What's Important in the Financial World (1/24/2013)

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There is no hope in sight for Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) as it tries to get its 787 Dreamliner flagship back in the air. Japanese investigators say that an overcharging of the plane’s lithium-ion battery is not at fault. The U.S. Department of Transportation says it has not found the source of the problem, but will continue to work “round the clock” to locate it. All the while, deliveries of the Dreamliner are on hold, and Boeing’s shares continue to trade down. According to Bloomberg:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta gave no indication yesterday that the Dreamliner will return to service soon, as regulators around the world try to figure out what triggered smoke and fire earlier this month on two Japanese airliners, one of which made an emergency landing. “Our goal is to get this done as quickly as possible, but we must be confident that the problems are corrected before we can move forward,” LaHood said at a meeting of the Aero Club of Washington. The Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration “are working diligently with Boeing” to find a solution, LaHood said. “We don’t know what caused these incidents yet,” Huerta told reporters at a briefing after LaHood’s remarks.

Global Connectivity Report

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) issued its third-quarter report on connectivity. Not surprisingly, connection speeds on average have risen compared to the same period as last year:

The global average connection speed decreased by approximately seven percent between the second and third quarters of 2012 to 2.8 Mbps. South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed at 14.7 Mbps. Japan (10.7 Mbps) and Hong Kong (8.9 Mbps) rounded out the top three countries for average connection speed in the quarter.

Despite the slight quarter-over-quarter decline, global average connection speed enjoyed healthy 11 percent growth year over year.

Similar to the average connection speed metric, the global average peak connection speed also saw a minor quarter-over-quarter decline, dropping 1.4 percent to 15.9 Mbps. In the third quarter of 2012, Hong Kong boasted the highest peak connection speed at just more than 54 Mbps.

Looking at year-over-year changes, significant improvement was once again seen in the global average peak connection speed, growing 36 percent.

Akamai observed global broadband (>4 Mbps) and high broadband (>10 Mbps) adoption showing solid gains in the quarter. The global high broadband adoption rate grew by 8.8 percent quarter over quarter, reaching 11 percent, while the global broadband adoption rate increased 4.8 percent, growing to 41 percent.

Galaxy S IV Coming Soon

The Samsung Galaxy S III has done a great deal of damage to sales of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, which may be one of the reasons the U.S. company’s forecasts for the current quarter are lighter than expected. Apple’s problems may get worse, because Samsung is likely to release a Galaxy S IV model before the end of March. According to the LA Times:

Meanwhile, another report by BGR says a picture of what could be the Galaxy S IV phone is available on Picasa.

The image shows what it says is the Galaxy S IV next to the Galaxy S III. The alleged Galaxy S IV is taller, seems to have a bigger screen and doesn’t appear as rounded as the Galaxy S III.

BGR points out that the image shows the date “April 22,” which could be a clue for when the phone will go on sale. That would line up with several other rumors that say Samsung is expected to launch its next flagship that month.