Earnings Laggard: Microsoft Corporation, Marvell Technology, E TRADE Financial, Chipotle Mexican (MSFT, CMG, MRVL, ETFC)

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.(NASDAQ:MRVL) shares tumbled 8% in after hours trading after the company trimmed earnings forecast for the third quarter amid uncertain economic conditions and a weak PC market.

The company now projects to generate revenue of $765 million to $785 million, missing analysts’ target of $800 million.

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Separately , the company’s chief financial officer, Clyde Hosein, has stepped down “to pursue other opportunities.” The company has named controller Brad Feller as an interim replacement.

E TRADE Financial Corporation(NASDAQ:ETFC) swung to third-quarter loss because of lower trading volumes and a number of one-time charges. The company posted net loss of $28.6 million, or 10 cents a share, reversing a year ago profit of $70.7 million, or 24 cents a share, missing analysts target of a profit of 10 cents a share.

Total net revenues also slid to $490.04 million, from $507.28 a year ago, ahead of analysts target of $440.12.

Shares of the firm slid 2%.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.(NYSE:CMG) tumbled 13% in late trading as after the company reported a weaker than estimated third quarter earnings.

The company said that net income grew 20% year over year to $72.3 million, or $2.27 per share, from $60.4 million, or $1.90 per share, a year ago quarter, but missed analysts target by 2 cents.

Revenue also came in at $700.5 million, again missing analysts’ estimate of $702.9 million. Same-store revenue jumped 4.80%.

Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) reported first quarter earnings of $4.47 billion, or 53 cents a share, missing analysts’ estimate by 3 cents. Revenue came in at $17.36 billion, surpassing analysts’ target of $16.42 billion.

The Server & Tools business reported $4.55 billion in first-quarter revenue, an 8% increase year over yar, The Microsoft Business Division posted $5.50 billion in first-quarter revenue, a 2% decrease from the prior year period.

The Windows & Windows Live Division posted revenue of $3.24 billion, a 33% decrease from the prior year period.

Microsoft reaffirms fiscal year 2013 operating expense guidance of $30.3 billion to $30.9 billion.

Shares of MSFT are down 2.36% in after hours trading.

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to report weak first quarter earnings Tomorrow

The world's largest software company, Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) is seen reporting weak quarterly earnings when it announces its results for the September quarter on Thursday.

Analysts expect Microsoft to report adjusted earnings of 61 cents per share. For the quarter ending in June Microsoft had reported its first loss ever as it had to write down the value of its Internet advertising firm aQuantive.

Analysts are expecting a profit in the fiscal first quarter, but revenues that would be lower than what was reported in the March 2011 quarter.

According to reports, analysts are split on whether they are factoring in the deferral of revenues from Windows 7 and Office 2013, and the average earnings forecast may not match up well with real expectations.

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For instance, Nomura Securities has said that it expects earnings of 50 cents per share, excluding deferred revenues.

Revenues are expected to be at about $16.5 billion, according to analysts.

Microsoft has been hit during the quarter by a dip in the sales of personal computers that run on its operating system. PC sales fell more than 8 percent worldwide, partly due to lack of demand and partly because customers have deferred purchases waiting for the launch of the Windows 8 operating software. It is expected to be launched on October 26, along with its new Windows Phone 8 for mobiles.

More than its new operating system, Microsoft is now concentrating its energies on the launch of its new tablet C Surface which will be running on its new operating system for mobiles.

In the first quarter of the year-ago period Microsoft had earned 68 cents on revenues of $17.4 billion.

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Tech Outperforms: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

The tech sector is outperforming this morning with the NASDAQ Composite(INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) rose +6.86 (0.22%) at 3,108.03.

There were a couple of announcements on Tuesday for which the market was waiting for quite some time.

Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) put out a press release which had the pricing details of Surface, its debut in the tablet PC segment.

