Deutsche Telekom Q1: 51...

T-Mobile USA’s parent Deutsche Telekom today reported earnings for the quarter that ended March 31, with revenues and earnings in slight decline compared to a year ago: sales for the carrier came in at €14.4 billion, a decline of 1.1 percent; and earnings of €4.48 billion ($5.8 billion) were down by 0.1 percent. Both figures, however, still managed to beat forecasts from analysts polled by Bloomberg . With the future of T-Mobile USA still in play — there are reports that the carrier may be merged with MetroPCS, in the wake of T-Mobile’s merger with AT&T getting scuppered by regulators — Deutsche Telekom noted in a separate release that the carrier performed well with earnings up by eight percent to $1.3 billion (€1 billion) even as revenues were down by 2.3 percent to $5 billion. And customer retention issues still persist at the carrier — the last major mobile operator in the U.S. not offering the popular iPhone: it lost over half a million (510,000) contract subscribers in the quarter. And that loss in higher-value contract customers was not offset by gains in lower-value prepay subscribers, which grew only by 187,000. Still, Philipp Humm, the chief executive of T-Mobile USA, noted that the contract churn is the company’s lowest-yet in seven quarters. DT says T-Mobile USA is “well on schedule” in its $4 billion LTE migration for 2013 — a big part of the company’s bid to refresh the T-Mobile brand under its so-called “Challenger Strategy”. It’s building that 4G network using spectrum it picked up from AT&T as a consequence of that deal falling through, and adding to it by refarming some of its own older spectrum. As part of DT’s relaunch of the network, the company also says it plans to expand its sales and marketing activities. Despite the loss of contract subscribers, T-Mobile is managing to make some good gains in the U.S. ARPU was up slightly to $58 from $56 a year ago.  Although it noted in its release that it was the first carrier to offer a Lumia smartphone from Nokia in the U.S., it did not give out details on how well it sold. DT is also trying to look to the future and build out new services, like its multi-screen entertainment business, in a bid to further offset declines in its traditional retail phone business. In Germany, “Entertain,” as DT’s TV service is called, now has 1.7 million subscribers, the company says, up 37.2 percent compared to last year, with 173,000 new customers picked up in the quarter. DT’s approach with TV has been one of multiple technologies, and in Q1, 81,000 of those new subscribers actually look a satellite-based rather than fiber-based service. DT’s home market remains the single-biggest operation for the company with revenues of €5.7 billion ($7.4 billion). Overall that figure was down by “only” 2.3 percent, with the decline fuelled by strong competition in both mobile and broadband services, but slowed by a strong performance in wholesale. Overall mobile revenues were down by 1.8 percent in Germany, although mobile data revenues grew by 20 percent to €462 million.

Angry Birds Catapults I...

A little footnote — no, actually, a big footnote — to Rovio’s news earlier this week that revenues had increased by more than tenfold in 2011: the games developer says that its Angry Birds games have now passed the one billion download mark. Finland-based Rovio notes that this is taking into account the full range of games, including the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, and the newest, Angry Birds Space. The company has been milking the Angry Birds brand since first launching its iOS version of the game in December 2009, and in addition to a number of versions of the original game, there is now also an extensive merchandising operation that contributed 30 percent of all of Rovio’s sales for 2011. But the company is also looking ahead. Many believe that it will be later this year that Rovio will launch a new franchise, while continuing to develop the huge Angry Birds brand at the same time. It is expected that the company will IPO in 2013 listing in New York and/or Hong Kong. And yesterday, its Finnish neighbor, Nokia, announced that it would be investing in a new team of developers with Rovio to develop games for the Windows Phone platform — another sign of how the company is evolving, since the vast majority of its business today is on two platforms: Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. In a run-down of its 2011 earnings earlier this week , Rovio noted it made $106.3 million in revenues in 2011, some ten times more than its estimated 2010 revenues. The short and sweet video Rovio made in honor of today’s news is below. And I should also point out that the blog 148apps is making an interesting connection here: they’ve spotted that the little boy in the video below looks a lot like the character from Casey’s Contraptions, and he speculates that it may be that Rovio is developing that game as its first post-Angry Birds project. I’ve reached out to Rovio to ask about this and will update as I learn more…

Nokia Adds Apps To The ...

