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BBC: Nokia has reported a loss for the July to September quarter after sales sank by almost a fifth.

The company made a net loss of 913m euros ($1.4bn; £838m) for the period, compared with a profit of 1.1bn euros for the same quarter last year. This included a write-off of 908m euros reflecting the fall in value of its Nokia Siemens Networks division.

Nokia has suffered as mobile phone makers like Apple have developed more popular smartphones, analysts say. Net sales fell to 9.8bn euros compared with 12.2bn euros a year ago.

Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said that sales “were constrained by component shortages”.

Despite the fall in sales, Nokia said it had maintained its overall global market share in mobile devices at 38%. It said it had increased market share in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

“This was offset by lower market share in Greater China, Asia-Pacific and North America,” Nokia said.

The company estimates that global mobile phone sales in 2009 will fall by 7% from 2008. “Overall, I have to say it is kind of a mixed bag with a negative bias. I think that the big picture doesn’t look that well,” said Thomas Langer at West LB.

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Bloomberg: Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe’s biggest consumer-electronics maker, unexpectedly posted a profit in the third quarter as operating earnings at the consumer unit more than doubled.

Third-quarter net income jumped to 174 million euros ($256 million), or 19 cents a share, from 57 million euros, or 6 cents, in the year-earlier period, the Amsterdam-based company said today. Analysts had predicted a loss of 44.7 million euros, the average of 13 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“They’re coming out of the recession more strongly than I had previously thought,” said Peter Olofsen, an Amsterdam-based analyst at Kepler Capital Markets who has a “reduce” rating on the stock. “The cost savings are being implemented with a lot of drive. Now the waiting is for a recovery in sales.”

Philips shares rose the most since April 2 in Amsterdam trading after operating profit before amortization at the consumer unit, which makes Senseo coffee machines and flat- screen televisions, climbed to 129 million euros, aided by job cuts. Chief Executive Officer Gerard Kleisterlee in July raised his annual cost-saving goal to more than 600 million euros from 500 million euros. Kleisterlee, who’s slashing 6,000 jobs, said at the time that he would cut expenses further if necessary.

The second straight quarterly profit for the Dutch company followed losses of more than 1.2 billion euros in the two preceding quarters as the economic slump cut demand. Philips saw “a stabilization of consumer sentiment,” Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Jean Sivignon said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

Consumer Recovery

“The proof of the pudding will be in the upcoming selling season, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and we have to see how that actually works out in the weeks to come,” he said.

Philips shares climbed 7.7 percent, to 18.35 euros in Amsterdam. The stock has gained 33 percent this year, compared with a 30 percent increase of Amsterdam’s benchmark AEX Index.

The company is “cautious about the short-term outlook in the absence of structural recovery” in most of its markets, it said. Philips will focus its restructuring next year on the lighting and health-care units, Sivignon said on a conference call today.

In the third quarter, sales fell to 5.62 billion euros from 6.33 billion euros, beating the 5.45-billion euro average estimate of the 20 analysts surveyed.

TV Unit

Earnings before interest, taxes and amortization increased to 344 million euros from 57 million euros in the year-earlier period. Profit was helped by a gain of 87 million euros linked to a release of a provision for retiree medical benefits.

The television unit’s operating loss narrowed to 26 million euros from 73 million euros a year earlier.

“TV is almost break even and it has been quite a bleeder,” said Victor Bareno, an analyst at SNS Securities in Amsterdam, who put his “reduce” rating under review. “The cost reductions and restructurings are having a substantial and positive impact.”

Revenue at the consumer lifestyle division declined 20 percent from a year earlier to 2.07 billion euros. Sales at the health-care unit, the world’s largest maker of patient- monitoring systems, rose 1 percent to 1.82 billion euros, while the lighting unit’s sales declined 11 percent to 1.65 billion euros.

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Bloomberg: LG Display Co., the world’s second- largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, reported third-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates and forecast panel prices will fall.Net income increased 89.5 percent from a year earlier to 559 billion won ($483 million), Seoul-based LG Display said in a regulatory filing today. That missed the 847 billion won median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The LCD panel-making industry may face a “slight” oversupply, Chief Executive Officer Kwon Young Soo said this week, signaling that the shortage which drove up prices last quarter has ended. LG Display, Samsung Electronics Co. and Japan’s Sharp Corp. either plan or are considering building factories in China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

“Going into the fourth quarter, and into next year, earnings are set to decline,” said Kim Young Tae, a fund manager at KTB Asset Management Co. in Seoul, which looks after $8.7 billion won in assets. “We’re already witnessing lower prices, but I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as the previous industry slowdown.”