In the release Microsoft said, "Originally unveiled in June, Surface with Windows RT will initially be available in three SKUs: a 32GB version priced at US$499, a 32GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$599, and a 64GB version bundled with a black Touch Cover priced at US$699."

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The company said that a variety of accessories would also be available, including touch covers in five vibrant colors — black, white, magenta, cyan and red — priced at US$119.99 so customers can express their personal style. Customers will also have the option to purchase a type cover in black for US$129.99, which adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

Pre-orders for the Surface tablet will start on October 26 at all Microsoft Store locations in the U.S. and Canada.  In addition, Surface will be available for sale online in eight markets across the world: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The other announcement came from Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) which sent out invitations for an event on October 23, at the California Theatre in San Jose.

The invite read, "We've got a little more to show you."

The iPhone maker is expected to unveil a smaller and cheaper version of its iPad, which the media has dubbed as the `iPad Mini' for a long time now.

There is speculation that along with the iPad, it will also unveil a 13 inch retina MacBook, a new iTunes model and a Mac mini.

That's a lot of stuff.

The plight of Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK) does not look promising at all because predictions have revealed that sales will plummet and the company will lose more market share even though investors are eagerly waiting for the unveiling of Microsoft's Windows Phone software 8. This launch is supposed to be the “saving grace” for Nokia’s smartphones.

How Should Investors Trade NOK Now? Find Out Here

Nokia, which was a cutting-edge brand and a leader in the cellphone market for more than a decade, could not withstand competition from Apple and Samsung in high-end devices sector. Now it is also losing customers to Asian makers when it comes to lower-end devices. Samsung surpassed Nokia and became the world's No. 1 cellphone maker in the first quarter selling 86.6 million units, in comparison to Nokia’s 83 million.

The company dropped from a market share of 40% in 2008 to 29% in the last year. Reports state that the figures will be extremely dismal at the end of this year as well. 2^nd quarter losses totaled almost $1.7 billion and overall sales came to 7.5 million at a 19% decline. Investors are hoping that Microsoft’s liaison with Nokia might strengthen the latter’s position in the US.

Shares of NOK are up 2.50% after surging 9% in the past two trading sessions.

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Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) faces prospect of diminishing market share with Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT)

Finnish handset maker Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK) is trying to battle it out in a market where it has a diminishing market share, according to RBC Capital's Mark Sue.

In an ecosystem which is dominated by Google's Android operating system followed by Apple's iOS, Microsoft is trying to be the third with Nokia as only ONE of its hardware partners.

The European company, that recently launched a new series of Lumia smartphones, has to battle it out not only with Samsung but a host of others with whom Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) is partnering.

Samsung handsets, it may be remembered, running on Android, are already market leaders in the smartphone segment. For Nokia, the share gets divided even further.

According to Sue, "Nokia (6.9 percent share) continues to donate market share along with peers such as HTC (6.2 percent), Sony (4 percent), and Motorola (3.7 percent) as market leaders Samsung (34 percent) and Apple (17.5 percent) gain share at their expense. Smartphone competition remains fierce and profitability remains elusive for smaller players, Nokia included."

Sue says that Nokia has bet wrong by throwing in its lot with Microsoft’s Windows 8 and that it should have gone along with Android instead.

He pointed out that though the Nokia Lumias have received favourable reviews, investors remained sceptical about its appeal in the marketplace when compared with competing products from Apple and Samsung, such as iPhone 5 and Galaxy SIII.

Nokia has dumped its Symbian operating system, on which it was once dominated the mobile phone world, and has signed up Microsoft as its preferred partner.

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) manages to anger EU to the point of a formal complaint

The software giant, Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) may be facing one huge case in a matter of days, from the European Union. The company conveniently forgot to add the browser options by the way of the screen which says ‘browser choice’. And this elimination did not happen in a few cases. The option to pick a different browser was denied to 28 million users, as a result of which, the European Union is not going to spare the company. It will soon be receiving a formal antitrust complaint from the EU.

