Research

Motorola shipped 13.6 million handsets in the quarter, compared with 25.4 million in the same quarter the year before.

Android will not save them. Not least of all because HTC makes better Android devices.

"In fact, as a percentage of revenue, Apple has actually been decreasing its ad spending every year for the past eight, from nearly 5% in 2001 to 1.37% today. That's about half the 3.6% Research in Motion's spends advertising BlackBerries."

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/28/apples-2009-ad-budget-half-a-billion/

Comparing US sales of iPhones vs. Nokia's NA device business.

AT&T iPhones activated in Q3: 3.2 million

Nokia phones sold in North America Q3: 3.1 million

(obviously, Nokia's figures include Canada and Apple might have sold a few more phones in the US than AT&T activated so Apple outsold Nokia by a significant margin in units in the US.)

For reference, some selected current market caps:

• Microsoft (MSFT) - $236.76B
• Apple (AAPL) - $183.40B
• Google (GOOG) - $173.97B
• IBM (IBM) - $159.93B
• Cisco (CSCO) - $138.60B
• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) - $114.26B
• Intel (INTC) - $109.85B
• Disney (DIS) - $54.31B
• Nokia (NOK) - $48.24B
• Research In Motion (RIMM) - $37.43B
• Amazon (AMZN) - $40.34B
• Dell (DELL) - $29.63B
• Sony (SNE) - $29.10B
• Yahoo! (YHOO) - $24.78B
• Motorola (MOT) - $18.82B
• Adobe (ADBE) - $18.23B
• Palm (PALM) - $2.51B
• RealNetworks (RNWK) - $564.74M

The top 10 world-wide:

1. Exxon Mobil Corporation 352.31B
2. PetroChina Company Limited (ADR) 240.47B
3. Microsoft Corporation 237.58B
4. Petroleo Brasileiro SA (ADR) 220.19B
5. BHP Billiton Limited (ADR) 204.30B
6. HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) 199.98B
7. China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) 199.09B
8. Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) 195.76B
9. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 195.27B
10. Apple Inc. 183.57B

Steve Ballmer is not worried, Apple is just a rounding error.

Apple wiped the floor with Nokia. Twice the net profit and almost on par with gross profit. Nokia spent a whole billion dollars a quarter in R&D. The R&D take is 10.2% of sales.

I'm trying explain the complete lack of interest in Nokia among the US blogging/early adopter audience. If you are an enthusiast, why do you not care about the market leader. The automotive analogy is not quite perfect, but there are brands that are just invisible to the community even though they are quite popular and significant.

The French have a pretty crap reputation and it's not entirely undeserved, however what's worse than being talked about badly is not being talked about.

Apple’s Q4 2009 conference call revealed that iPod touch sales were up 100% year over year. For the full fiscal year, iPhone grew 78%.

When asked more pointedly, "So when you go from exclusive to multiple, you don't change the charge to the carrier?" Cook answered, "Correct."

Apple has more pricing power than the Don.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, said that the Average Selling Price of iPhones in the quarter "was just over $600. This reflects both high mix of 3GS sellthrough and benefits of rebalancing the ending channel inventory toward the 3GS."

An astonishing admission from Apple who has never revealed their iPhone ASP. Previous analyst estimates had the iPhone ASP at $550. If this is true, then Apple has violated one of the cardinal mobile industry rules: "Thy ASP shall always erode". Given what is known about the components, iPhone gross margin is likely to be above 50%. The gross margin, or what you are able to capture in value above the bill of materials, isthe primary indicator of value creation in the device business. Apple's number is astronomical vis-a-vis the competition. Stay tuned as this gets scrutiny.

On Tuesday Apple will cross over 100,000 apps on the App Store for an installed base of ~50 million devices.

On Thursday Microsoft will launch Windows 7 with 8500 apps "certified" for an installed base of 1 billion PCs.

iPhone: not your father's ecosystem.