Sales, including those of overseas affiliates, increased 55 percent to 5.97 trillion won, LG Display said, in line with the 5.96 trillion won median estimate in the analyst survey. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, more than tripled to 904 billion won. Analysts estimated 959 billion won.

LG Display rose 0.2 percent to close at 32,250 won in Seoul before earnings were reported. The stock has gained 58 percent this year, outperforming the 48 percent advance by the benchmark Kospi index.

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Electronista: Activist group Greenpeace has released a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks major high-tech corporations in terms of their alleged environmental friendliness.

Among the companies favored by Greenpeace’s press efforts is Apple, which the group notes recently disclosed its carbon emissions.

Apple has risen in rankings from 11th to 9th, aided not by the disclosure but by being the “most progressive” computer maker in terms of removing product toxins.

Greenpeace comments that Apple’s emissions tracking will only affect the next guide, and that the company must actually act on reducing carbon levels.

Despite holding onto 14th place, HP has been commended for the ProBook 5310m, which is said to be the company’s first PC to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from everything but the power supply and cabling.

Dell and Lenovo are criticized for postponing toxic phase-outs indefinitely, with the latter shifting in rank to second-last, ahead of Nintendo but below Fujitsu.

LG has slipped in position from 4th to 11th, as a result of dropping plans to eliminate PVC and BFRs from all products by the end of 2010.

Philips has jumped from 7th to 4th through work on recycling policies; Sony is up from 12th to 8th due to changes in waste and chemical handling. Dominating the guide this period is Nokia, followed by Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

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NaviGadget: Toyota and TomTom have been working together in Europe as it can be seen with the Toyota Yaris SR, and just today they announced a partnership in Australia announcing a portable GPS navigation system that fits into your vehicle’s dashboard.

It is called FollowMe navigation unit and it also takes care of the audio in your vehicle.

When in portable mode the TomTom device can be used in other vehicles or even in pedestrian mode. FollowMe gets traffic updates from Suna Traffic Monitoring Services to help you battle with traffic, has bluetooth connectivity to pair up with your phone, and it can even read your text messages out loud. Now that’s a life saver.

TomTom FollowMe has a 3.5″ screen, and it can even hook up to rear view camera if you opt-in. FollowMe’s motorized tilting front panel can be adjusted up to 30 degrees to reduce sun glare, and hides the CD slot. You’ve got an optional iPod connection kit (costs extra) that brings your GUI to the dash, and if you remove your navigator you can still use all the other functions of FollowMe.

FollowMe – which really resembles an Eclipse AVN2210p by the way – uses a built-in gyroscope and accelerometer that calculates vehicle speed and direction, even in tunnels where satellite signals generally drop out

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Reuters: Japanese consumer electronics makers Pioneer Corp and Sharp Corp said on Monday that they would delay the merger of their optical disc operations as anti-trust reviews continue overseas.

The two companies reached an agreement for the merger earlier in the year and were scheduled to start the joint venture on Oct 1, in a bid to establish a leading position in the Blu-ray disc market.

Pioneer also said it is still in talks with investors to raise money to shore up its finances. The struggling company has said it aims to raise 40 billion yen ($448.7 million) from investors including Honda Motor Co Ltd, which plans to invest 2.5 billion yen. The automaker procures car navigation systems from Pioneer.

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NaviGadget: According to WSJ TomTom and Sanyo are joining their forces to sell their devices to car makers.

Japanese Sanyo announced yesterday that it will team up with Dutch TomTom to grab more market share in North America and Europe where the auto industry is supposedly picking up.

The collaboration between Sanyo and TomTom will supply auto makers with customized in-dash GPS navigation systems as early as 2010.

Sanyo has been making GPS navigation systems in Japan since 1993 where factory fitted sat nav system are more common place. On the other hand North Americans and Europeans are more into after market, windshield mounted, unsightly, portable systems.

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BBC: Japanese electronics groups Hitachi, Casio and NEC have announced plans to merge their mobile phone operations to cut costs and become more competitive.

The three companies, which are relatively small players in the mobile phone market, will share both technology and resources.

By next year, NEC will own 71% of the new business, with Casio owning 20% and Hitachi holding a 9% stake. The merger will create Japan’s second largest mobile phone maker.

Analysts say there could be further consolidation in the competitive Japanese mobile phone market.