The latest version of the operating system of Microsoft did not contain the ‘browsers choice’, which gives users the option to pick another browser for their internet activities. They could have picked Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome, or another browser. However, Microsoft ensured, through this ‘mistake’, that the users did not get any such option. They had to use the default browser provided by the operating system itself. However, the elimination has brought about the antitrust wrath of the whole European Union down on the shoulders of Microsoft. It might be getting a statement of objections from the EU, but it will be a formal one. The company has been charged, and will legally be charged with several accusations by the European Union, and legally speaking, the company then has the option to appeal, to settle, or to admit to the fault, which will lead to a reduction in the fine as penalty. The option of appealing might lead to a long drawn out case which might not be a very good idea.

The browser choice had been made important by the EU because Microsoft had to add the option, as per a settlement the company had had with Europe during some events in 2009. However, the European Union began investigating the case when many people were unable to get different browsers to do their work from. The choice for a different browser was mandatory. It was a compulsory Windows hotfix as per the ruling of the court. The EU regulators had made sure during that ruling, that the company should add the option for the users, to choose something other that Internet Explorer. The company will face heavy fines if found guilty. 

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) gets into the music business with Xbox Music

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has long been attempting to break into the digital music service segment and compete with Apple's iTunes, has now launched XBox Music.

The world's largest software firm plans to use its popular gaming console to provide digital music entertainment in the form of live streaming content from various service providers such as Netflix.

Microsoft previous attempts in this segment such as the Zune music player and service were colossal failures as it was unable to dislodge the popularity of other entrenched players, particularly Apple.

XBox was envisaged by Microsoft as a one-stop shop device to provide entertainment. Recent evidence has shown that Xbox owners use the gaming console more as an entertainment device rather than just to play games.

XBox Music will offer prospective subscribers access to a global catalogue of about 30 million songs and will allow them to listen free to any of the songs on computers and tablets that are running the latest version of Windows software.

Initially the music service would be available on XBox and its Surface tablets, and then it would be extended to computers and laptops running on Windows software and then finally to smartphones powered by its operating software.

On Oct. 26 the company is set to launch its latest operating system both for computers as well as for phones. The company plans to package the software for the music service along with Windows 8.

Apple has been a pioneer in the way that it used music services to sell more iPods and now other companies are following suit.

Shares of MSFT are up slightly in the pre-open session.

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PC Makers Hit New Lows as Shipments Forecast to Decline 1 Pct This year - Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Dell (HPQ, MSFT, DELL)

A new forecast has predicted that sale in personal computers are likely to decline about a percent in 2012, the first annual decline in 11 years.

Research firm IHSiSuppli said on Wednesday that about 349 billion PCs will be shipped this year compared to 353 million shipped last year.

Though it is a small decline, what is significant is the decline and is a pointer to the waning popularity of traditional computers.

A lot of hopes were pinned on the growth of computers with the launch of ultra-books, but somehow the lure of tablets and other mobile devices have been more than that of computers.

Consumers are increasingly turning to tablets and other mobile devices for their everyday computing needs.

The hopes of the PC industry are now pinned on Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT)  new Windows operating software, from which they expect a revival in sales.

Ironically, Microsoft itself is moving away from being a mere maker of software and now has plans to move into the tablet PC market, where it sees more opportunity.

In fact Windows 8 operating software has been designed in such a way that it can power hybrid PCs and can also work on tablet PCs. This means that if the operating software for tablets becomes more popular it could accelerate the decline of the PC industry.

Machines running on Windows 8 are scheduled to go on sale Oct. 26 from Lenovo Group Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Company(NYSE:HPQ), Samsung Electronics Co., Dell Inc.(NASDAQ:DELL) and others.

Shares of HPQ fell 1.32% to $14.18 on Wednesday and made a new low of $14.02, Dell Inc.(NASDAQ:DELL) lost 1.36% to $9.43 and hit new low of $9.34.

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