HTC fourth-quarter profit below expectations

Taiwanese Smartphone maker HTC reported a worse than expected net fourth-quarter profit on Sunday, despite aggressive cut and a one-time gain.

The company reportable internet profit of T$0.3 billion ($10 million), compared to a internet loss of T$2.97 billion ($99.9 million) within the previous quarter and profit of T$1.01 billion ($34 million) within the same quarter of 2012.

The figure lags expected internet profit of T$721.71 million ($24.3 million), according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The number highlights however quickly issues have congregated at a corporation that simply over 2 years past provided one in each
10 smart phones sold round the world.

The company, that has lost nearly fractional of its market price within the last 2 years, is currently value concerning $4 billion, dwarfed by rivals like Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

New management put in within the half-moon to tackle that slide should persuade customers the complete will still signify trendy, feature-loaded phones, whereas keeping a lid on development prices.

Despite its latest flagship product, the HTC One, garnering rave reviews, the company's world share of the Smartphone market has declined to a mere two.2 % within the third quarter of two013 from a peak of ten.3 %within the third quarter of 2011, data from research firm Gartner show.

While the company's recent "Here's To Change" campaign has seen an advertising revamp featuring "Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr., analysts stay skeptical concerning the firm's ability to differentiate its complete image in a very highly-saturated enjoying field.

The company has launched into a cost-cutting campaign that features shopping for its chips from cheaper vendors and outsourcing production. It conjointly sold its stake in earpiece complete Beats Electronics LLC, booking a one-time pre-tax profit of T$2.5 billion ($85 million), which might be recorded within the fourth quarter.

Shuttered factories, a wave of executive departures and top-level reshuffling are symptoms of what industry insiders see because the company's biggest problem: connecting with consumers.

Self-driving car sales to reach 11.8 mln by 2035

Sales of vehicles in a position to drive them can account for concerning nine % of international motor vehicle sales in concerning 2 decades, according to a forecast revealed on Tuesday by motor vehicle trade adviser IHS Automotive.

The study centered on autonomous cars, that will drive with "no attention required by the driver," IHS analyst Egil Juliussen aforesaid. Such cars don't seem to be presently out there available, however IHS predicts they're going to be out there around 2025.

IHS expects global sales of self-driving cars in 2025 to be 230,000 -- but 1 percent of the 115 million cars expected to be sold that year.

But by 2035, sales of self-driving cars can reach eleven.8 million, or nine % of the 129 million international motor vehicle sales expected that year, aforesaid Juliussen.

Most of these sales will be in well-established auto markets like the United States, Western Europe and Japan.

The pace of growth for self-driving cars will exceed that of electric cars that have been hobbled by the high value of batteries Juliussen said.

1. Little imagination on gender diversity

At Pinterest, the net bulletin board service that's valued close to $3.8 billion, some seventy p.c of the users area unit feminine. But the company's board of directors is one hundred pc male.

Male-heavy boards dominate within the start-up mecca of geographic area, that prides itself on progressive thinking and swing talent 1st. A Reuters survey of the ten prime venture-backed start-ups, as measured by venture funds raised, shows that six do not have any women on the board, as well as Pinterest. And none has quite one.

Reuters' research relied on publicly available data and discussions with start-up executives and board members.

The gender imbalance has been the norm for years despite some recent signs of modification. Google, Facebook and Twitter all went public while not a lady on the board. they're a lot of various currently.

Big, established firms, against this, oftentimes have 2 or a lot of feminine administrators, supported the ten largest US technical school firms by value. All of the highest twenty have a minimum of one.

The dismal record of start-ups once it involves gender diversity was highlighted last month once Twitter came vulnerable for its all-male board on the eve of its public giving. On weekday, the corporate proclaimed that it had adscititious former Pearson chief Marjorie Scardino to its board.

Entrepreneurs and executives contacted by Reuters didn't question the conclusion that there area unit few girls administrators at start-ups, however they often delineate it as unmotivated, and a few like Pinterest say their govt ranks area unit a lot of balanced.