Record loss Casio and Hitachi created a joint mobile phone venture in 2004. It makes handsets for Japanese mobile carriers KDDI Corp and Softbank Mobile Corp, while NEC makes phones for NTT Docomo and Softbank.

All three companies have suffered badly during the downturn. NEC is in the process of cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide, while Hitachi recently announced that it expects to make a loss of 270bn yen ($3bn; £1.8bn) this year. The firm made a loss of 787.3bn yen last year – a record for a Japanese manufacturer.

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CNet: We’re at IFA at the Sony press conference, where Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer reckons the “3D train is on the track — and we’re the ones to drive it home.” 3D is Sony’s big push, but we’re more interested in the announcement of a movie-download service for PS3 and PSP, via the PlayStation Network.

Sony has announced its first 3D-compatible Bravia LCD TV, to arrive in 2010. It promises a high frame rate and 1,920×1,080 pixels per eye to give what Sony describes as “high-definition, high-quality 3D images”.

3D-enabled Blu-ray players are set to follow and even the PS3 will be involved. We’re shown the trailer for 3D movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which includes burgers falling from the sky straight at the camera. From the sample footage shown off here, live football looks rubbish, unless players run right up to the camera, but games and nature programmes look great in dimensional triplicate.

After Sony’s recent restructuring, Sir Howard today also unveils a new global motto for the company: ‘Make Dot Believe’. Who’s Dot? Sir Howie’s gran back in Wales? Oh, hang on, sorry, it’s ‘Make.Believe’.

PlayStation Network’s video-delivery service for Europe will allow you to download and rent moviefilms to PS3 and PSP, and transfer them between the two. PSN has all the major studios on board: Sony, Warner Bros, Universal, Paramount, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate, and local networks. It’ll kick off this November.

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TWICE: Consumer confidence in the overall economy improved in August, said the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), as consumer confidence in technology and CE rose in the same period.

This was according to the CEA-CNET Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE), which reached 172.2 in August. CEA said this was a jump of more than 6 points from July’s yearly low.

The ICE is said to measure consumer expectations about the broader economy. CEA said the ICE is up 6.5 points from this time last year and has climbed in three of the last four months.

“Consumers are feeling more confident of an economic recovery as the recession comes to an end,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s economist and research director, in a statement.

“In particular, consumers are feeling more optimistic about the broader economy, their own financial wellbeing and importantly, are feeling more secure in their own jobs. Improved confidence in job security should buoy purchase decisions moving forward.”

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Video Business: Pioneer and Sharp have formalized their plans to jointly create Blu-ray Disc players, among other products, starting in October.

The two companies’ venture, dubbed Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing Corp., should help the companies improve efficiency through sharing resources.

Operations are scheduled to kick off in October, but the companies haven’t specified when the first products will reach shelves.

Blu-ray players are high on the venture’s to-do list, as well as such other optical-disc products as disc drives and recorders.

Pioneer Digital Design expects to generate 38 billion yen (approximately $400 million) between Oct. 1 and March 31, 2010.

Pioneer controls 66% of the venture, and Sharp has 34% ownership interest. PDDMC will have 450 employees, to be based within Pioneer’s Kawasaki Plant in Japan.

Toshihiko Kurihara has been tapped president of the joint Pioneer/Sharp entity. He’s currently general manager of Pioneer’s components business division of the home entertainment business group.

Earlier this year, Pioneer management said it was joining forces with Sharp in product development in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. At the same time, Pioneer said it was slimming expenses by exiting its in-house plasma display production business.

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JCNNetwork: The world’s No.1 plasma TV maker Panasonic Corp reported a net loss of 52.98 billion yen ($559 million) in April-June 2009, down from a 73 billion yen profit a year earlier.

For the year to March, the company kept its net loss forecast of 195 billion yen (US$2.0 billion), half of last year’s 379 billion yen loss (US$4 billion), but worse than analysts’ estimate of a 185 billion yen loss (US$1.5 billion).

Revenue for the April-June quarter fell 26% to 1.595 trillion yen (US$16.8 billion) from 2.152 trillion yen (US$16.7 billion) a year earlier, partly because of slow sales of digital cameras and flat-panel television sets.

Panasonic is still targeting TV sales of 15.5 million units this fiscal year, up from 10.05 million last year, to lift its market share to 12%. As part of its TV, Panasonic will aggressively push plasma TV sets greater than 50-inches diagonal in the U.S., Europe and China given such screen sizes earn higher margins. It also will seek to cut production costs

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