And unless you read corporate press releases or work in a corporate IT shop, you probably didn’t even know Cisco made such a gadget. You didn’t miss anything, though, because the Cius is now a (very small) bit of history.

Today Cisco announced on its corporate blog that it would no longer continue to develop the Cius tablet. Cisco has basically run afoul of the growing “bring your own device” trend at corporate IT shops. And when employees bring their own tablets and smartphones, well, most of the devices have the familiar logo of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple has supported the trend by paying a lot of attention to security issues and making it easier for corporate shops to incorporate the once-troublesome devices into company wide networks.

The Cisco blog post notes that the company plans to “double-down” on its Jabber and WebEx software products.

Cisco’s shares are trading up 0.02% today at $16.42 in a 52-week range of $13.30-$21.30.

Paul Ausick

The top mobile phone advertising platform was the iPhone, with 15% of the market, followed by RIM’s Blackberry Curve with 4.4% and Motorola’s Droid Razr with 4%. When combined with advertising served to tablets, Apple grabbed about 28% of impressions, followed by Samsung with 18%.

As a group, smartphones took 73% of all advertising in the first quarter, up from 62% in the same period a year ago. Tablets, however, took 20% of impressions, up from 15% last year, and now claim nearly 3x the ad impressions for feature phones.

The data comes from a survey by Millennial Media Inc. (NYSE: MM), a mobile ad network that competes with Apple’s iAds and Google’s AdMob.

Millennial also note that of the top 10 devices that display ads, 3 were tablets. A year ago only Apple’s iPad made the top 20. The two additions this year were Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

As tablets attract more buyers, it’s reasonable to expect that their share of the ad market will grow. Recent research from Nielsen indicates that tablets get 24% of all Worldwide Web ad clicks, compared with just 11% for phones. Tablets are more like desktop and laptop computers and users may click on ads because of the more familiar size of the screen. The small screens on smartphones are not as easy to use to find things quickly — and that’s the appeal of smartphones and smartphone apps — to find exactly what a user wants with the least amount of fuss.

This is good news for Apple, of course, and not-so-good news for Google, which pays a hefty price in traffic acquisition costs to maintain its position as the default search engine on OEM smartphones, including iPhones. By one estimate Apple gets 50%-60% of the revenue from a Google search on iOS, whether from an iPhone or an iPad. Google probably does not have to part with quite as much revenue for devices from other makers, but a cut of about 40% would match Google’s reported traffic acquisition costs. Google needs to find a way to hold onto more of its search revenue because its mobile ad network simply can’t make up the lost cash flow.

Paul Ausick

A report at Reuters names South Korea’s SK Hynix and US chip maker GlobalFoundries as two firms the unhappy bondholders have begun discussions with. At the time that Micron was declared the winning bidder, the only other competitor was a combined bid from two Japanese private equity firms.

If a couple of private equity firms think that Elpida is worth less than Micron thinks it’s worth, then it doesn’t make a lot of sense to believe that either Hynix or GlobalFoundries will think Elpida is worth more. Elpida’s debt is more than double the price Micron has offered to pay, so it’s no surprise that the bondholders want to smoke out a higher bid. At best they’re probably hoping to get another bid that is slightly better than Micron’s in the hope that Micron will bid again. Another possibility is that one of the private equity firms will take part with one of the chip makers, lowering the amount of capital at risk, but likely to muddy the waters over who’s in charge and what the strategy should be going forward.

Micron’s shares are up 0.8% in the pre-market, at $5.67 in a 52-week range of $3.97-$10.23.

Paul Ausick

Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF.PK) led all vendors with 86.6 million units sold, followed by Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) with 81.2 million units sold, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) with 33.1 million units sold. Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) sold 9.9 million units and Motorola Mobility Holdings Co. (NYSE: MMI) sold 8.4 million units.

