Mobile Nations Weekly: Revenue, earnings, discounts, and rumors

All the profit in the world isn't enough.

This week in technology was dominated by two things: dollars and rumors. On the dollars front we got earnings reports from both Apple and Microsoft, neither of which is in bad shape. Apple had the largest-ever quarterly profit but didn't quite meet analyst expectations or paint a gold-plated rosy picture of the future, and thus got punished. Microsoft, meanwhile, reported healthy revenue and profits that beat Wall Street estimates, and despite the struggling of high profile segments was rewarded with an increased stock price.

For perspective, Microsoft earned $5.4 billion in profit on $23.8 billion in revenue. Apple registered an $18.4 billion profit on $75.9 billion in revenue.

On the rumors front, things are only heating up as we head towards the MWC unveiling of a whole new slew of smartphones. Up first is the LG G5, which might ditch the back-mounted power and volume buttons that have been a signature of the G-series flagships. Samsung, on the other hand, appears to be maintaining carrying over its existing styles to the upgraded Galaxy S7, but could actually go with a lower resolution camera in the GS7 for improved performance (as contradictory as that might seem on the surface).

There's plenty more going on, so let's dive right into this edition of Mobile Nations Weekly!

1. Android Central — Full steam ahead

Galaxy S6 camera

Another steady news week has come and gone, with Google cutting prices of its latest Nexus phones, the OnePlus X going invite-free and the BlackBerry Priv finally launching on T-Mobile.

Galaxy S7 talk is heating up again this week, with a rumored U.S. launch date of March 11 coming to light alongside the rumor of a Samsung-run upgrade program. We explored the reasoning behind an expected lower resolution camera in the GS7, as well as a breakdown of the best time to sell your Galaxy S6 before you upgrade.

In further MWC-related news, we have even more leaks about the upcoming LG G5, and the HTC M10 (codename Perfume).

2. CrackBerry — Privspansion

BlackBerry Priv

This week was all about further expanding availability of the Priv with BlackBerry having now launched the device on T-Mobile and announced release for India and South Africa. That wasn't all though, BlackBerry also expanded their EMM offerings through Watchdox and Good Technology integration. Finally, there was also a new round of BlackBerry Priv app updates.

3. iMore — All the earnings

Apple earned more money than any company ever earned in the history of companies earning money this week… so of course the markets beat the stuffing out of them. (So. Doomed.) That's resulted in a ton of leaks on everything from a new 4-inch iPhone 4se, to the long-rumored Apple Car, to the newly-rumored Apple VR project, all in the hopes poor Wall Street will find something it likes. Apple, for its part, would love to tell you more about the massive services revenue the company already generates.

4. Windows Central — Revenue shifts

Surface Book hinge

The big news this week for tech companies were their quarterly reports. Microsoft's FY16 Q2 results generated $23.8 billion in revenue beating Wall Street estimates, which the markets welcomed with a 5-percent bump in Microsoft stock since the announcement. The Surface business pulled in $1.35 billion in revenue, which is considered a success for the holiday release of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.

Not all the financial news was great, however. The "More Personal Computing" segment dropped drop 5% to $12.7 billion. Although that number is ahead of the general PC business, there is still a recovery going on. Likewise, Microsoft's Windows Phone segment tanked by 49 percent although this was entirely expected with their new retrenched strategy.

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