take on Meta and Apple

Xreal said its Project Aura glasses will run Google Android XR.

Xreal

Xreal on Tuesday announced a set of so-called “extended reality” glasses that run Google’s Android XR software, as the companies look to take on Meta and Apple in a new arena.

The launch marks an early step from Alphabet‘s Google to become a major operating system for future virtual and augmented reality smart glasses and headsets, much like Android has turned into a default option for most smartphones.

Xreal, a Chinese company backed by Alibaba, calls its glasses Project Aura and describes them as a lightweight extended reality — or XR — product. XR is a broad term encompassing technologies that merge real and virtual worlds.

Android XR, Google’s operating system for these products, was launched last year and is infused with its AI assistant Gemini.

Samsung’s Project Moohan, a type of headset that looks to rival Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro, was the first device announced that runs Android XR. Samsung plans to launch the hardware this year.

Xreal’s Project Aura is the second device announced that will operate on Android XR, and it is the first such device in the glasses format.

Few details have been released about the tech, which was announced at the Google I/O conference. Xreal said the glasses will have Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon XR chips, which are specially designed for these pieces of hardware.

Xreal also said the glasses will be “tethered,” meaning they will connect to another device to run. The company has not yet provided details on what the glasses will need to be linked to.

The startup has released previous products that have run its in-house operating system, featured its own chips and connected to its own second device. But Project Aura will now rely more heavily on Google’s software and on Qualcomm semiconductors.

The timeline and price of Project Aura were not immediately disclosed. Xreal will likely release a headset for developers to start experimenting and building apps first, then a consumer product at a later date.

For Google, the more devices that run Android XR, the more appealing it will be for developers to build apps for the operating system. A large part of any operating system’s success is the quality of apps available for users.

For Xreal, being an early partner with Google and working with Qualcomm will give it access to the latest technology in the XR space, as well as to marketing for its products.

The launch of Project Aura also marks a step up competition with Meta and its continued efforts with the Meta Ray-Ban product and the likes of Snap, which unveiled a new set of its Spectacles last year.

Glasses also offer an alternative to bulky headsets. Tech giants including Apple and Meta see extended reality as a potential new paradigm in computing.

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