Samsung grew its handset market share from 16.1% to 20.7% year-over-year. Apple’s share also grew, from 3.9% to 7.9%, while Nokia’s share fell from 25.1% to 19.8%. The only other vendor to increase share was ZTE Corp., a Chinese maker of low-cost handsets.

By software platform, the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) grabbed 56.1% of sales, up from 36.4% in the first quarter of 2011. Apple’s iOS was second in platform shipments, with a 22.9% of the market compared with 16.9% last year. The big losers were Nokia’s Symbian OS, down from 27.7% a year ago to 8.6% this year, and RIM, down from 13% a year ago to 6.9% this year. Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) share also fell, from 2.6% a year ago to 1.9% this year.

According to Gartner:

All vendors were impacted at different levels; however, white-box vendors seem to have suffered the most. While tier one players such as Nokia were negatively impacted on sell-in numbers (sold into retail), white-box vendors were unable to adjust production and were left with a build-up in inventory by the end of the quarter. Gartner expects some of this volume to be sold during the next couple of quarters, because the channel is likely to lower the prices to dispose of the stock.

The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year. The continued roll-out of third generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable.

Now a decline of 20 million units over the course of a year is not much when total sales are expected to be north of 1.5 billion units. Samsung and Apple took more than 49.3% of total smartphone sales of 144.4 million units in the first quarter. The smartphone market has become a two-horse race, especially at the top-end of the market. Whether or not Nokia/Microsoft want to or can get into that race remains to be seen.

The open race is at the low end of the market and that’s where RIM and Motorola will have to fight it out with the low-cost makers like ZTE. Nokia/Microsoft would probably prefer not to play down here. Neither do RIM or Motorola, but that’s where the race is still undecided.

The Gartner press release is available here.

Paul Ausick

Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF.PK) recently introduced a 4.8-inch screen on its Galaxy S III, half-an-inch larger than the 4.3-inch screen on the company’s existing Galaxy S II model. The new device is scheduled to launch in the US this summer.

The larger iPhone screens are being manufactured by several suppliers, including LG Display Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LPL), Sharp Corp. (OTC: SHCAY.PK), and Japan Display Inc.

Apple is reported to be considered making a smaller version of its iPad tablet as well. Like the iPhone, the tablet’s screen size has remained unchanged since the iPad’s introduction. Other tablets, including the Kindle Fire family from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and the Nook from Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) have had success with smaller screens.

Apple and Samsung currently account for more than 50% of all smartphones sold, and Apple’s iPad really has no serious competition yet in the tablet market. The issue for Apple is whether or not it wants to get out in front of the mobile device market with a new product that raises the bar for everyone else. A “me-too” smartphone with a larger screen or a similar shrinking of the iPad screen is not the sort of change a leader makes. Especially when the evidence (i.e., sales) indicates that consumers can’t get enough of the products you already have.

Apple’s strength has always been to build a product that none of us knew we wanted because we don’t have the vision. Anybody can make screens bigger or smaller. Apple should be doing something else. Like building a cheaper phone that would appeal to the half of the world that can’t afford to buy the current iPhone.

Paul Ausick

The company’s CEO could barely contain his enthusiasm:

Kepler GPUs [graphics processing units] are accelerating our business. Our newly launched desktop products are winning some of the best reviews we’ve ever had. Notebook GPUs had a record quarter. And Tegra is on a growth track again, driven by great mobile device wins and the upcoming Windows on ARM launch.

Nvidia, which licenses designs from ARM Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARMH), may be getting back on track following a couple of weak quarters. Like other ARM licensees such as Qualcomm Corp. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN), Nvidia is profiting from the explosive demand for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

The company’s growth prospects are further enhanced by a decision from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) to release a version of is Windows 8 operating system for ARM-based processors, the company’s first foray from the x86-designs of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD).

Nvidia forecast second quarter revenue of $990 million to $1.05 billion, significantly above the current consensus estimate of $976.2 million. Non-GAAP gross margins are also expected to rise from 50.1% in the first quarter to 51.5% in the second quarter.

