Andy Hargreaves

Analysts say they believe sales of  Apple's iPhone 4S have begun slowing as more users sit on the sidelines awaiting the arrival of the next iPhone. With the Cupertino, Calif., tech company releasing its latest earnings report Tuesday, analysts expect that Apple will announce it sold fewer iPhone 4S units than it did in the previous quarter. Apple sold more than 35 million of its latest smartphone last quarter, but Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities told Bloomberg he expects this quarter's number to be closer to 25 million while Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley expects the number to be more than 31 million.

Analysts say they believe sales of  Apple's iPhone 4S have begun slowing as more users sit on the sidelines awaiting the arrival of the next iPhone. With the Cupertino, Calif., tech company releasing its latest earnings report Tuesday, analysts expect that Apple will announce it sold fewer iPhone 4S units than it did in the previous quarter. Apple sold more than 35 million of its latest smartphone last quarter, but Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities told Bloomberg he expects this quarter's number to be closer to 25 million while Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley expects the number to be more than 31 million.

Apple Inc. will probably unveil a new iPad that could keep its name carved firmly at the top of the tablet computer market. The company is holding an event next week in San Francisco at which it is widely expected to show off a lighter and sleeker iPad that could maintain its massive lead in the multibillion-dollar tablet industry it pioneered. The media invitation for the possible iPad 2 rollout was sent as Apple shareholders met at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters amid calls for the company to disclose a succession plan in the wake of Chief Executive Steve Jobs' recent medical leave.

For years, Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs has groomed a senior management team to take the reins of the world's most powerful technology company when his fading health would no longer allow him to continue as chief executive. Tim Cook, who assumed that mantle Wednesday when Jobs resigned the post, inherits a firm that has achieved record sales and profits and a string of blockbuster consumer products. Apple is the globe's second-largest company in terms of market value and has amassed a war chest of $76 billion in cash.

Apple Inc.'s 125% jump in quarterly profit stunned Wall Street, but it may be just a prelude to even bigger gains ahead. Apple managed to post a record $7.3 billion in fiscal third-quarter earnings despite not having released a blockbuster product in nearly six months. Now as the company prepares to roll out a slate of new products — including a new iPhone, Macintosh computers and a new mobile operating system — analysts say Apple could post larger profit in the second half of the year.

Propelled by huge demand for the latest iPhone model, Apple Inc. on Monday posted tremendous increases in earnings and sales as it overtook BlackBerry's maker in the rankings of smart-phone manufacturers. The tech juggernaut once again trounced analysts' expectations for earnings as well as sales, but its stock slumped in after-hours trading because of an unexpected drop in a key measure of profitability. Still, "the one data point that really jumps out is the stunning iPhone number," said Yair Reiner, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept.

For years, Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs has groomed a senior management team to take the reins of the world's most powerful technology company when his fading health would no longer allow him to continue as chief executive. Tim Cook, who assumed that mantle Wednesday when Jobs resigned the post, inherits a firm that has achieved record sales and profits and a string of blockbuster consumer products. Apple is the globe's second-largest company in terms of market value and has amassed a war chest of $76 billion in cash.

Ingram Micro Inc., a Santa-Ana-based distributor of computers, software and electronics, said Tuesday that third-quarter profit rose 21%, beating analysts' estimates. Net income rose to $58.5 million, or 34 cents a share, from $48.4 million, or 29 cents, a year earlier, the company said. Sales increased 7.9% to $7.51 billion. Chief Executive Gregory Spierkel has curbed costs by shifting technical support and application development to less-expensive regions while entering new markets.

Kazuo Hirai had little to celebrate after just being crowned the next chief executive of Sony Corp. Pummeled by a weak global economy, natural disasters and a strong yen that made its products more expensive overseas, Sony said it was on track to lose $2.86 billion in its current fiscal year, one of the Japanese technology and entertainment giant's worst annual results. The projected annual loss was more than double what Sony anticipated just three months ago when it forecast a $1.2-billion loss for its fiscal year ending March 31. Although the lion's share of the additional red ink - about $1.5 billion - would come from one-time charges from the sale of its stake in an LCD panel facility, foreign exchange fluctuations and other write-offs, about $181 million would be attributed to weakness in Sony's performance, analysts said.

In the latest sign that smartphones are replacing simpler cellphones, Swedish device maker Ericsson is getting out of the business it helped to foster a decade ago. Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. will pay Ericsson about $1.5 billion for its half of the Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications joint venture, which makes a variety of mobile devices including some Google-powered Android smartphones. Ericsson, a pioneering company that helped popularize simpler cellphones in the 1990s, will step out of the mobile market to concentrate on other elements of its networking business.

Apple Inc.'s 125% jump in quarterly profit stunned Wall Street, but it may be just a prelude to even bigger gains ahead. Apple managed to post a record $7.3 billion in fiscal third-quarter earnings despite not having released a blockbuster product in nearly six months. Now as the company prepares to roll out a slate of new products — including a new iPhone, Macintosh computers and a new mobile operating system — analysts say Apple could post larger profit in the second half of the year.

Apple Inc. will probably unveil a new iPad that could keep its name carved firmly at the top of the tablet computer market. The company is holding an event next week in San Francisco at which it is widely expected to show off a lighter and sleeker iPad that could maintain its massive lead in the multibillion-dollar tablet industry it pioneered. The media invitation for the possible iPad 2 rollout was sent as Apple shareholders met at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters amid calls for the company to disclose a succession plan in the wake of Chief Executive Steve Jobs' recent medical leave.

Propelled by huge demand for the latest iPhone model, Apple Inc. on Monday posted tremendous increases in earnings and sales as it overtook BlackBerry's maker in the rankings of smart-phone manufacturers. The tech juggernaut once again trounced analysts' expectations for earnings as well as sales, but its stock slumped in after-hours trading because of an unexpected drop in a key measure of profitability. Still, "the one data point that really jumps out is the stunning iPhone number," said Yair Reiner, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept.

Apple Inc.'s new iPhone is getting a lot of buzz these days, just not the kind the company is used to. Consumer Reports magazine on Monday said it could not recommend the phone because of "a design flaw" in its antenna and questioned Apple's explanation for some devices displaying weak signal strength and even dropping calls. It was the first time that the magazine, known for independent testing of consumer products, did not endorse an iPhone since the original model was released in 2007.