Start-ups tend responsible the shortage of girls on their boards on factors like their youth, their tiny boards, their resolute specialize in growth to the exclusion of alternative priorities, and a insufficiency of girls steeped in technology. They additionally blame venture capitalists, UN agency area unit typically male, typically hold the majority of board seats - and do not need to visualize their choice power diluted by adding noninvestor board members.

Critics counter that entrepreneurs UN agency pride themselves on creativeness and innovation merely are not attempting arduous enough once it involves gender diversity.

At Pinterest, the main target is on work, aforementioned Chief govt mountain Silberman, whose board consists of himself and 2 male venture capitalists. "It's pretty heads down," he said. If the corporate expands the board and a professional lady emerges as a candidate, "we'd be receptive it," he added.

"Diversity across all dimensions, as well as gender, is very important to our success," a Pinterest interpreter aforementioned. The company's leadership is roughly forty % feminine, as well as its heads of engineering, finance, sales and recruiting, he added.

Public firms have faith in board diversity all the time - whether or not it's as a result of they're perpetually being scrutinized, or as a result of they face public capitalist pressure.

"The firms that need to try and do it'll roll in the hay. people who do not won't," aforementioned Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd school, a computer user and a member at software system big Microsoft and chipmaker Broadcom. "This stuff does not happen accidentally."

The issue isn't merely one amongst social equity. A study by the Credit Swiss Confederation analysis Institute, a bank-funded cluster, checked out two,360 public companies and located that over six years, the share value of capitalization firms with a minimum of one lady on the board outperformed firms with no girls on their board by twenty six %.

For small and mid-capitalization stocks, the outperformance totalled seventeen %.

The study known one or two of things that would justify the higher performance, as well as a healthier mixture of leadership skills, higher company governance, bigger understanding of client decision-making, and access to a wider pool of talent.

Even though it's currently standard knowledge in geographic area that an absence of girls in leadership and technical roles may be a huge drawback, progress has been terribly slow, particularly at the highest.

"Meritocracy is that the word you hear all the time here. everybody will get ahead," aforementioned Heidi Roizen, a plunger at trader Fisher Jurvetson and a former software-company founder and Apple govt. "I do not assume it's as clean and pure as folks assume."

Women board members set a very important tone, aforementioned Roizen et al., signalling to staff that proficient girls will achieve the organization.

1. Google’s prepaid debit card express

Google INC can supply a paid open-end credit which will enable shoppers to buy product at stores and to withdraw money from ATM machines, the web company aforementioned on Wednesday.

The card, that is solely on the market in the United States, lets customers access the funds keep in their Google notecase accounts. Google notecase may be a smartphone app and on-line payment service that lets customers get merchandise and transfer cash to every different.

The new notecase card are settle fored at "millions of locations" that accept MasterCard and at ATM machines, Google aforementioned in an exceedingly post on its official diary on Wed. Google aforementioned the cardboard is free which the corporate won't charge cardholders any monthly or annual fees.

The card might facilitate advance Google's efforts to play an even bigger role in commerce and supply the corporate with valuable data concerning client looking habits, tho' it seems to be less formidable than the full-fledged mastercard once rumoured to be within the works.

Plans for a Google bank line card were shelved once the top of Google's notecase and payments cluster, Osama Bedier, left the corporate in could, consistent with a report at the time within the technology diary AllThingsD.

Google, the world's No. one net program, in 2011 began providing a special AdWords Business mastercard that its advertising customers might use to shop for ads on its web site.

A Google representative confirmed that knowledge concerning transactions created with the new notecase card - together with an outline of products purchased, the number of the dealings and therefore the name and address of the vendor - would be more to the interior profiles that Google maintains for users of its services, which may be accustomed target ads.

Consumers add cash to the new notecase Card by linking it to a checking account or once another person transfers cash to their notecase account, consistent with Google. the cardboard are often ordered on-line on Wed, and generally takes ten to twelve days to arrive, a Google representative aforementioned.