HTC has invested $40 million in cloud video gaming service OnLive, in an effort to strengthen gaming capabilities on smartphones (and likely tablets).
The Taiwanese company has quickly become a very profitable smartphone maker, bringing in $500 million profit for the last quarter, alone, on revenue of $3.6 billion.
HTC was the phone maker behind the first-ever Android device, the T-Mobile G1 and has increased its lineup significantly since.
CEO Peter Chou said earlier this year it wants to use its $2.5 billion it has in cash to boost “strategic investments” in digital content, and it appears, cloud-computing.
Earlier in the week, HTC invested in Saffron Digital, a mobile and Web-based media company.
More details of the OnLive investment are upcoming at the MWC next week.
Result for: last quarter
Apple crushed its quarterly earnings this afternoon but shares of the stock have fallen severely after the company guided a lower outlook for next quarter.
Shares of the company are down in after hours trading to $300, after hitting as high as $319 during regular trading hours.
For the Q3, Apple topped $20 billion in revenue, whilst earning $4.31 in net profit. Analysts had expected lower profit and revenue.
Revenue surged 67 percent year-on-year from $12.2 billion and income jumped 70 percent from $2.53 billion during the same period last year.
The most impressive number from the earnings report was iPhone sales, which doubled year-on-year and jumped 60 percent from last quarter. Sales of the popular smartphone were 14.1 million for the quarter compared to 8.4 million in a relatively slow Q2. iPhone revenue accounted for $8.6 billion of the company’s revenue for this quarter.
iPad sales increased to 4.19 million, for a total of 7.46 million lifetime sales.
On the downside of the report gross margins fell to 36.9 percent from 41.8 percent year-on-year thanks to lower sales of iPods, the company’s most profitable device.
Result for: last quarter
Well on the way to profitability and its 1 billion user goal, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has posted today on his blog that the site has reached 300 million users today, as well as gone “cash flow positive.”
Zuckerberg added however that 300 million is just the beginning and the site “is just getting started on our goal of connecting everyone.”
Perhaps more interestingly is the fact that the site is now profitable, much earlier than expected. “Earlier this year, we said we expected to be cash flow positive sometime in 2010,” Zuckerberg added. “And I’m pleased to share that we achieved this milestone last quarter.”
You can read the full Facebook post here: 300 Million and On by Mark Zuckerberg