The company’s share price is down about -45% since the beginning of 2011. Nvidia’s forward P/E ratio in February of 2011 was north of 63. That has fallen to 13.65 today, indicating an abundance of enthusiasm from investors that the company simply couldn’t deliver on. The situation is changing now, and Nvidia might actually be set to deliver the goods.

Shares are up 9.5% in the pre-market this morning, at $13.58 in a 52-week range of $11.47-$20.52.

Paul Ausick

The company traditionally does not give guidance until its conference call, which will be held later this afternoon.

Gross margins for the quarter were higher, at 62% compared with 61.3% last quarter, and cost of sales rose 5%, compared with a rise of 7% last quarter. Cisco finished the quarter with about $6.5 billion cash and equivalents and long-term debt of around $16.3 billion, both only slightly different from last year’s figures.

In our preview of Cisco’s earnings earlier today, we noted that the stock has been very weak for the past month and the third-quarter results are not going to change that. Shares are down about 3% in the after-market, at $18.25 in a 52-week range of $13.30 to $21.30. Beware a larger swing once guidance is given.

Paul Ausick

According to the announcement, developers will now be able to use the Dolby technology through:

Windows 8 APIs in desktop and Metro-style apps, including those developed for x86 and ARM architectures. Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoding and Dolby Digital two-channel encoding will be supported in all PCs and tablets licensed to run Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT editions.

Dolby also announced second fiscal quarter results that beat estimates. Adjusted EPS came in at $0.81 versus a consensus estimate of $0.75 and revenues of $260.3 million topped the consensus estimate of $253.5 million. The company also guide fiscal year EPS to $2.38-$2.62, up from its earlier guidance of $2.31-$2.61. The consensus estimate for full-year EPS had been $2.57. Dolby noted that the Microsoft deal will have no impact on fiscal 2012 results because the Windows 8 is not expected to ship before Dolby’s 2013 fiscal year begins in October.

Dolby’s shares are up about 18.5% at $44.58 in a 52-week range of $25.70-$50.22.

Paul Ausick

Elpida filed for bankruptcy in February, and at that time Micron and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) were said to be in the running to acquire the company. Micron reportedly made an offer of $1.5 billion at the time.

If the report is accurate, Micron may have found one way to keep DRAM prices from falling even more as well as a way to keep up in the race to integrate CPU, GPU, NAND flash and mobile DRAM chips onto a single chip.

Micron’s shares are up about 4.5% after a half-hour of trading this morning, at $6.76 in a 52-week range of $3.97-$11.13.

Paul Ausick

Had it not been for the collapse of the solar PV industry in 2011, the LED business would have gotten a lot more attention. Shares are down anywhere from -67% to -22% for LED-related companies like Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT), Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE), Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN), SemiLEDS Corp. (NASDAQ: LEDS), and Aixtron SE (NASDAQ: AIXG).

SemiLEDS reported a smaller than expected loss about a month ago, but also said that negative gross margins would continue. In its forecast last night, Veeco said that revenue would total $120-$145 million in the second quarter and adjusted EPS would be $0.29-$0.48. The consensus estimates had been for revenue of $128.2 million and adjusted EPS of $0.23. The company expects to garner revenue of $500-$600 million for the full fiscal year.

The company’s CEO had this to say:

While [equipment] bookings grew modestly in the first quarter, we have not yet seen a clear inflection in customer buying patterns. LED customers remain cautious about capacity investment plans and it is still unclear when the [equipment] market will recover. Some positive signs are emerging, including increasing tool utilization rates in Korea, Taiwan and China, and a pick-up in customer quoting activity.

Veeco’s shares are up more than 14% today at $34.45 in a 52-week range of $20.35-$57.67. The other LED makers are also up, with Rubicon getting the biggest boost of about 7.6%. That’s probably because Rubicon has not yet reported first quarter results nor has the company set a date yet to do so.

Paul Ausick