LyrArc Article Gist
Nokia announced a loss of 929 million euros for the first quarter of 2012. Sales declined from 10.4 billon euros to 7.4 billion euros in the same quarter prior year. The only bright spot for the company is that the Lumia 900 sold throught AT&T has made a successful launch in the U.S. Nokia CEO Elop says the phone is sold out in stores in the U.S. Lumia sales were 2 million in the 1st quarter of 2012, at an average price of 220 euros ($290). Nokia's strategy now is to bring the Lumia line including the lower end Luma 610 phone to Asian markets by June- to China, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Nokia's biggest problem is the older Symbian phones, which consumers are passing by and which now have to be discounted rapidly or replaced quickly with the Lumia line. The other related problem is falling margins on basic phones as Chinese competitors discount heavily- basic Nokia phone prices fell 18% to 33 euros ($43) from 40 euros or($52) the prior year. The speed in the drop in business for mobile phones can be guaged from the sales decline of 40% in the 1st quarter from $9.3 billion to $5.6 billion. Things are made worse by the 772 million euro ($1 billion) charge taken for Nokia Siemens Networks, a network joint venture with Siemens. Sales for Nokia Siemens fell 7% in the first quarter to $3.8 billion. Nokia Siemens has 53 contracts to build new mobile networks with Long Term Evolution Technology more than competitors Ericsson and Huawei, according to Nokia Siemens. Everything now depends on the speed with which Nokia can move to its Lumia line across the board, especially in China....

LyrArc Article Gist
Plans to introduce its Luma line to China by June 2012 in cooperation with China Telecom. It is betting on Chinese demand for smartphones to recover. Sales of CDMA phones- China Telecom uses CDMA technology- are expected to double to 60 million in 2012 from 30 million in 2011. China provided 17% of Noka sales in 2011, mostly basic or older phones. The challenge is now to get the Lumia line up and running fast. Nokia's timing is right as smartphones are just beginning a surge in China- IHS forecasts an increase from 65 million in 2011 to 120 million in 2012. Nokia's advertising and marketing and close work with China Telecom has also to kick in for it to maximize on this opportunity.

LyrArc Article Gist
Strong competition from Samsung in emerging markets is another hurdle facing Nokia in its plans for recovery.

LyrArc Article Gist
SEC files civil lawsuit for securities fraud against Goldman Sachs for the Abacus deal.

LyrArc Article Gist
In Room for Debate, the Editors of the New York Times ask experts from a professor of securities law at UCLA to banking regulators and finance specialists about the Goldman Sach's Abacus deal and the SEC investigation.

LyrArc Article Gist
The SEC filed civil charges against Goldman Sachs in the Abacus case. Goldman the SEC charged, sold mortgage securities knowing that a hedge fund firm that crafted what went into the securities hoped to profit from a collapse of the housing market. Now Goldman has settled this case for 550 million dollars. A separate criminal probe on whether the company committed securities fraud continues. Analysts had expected the settlement to be closer to $1 billion, as well as the resignation of some senior executives at Goldman including Blankfein.

LyrArc Article Gist
Henninger says it is imperative to set up strong community standards that "shame the shameless," when it comes to violent video games produced by videogame companies.

LyrArc Article Gist
India's Aakash tablet priced at $42 for the Indian market at subsidized 50% by the Indian governmnt for students at colleges and universities in India.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mossberg says look for 500 gigabytes of storage, 4 gigabytes of memory, an i3 to i5 or i7 Intel processor, in buying a PC or laptop. He suggests waiting till fall 2012 for the new Windows 8, and summer 2012 for the newer PC's designed to use Windows 8. This will be a big change from before, because Windows 8 is designed to use the touch feature of tablets. Ultrabooks are a bit pricier, making PC's and laptops the lower cost option. Laptop makers are trying to increase margins on the machines. Mac's also will get a newer operating system called Mountain Lion by the fall.