SiliconBeat

Last fall, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) approved changes to the way many high-tech companies will recognize revenue. We saw the first of what will be many earnings reports affected by this when Apple reported on Monday results of its fiscal first-quarter earnings.

Other companies likely to be affected include such heavy weights as Cisco Systems and Tivo.

Often such changes take months for companies to adopt. And in this case, companies have until 2011 to adopt them. But this one is different because it will give companies a significant bump in short-term revenue. So many are racing ahead. As such, investors need to watch carefully to see if a company adopted the new standard, and if they reconciled old numbers to take the new standard into account.

On Monday, Apple disclosed the accounting change up front for this year, and also adopted it retrospectively for the past two years and reconciled past earnings in an amended annual filing. Companies are not required to do adopt it for past years. So good for Apple. Many companies may only make the change going forward, making comparisons harder.

This change is not trivial. To see the impact on revenue, look at the revised numbers from years past. The change bumped revenue for Q1 2009 (last year) from $10.2 billion (0ld) to $11.9 billion (new). As far as I can tell, the company didn’t disclose what the current quarter revenue would have been under the old standard.

Still, that didn’t stop the company, in a press release, from crowing about the big numbers:

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

That’s true. But under the old standard, Apple’s annualized revenue wouldn’t be quite as high. It would probably be four or five billion less, though still over $50 billion.

So what’s going on? For the details, read on. Read the rest of this entry »

I just got a review unit of the new Palm Pre Plus, the new webOS phone on Verizon. I’m testing out the phone and Twittering my impressions of it.

Below you’ll find my latest observations below.

Back on Sept. 17, Palm released its long-awaited earnings. They were eagerly anticipated because these would be the first full quarter that included the performance of the Palm Pre. Ever since, analysts and investors have been trying to figure out whether the numbers were good news, bad news, or something else entirely.

This head scratching was reflected in the news coverage of the earnings. The Mercury News had a first-day headline that said “Pre Sales Give Palm A Boost.” But within a couple of days, the consensus seemed to turn against Palm, with analysts and others questioning just how good the numbers were, and worrying about the company’s outlook. Four days later, the Motley Fool wrote: “Palm Discovers Its Limits.”

The confusion was largely due to a change in accounting methods. More on that in a second. But once we take a closer look at the numbers, it seems clear to me that Palm seems to be setting itself up to be sold. And that would likely need to happen sometime in the next six to 12 months.

Read the rest of this entry »

Palm Pixi

After covering Apple’s music event this morning, I met with Palm and got a hands-on look at the company’s new Pixi smartphone, which Palm announced early today

I was a bit underwhelmed by the actual phone, which will be the second to run Palm’s WebOS software. But the Pixi, which Palm plans to launch before the holidays, will have at least one new features that will be very cool.

I found a lot to like about Palm’s Pre, the Pixi’s WebOS predecessor. One of the features that I liked most was something Palm calls Synergy. The feature collects and combines address book information from a variety of sources and displays them all together.

Read the rest of this entry »

(updated below)

VentureBeat’s Paul Boutin reports today on a new smartphone sales report, but methinks he missed the real news.

The new data comes from IDC. Boutin makes much of the fact that according to IDC’s report — at least as quoted by him; I’ve only seen the press release, not the full report — the BlackBerry Curve was the top-selling smartphone in the United States last quarter, outselling the iPhone 3G S.

“Despite all the buzz, attention and money thrown at iPhones and anything to do with iPhones, the new iPhone 3G S came in second,” Boutin writes.

Read the rest of this entry »

(updated below)

I’ll write a more complete review tomorrow, but here’s what I think of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G so far:

Pros

Good size. Much slimmer than the G1, the first T-Mobile Android phone. Fits more easily in the hand than the iPhone.

Virtual keyboard. This is something that was a big problem with the G1; you had to use its physical keyboard to enter text. With the latest version of Android, though, you get a virtual keyboard. And — a la the new iPhone OS — it’s available in landscape or portrait mode for most applications.

Read the rest of this entry »

T-Mobile myTouch 3G

Google and T-Mobile this morning showed off the myTouch 3G, the second phone in the United States to run on the search giant’s Android operating system.

The companies debuted the phone at a small press event in San Francisco. The event started with a panel discussion that focused on the new phone, Android and the evolving role of carriers in an era of increasingly open phone platforms.

I got some hands-on time with the new phone and got a fairly favorable impression of it. The big difference between the myTouch and the G1, the first T-Mobile Android phone, is that the myTouch lacks a keyboard. Thanks to that, it’s slimmer, sleeker and seemingly lighter than the G1.

Read the rest of this entry »

Palm’s new chief executive, former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, has decided to repolish both its products and corporate brands by creating two new executive marketing jobs both reporting directly to him, according to an SEC filing this afternoon.

Named as senior vice president in charge of product marketing was Read the rest of this entry »

Palm is expecting sales for its just-ended fiscal 2009 third quarter to be no more than $90 million, far below the $158 million average analyst forecast, and below the $100 million that was the lowest forecast among the 20 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The news, released after markets closed, sent Palm’s shares down 10 percent to around $6.62, according to Yahoo Finance.

The company blamed Read the rest of this entry »

Just a little over a week ago, I wrote about “The three valley companies most vulnerable in 2009.” My three top picks were Sun Microsystems, AMD and Palm.

I haven’t changed by mind on Palm’s outlook. But on Monday, the company announced that it raised $100 million from Elevation Partners, one of its main backers.

According to the press release:

“The additional capital from Elevation Partners will enable us to put added momentum behind the new product introductions scheduled for 2009 and will provide us with enhanced stability in unsettled economic times,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “Elevation has been a great partner to Palm, and we appreciate their continued confidence and support.” Read the rest of this entry »

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