Apple Posts Record Quarter at $15.7 Billion

Apple has released its third quarter financial results. This reflects fiscal 2010 third quarter ended June 26, 2010.

The company boasted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion. This compares to a year ago, when Apple reported revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion.

Obviously Apple has had some big product launches this year that largely contributed to revenue. The company sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter (which was a record in itself), as well as 8.4 million iPhones 9.41 million iPods, and 3.27 million iPads (which were only launched during the quarter).

"It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year."

"We're really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter," added Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44"

Apple's gross margin was 39.1% compared to 40.9% a year ago. International sales accounted for 52% of the quarter’s revenue.

The entire release can be found here

Are YouTube Users Part of Google's Rumored "Google Me" Social Network by Default?

Over a year ago, Google announced that it would start requiring all people signing up for YouTube usernames to have a Google account. Now they're going to start requiring all users of YouTube that signed up prior to that to connect their accounts to Google accounts as well.

Here are the reasons Google gives for connecting YouTube accounts to Google accounts:

- Improved account security. The Google Account system is robust and will help reduce spam across the site; users will get a slew of security and safety features that Google has spent the past decade developing.

- A single account system. This may not mean much to anyone outside of the YouTube engineering team, but behind the scenes it’s extremely complicated to support two different account systems. Having all users on the same account system not only simplifies matters, but more important, it makes it much easier to use Google technologies to keep the site running smoothly (over two billion views a day and counting), as well as introduce new functionality.

 There has been a lot of talk about Google working on a new social network (often referred to as "Google Me"). We still don't know exactly what that's going to be all about, but when people assess the success/failure of Google's social media efforts, they often overlook that Google owns YouTube, which is essentially a giant social network (albeit one that revolves around video). Not everyone uses YouTube as a social network, but the more people that have Google accounts, the more people Google will be able to claim as part of its broader "social network".

As we have discussed numerous times, Google itself could really be seen as one giant social network, with different products representing different features. If you have a Google account, you are part of that social network, regardless of what "features" you may or may not use.

“Deadliest Catch” Game To Launch On Facebook

The Discovery Channel has partnered with social game company Hive Media, to develop a game based on the television show "Deadliest Catch."

The social media game is set to be released in November on Facebook. The game will be available only in North America.

"Deadliest Catch has always been one of our favorite Discovery Channel shows," said Brian Laing, CEO, Hive Media.

"The perils of the Bering Sea and the camaraderie shared by the ship captains and crews makes a great platform for building a social game."

The "Deadliest Catch" game will allow players to be captains of their own crab boats and navigate the Bering Sea to cast and harvest pots while attempting to profit in a dangerous environment as they work their way to the top of the leader board.

"Integrating the series into a branded social game is a great way to give Deadliest Catch fans an ongoing interactive experience," said Elizabeth Bakacs, Vice President of Licensing for Discovery Channel.

"We look forward to working with Hive Media to bring the real-world adventures of Deadliest Catch to social gaming."

The Facebook game will follow the launch of the Deadliest Catch console game this fall. It will complete a three part interactive gaming experience for Deadliest Catch fans, also including a mobile game. source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/

Hitwise Predicts Move Into Gaming For Google

Google's never been a predictable sort of company. Its focus on green energy, support for the Klingon language, and decision to set up beehives on corporate property are just a few examples of unusual behavior. But if Google acts in a rational manner, Hitwise believes the company will enter the gaming sector.

This isn't a random guess. In response to Google's acquisition of ITA Software, Heather Hopkins wrote, "We at Hitwise have been waiting for such an announcement for some time. In 2006 when Google Finance was launched, we looked at the top downstream industries from Google and noticed an obvious gap: Travel. Then again in 2008, when Google Health was launched we did the same analysis and pointed out the same gap."

And now that Google's filled the gap, Hopkins concluded, "[T]he next biggest downstream industry from Google.com is Games and Google does not yet have a presence in that industry. Stay tuned..."



The one problem with this prediction might be if Google thinks it already gave gaming a shot in the form of Lively. Lively didn't come close to entertaining the average person, though, instead flopping in obscurity.

NASA Adds New Features To Its Website

NASA has introduced new features to its NASA.gov website in an effort to offer better navigation and make it easier for users share information on Facebook and Twitter.

The new features on NASA.gov include:

*We added images to the 'What are people interested in?' box on the homepage.

*We changed the navigation on the homepage multimedia box so that the options are clearer within each panel of the box.

*We swapped the 'Connect' and 'About NASA' buttons in the top navigation bar to reduce confusion since we found several users intuitively saw 'Connect' and thought 'Contact' since the words are similar and that's a more standard placement for contact information.

*We pared down the 'Share' options at the top of pages from a list of hundreds to four-options which then expand out to the full list.

* We tweaked the information we provide when you share our pages on Facebook so that it shows a image to illustrate each page and video.

NASA also said it plans on updating its Twitter box on the homepage to make it easier to know where tweets are coming from. The agency is adding more Facebook and Digg integrations so users can "Like" its pages without sharing them on social networks. NASA said it will announce the improvements once they go live.

Marketing Perspective is Going to Have to Shift

The marketing perspective is going to have to shift. Whether you are living in the world of small businesses or global corporations recruiting talent, and then retaining that talent is becoming a priority. Effective internal marketing empowers employees to take on learning the ends and out of the company, the industry and how to work with their customers. Employees with a good understanding of the company vision will establish long term trusting relationships with customers and learned the ropes of the industry. When empowered employees speak with pride about the company, it’s value and have prepared elevator speeches about the brand.

Internal Marketing Makes Employees Happier

Happier employees make and keep happy customers.

“Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000” – The Pocket Guide to Defensive Branding

Education of employees is essential. Give them resources so that they clearly understand expectations and can perform their job with personal and professional satisfaction. Whether you are holding company meetings in person, or virtually, maintain a knowledge base or send out regular notifications — it isn’t enough. Market to to employees to keep their connection to the company strong, their understanding of the products, tools they use and their resources so that they perform at a level of excellence they are proud of. Communicate often, with consistency and consider offering on going training for all departments that focuses on increasing clarification of the company’s message.

Customer Service
No matter what media communication is happening customer service is all about building trust, connection and long term relationships. Empower both sides of the counter, phone or

Employee Recognition
Feature employees that are representing the brand well on and offline. Give examples of their work and support them professionally. Give employees strong examples of people that understand the brand, and how to communicate

Social Networks
There is an assumption that employees will communicate about their job, company and its brands in a professional manner. Make sure expectations are clear to what the company policy is.

Blogging
Believe it or not your employees are blogging. They are writing about their life experience. Spending 9+ hours a day at their job is a big part of their life. Expect that they will want to talk about their job and give tips and instruction on ways to communicate online.

Hold on to your towel, the marketing world is changing. The most important priority will not be just being competitive locally or globally but having a strong internal understanding of the company vision. Encourage and support employees to establish relationships and become knowledgeable in the industry. Empower employees with consistent resources that educate them about communication channels, representing the company and it’s culture. Be creative in your internal marketing strategies and make sure to offer plenty of channels for feedback. source: www.webpronews.com/topnews/