Windows Phone is way behind Android and iOS when it comes to apps — only about 80,000 apps compared to 500,000-600,000 each at the other two — too far behind to possibly ever catch up in actual numbers any time soon. So it makes sense that Windows Phone players cherry pick to ensure the best and most popular apps out there are on their platform. Today Nokia did just that:  it announced deals with a raft of companies, including Box, Groupon, EA, ESPN, Rovio and more to add their apps exclusively to Windows Phone for Nokia’s new range of Lumia devices. Announced at the CTIA event , the deals are an instance of Nokia leveraging the Windows Phone platform to offer content exclusive to users of its devices: services like Nokia Maps get rolled out to the rest of the Windows Phone footprint. “We are focused on delivering great, locally relevant apps, and importantly, those which offer unique, exclusive and original experiences,” Marco Argenti, SVP, Nokia Developer Experience, said in a statement. The move is a significant one for Nokia to take, as it looks to grow the number of sales of the device and demonstrate that it is not just another OEM on the platform but bringing its own unique value to the proposition. Apps, of course, are a huge part of what drives consumers to use one smartphone over another. Just yesterday, we revealed that Google had passed the 15 billion download mark for apps on its Android platform; Apple has now seen downloads of 25 billion. Among the apps that are included in today’s announcement, made at CTIA, are several under exclusive terms. They include several in the sport category, such as the PGA Tour app (12 month exclusive) and a variety of ESPN apps (exclusive to May 2013). Additionally, there is a Groupon app (exclusive for six months); the Tripdots travel app (three month exclusive); and the AOL Entertainment Hub (six month exclusive). In addition, Nokia notes that Rovio has assembled a dedicated team of developers who will be making apps for Lumia devices specifically and the WP platform more generally — a quick recovery after the debacle the other month when an executive dismissed the Windows Phone platform for future games, Angry Birds or otherwise. It sounds from Nokia’s press release that it is actually investing money in Rovio’s developer effort. Some of that will be for exclusive content as well: “Nokia and Rovio will partner to develop innovative new consumer products and content exclusively for Nokia Lumia smartphones, alongside cross platform multi-channel integrated marketing initiatives,” the company notes in its statement. It looks like there may be a similar arrangement in place with EA as well, covering a variety of games. Other apps announced today include apps for Time, Newsweek, PayPal and Box — all of these with no Lumia exclusivity, it appears. What we will still have to see is how and if the Barnes & Noble deal that Microsoft announced last week will play out for other players in its mobile ecosystem: will it mean more content — more exclusive content? We asked Nokia for its take on that and it declined to comment. The Lumia devices are now on sale in 48 different markets; up to now Nokia has sold some two million Lumia handsets, according to its latest quarterly earnings .

Singtel’s Amobee Buys A...

Another bit of consolidation in the mobile advertising space — this time with an ad-tech twist: Amobee , the mobile ad company that itself was the subject of a takeover by Singtel only two months ago, has now bought an ad startup of its own: AdJitsu , a specialist in “3D” advertising technologies that let users “touch” objects in ads and explore them. Trevor Healy, the CEO of Amobee, says that financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Prior to the acquisition, AdJitsu was a wholly-owned division of another mobile advertising company, Cooliris . AdJitsu had already built up a client base of big brands since being founded in August 2011 : they include Nokia, BMW and (TechCrunch’s owner) AOL, which uses its technology in its AOL Editions app. The acquisition announced today signifies how companies working in the area of mobile display advertising are looking for technologies that give them a differentiating edge over their competitors with services that make advertisements more engaging. This is all the more important as the medium matures and the novelty of mobile ads continues to wear off. “Mobile advertising can be quite static and pedestrian,” admits Healy. “With something like AdJitsu, you can navigate around the product and consumers like it.” He claims that ads using 3D technology produce twice the levels of engagement and click-throughs as regular display ads. Another reason why Amobee may have focused on AdJitsu is because of the Singtel connection. Singtel, which bought Amobee in March for $321 million, uses the Amobee ad network across its pan-Asian footprint of 430 million users, and as Healy points out, “The Asian market loves 3D technology. It plays very well there.” But he also adds that the company has “many advertisers in North America and Europe that also want to explore using more 3D services in their ads.” One company that doesn’t use AdJitsu’s technology, however, is Apple — although, given the company’s focus on rich media ads for iAd, this seems like it would be a good opportunity. Healy says that he has yet to talk to the iPhone/iPad giant but that he would “love to”: “I think this would be a great extension for iAd,” he noted. We will probably see more deals like this one continuing to be announced. Specifically, there may be a lot more mobile consolidation to come in markets like Asia. Russell Buckley, formerly of AdMob (part of Google) and now an angel investor and advisor, notes that in China alone there are around 200 ad networks , with most of them set up in the past two years. AdJitsu’s team is based in Palo Alto and will continue to remain there for the time being. Amobee has offices in Redwood City, California, as well as throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America.

Why Can’t BlackBerry Mu...

Horace Dediu at Asymco has run the numbers and it’s not looking good. Samsung and Apple now control an estimated 99% of vendor profits with HTC scraping in with 1%. BlackBerry and Nokia barely register and, in fact, form a loss. First, I’d like to note why Dediu believes carriers are willing to cede so much of their profit to Apple and, presumably, Samsung. It’s mostly about lock-in, a sort of bear hug that encourages customers to stay put in the long run. He writes: Indeed, they willingly hand over these premiums because the iPhone ensures a competitive advantage or preserves their customer base from churning. The calculations that go into a decision to range the iPhone are compelling enough that 250 operators made the decision (though, crucially, there are still 250 who have not). With numbers like these, it’s easy to see where things are headed. Although I’ll give Nokia the benefit of the doubt this quarter with the rise of the Lumia line, these numbers don’t look good for runners-up, including LG, Motorola, and RIM. Arguably, those three manufacturers could pull off a coup – a hot phone like the Droid can push Motorola back into the space and LG is at least popular outside of the U.S. But, like Sony, RIM is an established player with a tendency toward a closed system that serves a dedicated and dwindling audience rather than a general consumer. Buying into RIM at this point, especially with the prevalence of iTunes content and, increasingly, Google’s own marketplace, is akin to a suicide pact. By this time, there should be few compelling reasons to expect anyone – in the next half-decade say – will be able to unseat Samsung’s dominance. While I’m of the opinion that Apple is in a much more precarious position in the long run, I’d give them the next five years as well. To the rest in the 1% of mobile profits? I’d recommend a realignment and/or moving into something more lucrative. via TUAW