Today: The number of wireless subscriptions will hit 5 billion this month, according to iSuppli. Plus: Silicon Valley’s jobless rate dropped in August. Oracle stock surges after its earnings beat forecasts.
5 billion wireless accounts
This month, we’ll hit a tech milestone: The number of wireless service subscriptions will reach 5 billion, according to a report today from El Segundo tech researcher iSuppli. That’s equivalent to 73.4 percent of the planet’s population.
“If the importance of an event can be measured by the number of people it affects, then the proliferation of wireless communications stands out as one of the most significant phenomena in the history of technology,” Jagdish Rebello, iSuppli’s senior director and principal analyst for wireless research, said in an e-mail today.
Of course, that doesn’t mean 5 billion people are wireless subscribers, because some consumers may have more than one account. (Here in Silicon Valley, we know some tech hounds who have at least three mobile subscriptions: one for their iPhone, one for their Android, and one for their corporate BlackBerry.)
Nonetheless, Rebello noted, “Wireless communication now has spread to every nation, every age and every income level, becoming a basic staple like food, clothing and shelter.”
The research firm defines wireless subscriptions as representing “a recurring payment for wireless services delivered to a device” ranging from high-end smartphones to ultra-low-cost handsets — and including SIMs (which can be switched out of devices) and machine-to-machine communications systems.
By the end of the year, consumers throughout the world will be using 4.9 billion mobile devices, the firm reported.
Market penetration varies from 50 percent in the African and Middle East region to 157.6 percent in Western Europe, where consumers often have multiple mobile accounts, “allowing them to maintain communications while traveling in different nations that use varying service providers and air standards,” according to iSuppli.
Silicon Valley jobs report
Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate dropped in August, the California Employment Development Department reported today.
The jobless rate for the beautiful (if bureaucratically named) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, which includes Santa Clara and San Benito counties, was 11.2 percent last month, down from a revised 11.5 percent in July and 11.8 percent in August 2009.
The number of jobs was up 500 from the month before. Two important sectors had larger-than-usual seasonal gains: Professional and business services employers added 1,300 jobs. The computer and electronics manufacturing sector gained 600 jobs.
At 852,100, the total number of jobs was down 1,500, or 0.2 percent, from a year earlier. Government, construction and real estate employment dropped, while the private education and heath services sector and professional and business services employers posted gains.
Throughout the Golden State, the unemployment rate edged slightly higher to 12.4 percent as California lost 33,500 nonfarm payroll jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate last month was 9.6 percent.
Silicon Valley tech stocks
Up: Google, Oracle, eBay, Yahoo.
Oracle stock surged after the acquisitive Redwood City software maker reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations. Oracle benefited from increased tech spending after its $7.4 billion acquisition of server computer maker Sun Microsystems. Oracle shares closed at $27.48, up $2.12, or 8.4 percent.
Down: Apple, Cisco Systems, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, VMware, Gilead Sciences.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 12.36, or 0.5 percent, to 2,315.61.
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 13.02, or 0.1 percent, to 10,607.85.
And the widely watched Standard & Poor’s 500 index: Up 0.93, or 0.1 percent, to 1,125.59.
Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.
