China’s number-two cellco China Unicom continued to benefit from significant growth in its 3G operations during the first quarter of 2012 as it increased revenue and profit for the period.

The operator reported total revenue of CNY61 .2 billion (US$9.7 billion), an increase of 24.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2011. This was accompanied by a five-fold increase in profit, which hit CNY1 billion for the quarter.

Revenue from the mobile business increased by 42.3 per cent to hit CNY40.45 billion, with service revenue of CNY29.26 billion – up 25.6 per cent – and value-added service revenue contributing 39.6 per cent of revenue for the mobile business with CNY11.6 billion.

The net addition of mobile subscribers for the period was 9.8 million, bringing the total number of subscribers to 209.5 million, generating monthly ARPU of CNY47.7.

China Unicom’s 3G business continued to grow rapidly, with service revenue of CNY12.53 billion, accounting for 42.8 per cent of mobile service revenue, up from 24.4 per cent in Q1 2011.

Net additions of 3G subscribers in the first quarter numbered 8.8 million, bringing the total to 48.9 million. 3G ARPU for the period amounted to CNY93.9 with average monthly data usage per user of 242.8MB.

However, the company made a loss on the sale of telecom products of CNY2.03 billion with a 3G handset subsidy cost of CNY1.98 billion, up 3.9 per cent compared to a year earlier.

Revenue from the GSM part of the business was down five per cent compared to 2011, to reach CNY16.73 billion. The net addition of GSM subscribers was just under a million, meaning GSM subscribers totalled 160.6 million at the end of the period. ARPU for the GSM business stood at CNY34.9.

Apple announced revenues for the three months to the end of March jumped to US$39.2 billion, compared to US$24.7 billion a year ago.

Net profits nearly doubled to US$11.6 billion, compared to US$6 billion last year.

Gross margin was 47.4 per cent compared to 41.4 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The company sold four million Macs during the quarter, a seven per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 per cent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

"We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver."

"Our record March quarter results drove US$14 billion in cash flow from operations," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. "Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about US$34 billion.

Omani telco Nawras reported its first quarter revenues fell by 2.7 per cent to OMR46.8 million (US$121.6 million), while net profit also fell by 19.1 per cent to OMR9.8 million.

The company’s overall subscriber base rose by 2.4 per cent year-on-year to reach 1.99 million.

Nawras attributed the fall in revenues to a reduction in SMS revenues which was not fully compensated by growth in data revenue. In addition, revenue in Q1 2012 included a one-off accounting adjustment of OMR658,000.

“We continue to work in a highly competitive environment here in Oman. However, I am pleased to say that the number of our fixed broadband customers continues to grow significantly year-on-year at a rate of 273 per cent; furthermore we are now starting to see our mobile customer base and number of active customer also growing,” commented Nawras CEO Ross Cormack.

Ericsson announced that its first-quarter sales declined by four per cent year-on-year to SEK51 billion (US$7.55 billion), impacted by an expected major decline in CDMA sales as well as lower operator network spending in regions with macro-economic or political uncertainty.

Net profit though more than doubled to SEK 8.8 billion (US$1.3 billion) – thanks to the one-off gain from the sale of the company’s 50 per cent stake in Sony Ericsson.

Operating income, excluding joint ventures and the gain from the Sony Ericsson divestment, dropped to SEK2.8 billion, from SEK 6.3 billion a year ago due to lower Networks sales and lower gross margin.

Gross margin was down at 33.3 per cent from 38.5 per cent a year ago, with the year-on-year decrease attributed to increased services share, network modernisation projects in Europe and a higher proportion of coverage projects.

"Sales of high-performance mobile broadband developed well in North America, Japan and Korea, while other regions such as Europe including Russia, parts of Middle East and India were weaker," said Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson. "CDMA continued its expected decline in the transition to LTE. Our services business showed continued momentum where especially Professional Services developed favourably. Support Solutions (formerly Multimedia) increased organic sales.

STC Group has announced the launch a new variety of smartphones, raising the number of such devices available to its subscriber base to 68.

Smartphones currently represent 34 per cent of the total number of devices on the STC network; with an increase of 200 per cent in Android operating system devices in the past year. STC was the first operator in the kingdom to launch 4G in 2011, and has been expanding the technology’s coverage throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

The telco was also the first to enable its subscribers to purchase applications from Nokia’s OVI online store, allowing users to add their purchases directly to their monthly bill. In addition, STC was the first telco to offer the Windows Phone operating system in the kingdom through HTC.

It is worth noting that a report issued by the United Nations (UNCTAD) positions Saudi Arabia as the number one market worldwide with respect to the use of mobile telephony, with penetration levels reaching 188 per cent.