On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Apple manages to exceed analyst expectations for Q2 2012-- with $39.2 billion in revenues and net profits reaching $6bn with 94% Y-o-Y growth.

Wall Street was expecting Apple revenues to reach $36.81bn.

Apple also managed to beat analyst sales forecast-- at least when it comes to iPhones. Q2 2012 is the 2nd best quarter for iPhones on record (the best being Q1 2012), with total sales reaching 35.1m (with 88% Y-o-Y growth), up from an expected 30.5m.

On the other hand iPad sales see a slight Q-o-Q slump, reaching 11.8m units (with 151% Y-o-Y growth) since new iPad sales only account for 2 weeks out of Q2.

According to Apple, the iPad remains the fastest selling Apple product yet. The company also claims “the new iPad is on fire. We are selling them as fast as we can make them.”

Mac sales for Q2 reach 4m units with 7% Y-o-Y growth, while iPod sales decline by 15% Y-o-Y to total 7.7m.

Speaking at the earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on the current convergence trend-- noting the company will not get into the tablet-laptop hybrid market.

"I think that anything can be forced to converge... But the problem is that these products are about tradeoffs. You begin to make tradeoffs to the point that what you have at the end of the day won’t please anyone," Cook said.

Go Apple Q2 2012 Results

Yesterday the Samsung media machine launched tgeltaayehxnx, an unpronouncable site bearing a 24 hour countdown. Today the countdown hit zero, and now links to thenextgalaxy.com... and a baffling teaser video.

The video has no new devices, showing instead nebulous images and meaningless text ("Truly smart technology becomes a natural part of life... where a galaxy fits perfectly in your hand"), all set to music some will recognise as coming from the soundtrack to the game Mass Effect 2.

The teaser then cuts to images of sheep, alongside an invite to "stand out from everyone else." Very original, we're sure you'll agree.

What does it all actually mean? Very simple-- the company will reveal the next Galaxy device at Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012, on 3 May 2012, London.

Watch The Next Galaxy Teaser

Go The Next Galaxy

The BBC reports Intel is launching the long awaited first set of 22-nanometer Ivy Bridge processors, with 13 varieties of quad-core chip for desktop and full-size laptop use.

Smaller devices will have to wait though-- dual-core and low-power processors for ultrabook-style PCs (and tablets) will only be available "later this spring."

"This is the world's first 22-nanometre product and we'll be delivering about 20% more processor performance using 20% less average power," Intel claims.

The company hopes the Ivy Bridge launch will bring momentum to a currently turgid PC market. Intel says there are around 300 mobile products and over 270 different desktop PCs (including all-in-one designs) using Ivy Bridge in development.

11 years in the making, Ivy Bridge uses "3D" Tri-Gate transistors, adding vertical silicon fins to reduce energy leakage. The chips handle 4K video resolutions with faster transcoding rates and carry USB 3.0 capability and hardware-based security options.

Go Intel's Ivy Bridge Chips Launch (BBC)

Russian electronics retailer M.Video posts strong results for Q1 2012-- with unaudited net sales growing by 18.8% Y-o-Y (or 30.6% Q-o-Q) to total €1 billion euro.

The results follow an equally strong 2011 for the retailer, when total net sales grew by 29.3% Y-o-Y to reach €3.4 billion.

During Q1 2012 M.Video also opened 7 stores, together with one closure in St Petersburg. It now has 267 retail outlets (with overall sales space of 492000 square metres) and plans to open 25-35 new stores in 2012.

M.Video uses a multi-channel approach to retail (the so-called "Omni-Channel strategy), with both in-store and online service.

Go M.Video Q1 2012 Results