Smartphones outsell basic handsets; Dell earnings down 72%; India loan woes worsen

1 Smartphones outsell basic handsets (BBC) Smartphone sales exceeded feature phone sales for the first time in the April-to-June period, according to research firm Gartner. Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 435 million units. Smartphone sales accounted for 225 million units, up 46.5% from the previous year. Feature phones totalled 210 million units, down 21%. The highest smartphone growth rates came from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

A smartphone is commonly defined as a device that has built-in applications and can connect to the internet. In contrast, feature phones tend to perform fewer functions and are priced more cheaply. "Smartphones accounted for 51.8% of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

However, a competing firm, IDC, said this milestone had already been reached in the first three months of 2013. Some analysts said that the price of entry-level smartphones has come down sharply over the past few months, resulting in a major sales boost.

2 Dell earnings down 72% (Michael Liedtke in San Francisco Chronicle) Dell's woes worsened during its most recent quarter as the slumping personal computer maker resorted to rampant price cutting to slow a sales decline driven by a growing reliance on smartphones and tablets to connect to the Internet and perform other technological tasks. The discounting contributed to a 72 percent drop in Dell's fiscal second-quarter earnings.

The disheartening results could help Dell’s board persuade more of the company's stockholders that they're better off accepting a buyout offer from a group led by CEO Michael Dell rather than risk further financial deterioration in the months ahead. After Dell's report came out, ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall advised shareholders to "take the money and run" in a research note that referred to a 1976 song by the Steve Miller Band.

Although Dell's fiscal second-quarter results painted a dismal picture of the PC market, the numbers could provide Icahn and Southeastern with material to bolster their contention that the company will fare better in the future as it diversifies into higher-end computing for companies, business software, data storage and technology consulting.

Revenue in Dell's PC division declined from 5 percent from last year to $9.1 billion while operating profit plummeted 71 percent. Sales of desktop computers edged up slightly during the quarter, but revenue from laptops fell 10 percent as tablets gained more traction.

3 India loan woes worsen (Abheek Bhattacharya in The Wall Street Journal) Indian banks' loan books are already a problem. But they're going to weaken further.

At State Bank of India, the country's largest lender by assets, nonperforming loans jumped to 5.7% of the total at June 30 from 5% a year ago. At Punjab National Bank, bad loans jumped to 4.8% from 3.4% a year earlier. Standard & Poor's says the ratio of NPLs sector-wide will increase from 3.4% in March this year to 3.9% by March 2014 and 4.4% a year later.