Ericsson announced a drop in income for the third quarter of 2012, as it continued to be impacted by lower profitability in its core Networks business.

In a statement, Hans Vestberg, its president and CEO, noted that although operating expenses are being reigned in and the company is seeing “steady improvements” in the execution of projects, “these improvements are encouraging, but not enough and we will continue to proactively identify and execute additional efficiency gains and cost reductions”.

For the quarter, the company announced a net income of SEK2.2 billion (US$326.8 million), down 42 per cent from SEK3.8 billion year-on-year, on revenue of SEK54.6 billion, down 2 per cent from SEK55.5 billion.

Ericsson said that demand for Global Services and Support Services “continued to be good”, while Networks saw a decline in sales year-on-year.

In North America, infrastructure sales developed “favourably”, despite the expected decline in CDMA sales, although “parts of Europe, China, Korea and Russia continued to be slow”.

In addition, Ericsson’s business mix has been impacted by a higher share of coverage and modernisation projects – rather than capacity expansions – in Europe, a situation that is “expected to prevail short-term”.

It also noted that “we see a continued macroeconomic slow down and political unrest in parts of the world, which has led to more cautious operator spending”.

Apple reported quarterly earnings that were below most expectations, appearing to suffer from weaker than anticipated iPad sales.

The firm sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 58 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. But it sold just 14 million iPads, a lot less than expected and down 18 per cent from the last quarter – a shortfall the firm blamed on market “rumours.”

“It’s clear that customers delay purchases of tablets due to new product rumours, and these intensified in August and September," CEO Tim Cook told investors on a call.

Apple launched a new fourth-generation iPad earlier this week – just six months after its predecessor – alongside a new, cheaper ‘iPad mini.’

The iPhone-maker posted net profit for the quarter ending September 29 of US$8.2 billion on revenues of US$36 billion. Profit was up from the US$6.6 billion a year ago, but slightly behind the US$8.3 billion predicted by analysts. Sales were up 27 per cent.

The iPhone accounted for almost half of sales, bringing in US$17.1 billion in the period.

CFO Peter Oppenheimer guided for sales of US$52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about US$11.75 for Apple’s current fiscal Q1 2013, the key Christmas quarter.

“We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline,” added Cook.

Bharti Airtel today announced its 60 millionth customer in Africa. Airtel, which recently became the fourth largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers, added 10 million customers across its operations in 17 African countries in less than 12 months of having crossed 50 million subscribers.

“Since launching the Airtel brand in Africa in 2010, Airtel has been on a steady growth path,” said Andre Beyers, chief marketing officer, Airtel Africa. 

Since celebrating its 50 millionth customer, the company has embarked on a journey to build the largest 3G network across the continent. To date, Airtel has rolled out its 3.75G network to 14 countries.

Zain Group CEO Nabeel Bin Salamah has announced his resignation, opting not to renew his employment contract, which expires in February 2013, and marks the end of his three-year tenure at the company.

Bin Salamah is reported to have expressed his desire to depart during a board meeting held on October 21 to approve the cellco’s Q312 financial results.

Zain is facing challenging times in some of its eight markets of operation, with the company reporting that for the first nine months of 2012 it generated consolidated revenues of KD974.6 million (US$ 3.5 billion), down 1.4 per cent year-on-year.

Net income for the nine months to September 30, 2012 amounted to KD201.6 million, down 3.8 per cent on the same period in 2011. The company’s consolidated EBITDA came in at KD437.3 million, a drop of 1.6 per cent year-on-year, reflecting an EBITDA margin of 44.87 per cent, down from 45 per cent the previous year.

Subscriber numbers also shrunk over the period, totalling 41.282 million at the end of September 2012, down from 41.36 million.

Bharti Airtel, the telecommunications service provider with operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa moved up one notch in the world wide ranking to be the fourth largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers. (Source: Wireless Intelligence ‘Scoreboard’).

Top five operators globally:

Source: Wirelessintelligence.com

(Mobile operator worldwide group global ranking by connections, Q2 2012)

*Connections are aggregated as the sum of each group’s subsidiaries where a minimum of 50 per cent plus one share economic interest is held.

At the end of the quarter ended June 2012, Airtel counted over 250 million mobile subscribers across its operations, representing 13 per cent year-on-year growth.

Bharti Airtel became the fifth largest mobile operator in the world following its acquisition of Zain Group’s mobile operations across 15 African nations in June 2010.