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Profits at Amazon have dropped 73% after the company invested heavily in it’s Kindle tablet computer.The company, the world’s largest online internet retailer, said third quarter net income was £40 million ($63 million).

During the period it launched the Kindle “Fire” model, which runs apps and streams films and other non text content.

The results left Amazon shares down 12%.

The company said that sales had grown by 44% and that in September, it had its “biggest order day ever for Kindle, even bigger than previous holiday peak days”.

It now offers four Kindle devices, including a 3G model.

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, said: “In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we’re seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we’re increasing capacity and building millions more than we’d already planned.”

Amazon also forecast lower than expected sales for the next quarter, which includes the crucial Christmas period, and said it could even see an operating loss as it continues to invest in the Kindle Fire.

Amazon’s profit margins have generally been lower than other technology firms, a situation that analysts say is now catching up with them.

The Amazon strategic business development plan has always been about selling the technology delivery box at close to cost price and then making future profits from selling the software that runs on the box. Whereas Apple has been more about making a profit from the box and any extra profits from the software is a bonus.

Mobile phone company Nokia has reported that it made a loss in the third quarter as it continued to come under pressure from other phonemakers.It made to a net loss of £132 million in the three months to September, from a £289 million profit in the same period.

Net sales fell 13% to £8 billion.

Nokia has lost ground to competitors such as Apple’s iPhone and phones using Google’s Android operating system.

Shares in the Finnish phonemaker have plunged 41% so far this year.

Nokia said it sold 16.8 million smart devices in the quarter – 38% less than the previous year.

But the volume of mobile phones Nokia sold in total rose 8% to 89.8 million – reflecting its strength in cheaper and simpler so-called “dumbphones”.

The company’s new range of smartphones will use Microsoft’s operating system instead of Nokia’s legacy Symbian software.

“I am encouraged by our progress around the first Nokia experience with Windows Phone,” Nokia boss Stephen Elop said.

“We look forward to bringing the experience to consumers in select countries later this quarter.”

Earlier this year, Nokia announced thousands of job cuts as part of a 1bn-euro cost-cutting programme.

In April, it said it would cut 7,000 jobs – with 3,000 of the posts being transferred to consultancy group Accenture – as part of a strategy to focus on smartphones.

“The planned changes we have initiated are difficult, but necessary in order to align the company to our strategy,” Mr Elop said.

The world’s most valuable technology company Apple Inc has reported an 85% rise in its full year results.Net profit for the year ending 24 September was £16.5 billion.

However, its shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading after fourth quarter iPhone sales were weaker than experts predicted.

Overall revenues totalled £17.66 billion for the three months- which was nearly £660 million less than Wall Street forecasts.

It is the first time that Apple has missed analysts’ sales forecasts since 2008.

During a conference call, chief executive Tim Cook suggested demand for the iPhone 4 had been dampened by rumours that a new model was about to be released.

“The reduction happened largely in the back half of the quarter as the speculation hit extreme highs,” said Mr Cook.

“However, we’re thrilled to be shipping the new iPhone 4S… and we’re very confident that we will set an all-time record in the December quarter for iPhone sales.”

Apple sold 17.1 million iPhones in the last quarter. That was a 21% increase on the same period last year, but analysts had expected sales of 20 million.

The firm said handset orders had also been affected by a decision to delay new partnerships.

“We opted to defer adding new carriers or countries during the September quarter knowing that we would launch the iPhone 4S very early in the October month, and we wanted to launch our new carriers with our latest products so we waited,” said chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer.

The earnings are the first to be released by Apple since the death of its co-founder Steve Jobs.

Mr Cook marked the occasion by paying tribute to his predecessor.

“Steve was a great leader and mentor and inspired everyone at Apple to do extraordinary things,” he said.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for all of the condolences and expressions of support that we have received following Steve’s passing.”

Despite the iPhone figures Apple said it was “thrilled” by the results.

It sold 11.12 million iPads over the latest quarter, which was a 166% rise on the same period last year.

Sales of the Mac computers totalled 4.89 million, a 26% rise and an all-time record.

Mr Cook said he was particularly excited by China, where sales are growing at a “feverish” pace.

Greater China revenue accounted for 16% of Apple’s revenue in the fourth quarter, up from 2% in 2009.

“Certainly in my lifetime, I’ve never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class that aspire to buy products that Apple makes,” Mr Cook said.

He said the company was also focussing on Brazil where sales had increased 118% over the past year, topping £562 million.

Apple warned that the recent flooding in Thailand might cause it problems sourcing hard discs and components for its Macs.

“I’m virtually certain there will be an overall industry shortage of disc drives as a result of the disaster,” said Mr Cook.

Apple co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs, died on Wednesday at the age of 56, after a  multi year long battle with pancreatic cancer.Jobs’ death was announced by Apple in a statement late yesterday. The Apple.com homepage features a black and white picture (above) of him with the words “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011″.

A message on the site read: “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.

“Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

The Silicon Valley icon who gave the world the MAC, the iPod, the iPad and the iPhone had resigned as chief executive of the world’s largest technology corporation in August, handing the reins to current chief executive Tim Cook.

A survivor of a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he was deemed the heart and soul of a company that rivals Exxon Mobil as the most valuable in America.

“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve,” Apple said in a statement announcing Jobs’ passing.

“His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

Job’s health had been a controversial topic for years. His battle with cancer had been a deep concern to Apple fans, investors and the company’s board alike.

In past years, even board members have confided to friends their concern that Jobs, in his quest for privacy, wasn’t being forthcoming enough with directors about the true condition of his health.

Now, despite investor confidence in Cook, who has stood in for his boss during three leaves of absence, there remain concerns about whether the company would stay a creative force to be reckoned with beyond the next year or so without its founder and visionary at the helm.

The news triggered an immediate outpouring of sympathy. Among others, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he will miss Jobs “immensely”.

A college dropout, Buddhist and son of adoptive parents, Jobs started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s. The company soon introduced the Apple 1 computer.

But it was the Apple II that became a huge success and gave Apple its position as a critical player in the then-nascent PC industry, culminating in a 1980 IPO that made Jobs a multimillionaire.

Despite the subsequent success of the Mac, Jobs’ relationship with top management and the board soured. The company removed most of his powers and then in 1985 he was fired.

Apple’s fortunes waned after that. However, its purchase of NeXT – the computer company Jobs founded after leaving Apple – in 1997 brought him back into the fold. Later that year, he became interim CEO and in 2000, the company dropped “interim” from his title.

Along the way Jobs also had managed to revolutionize computer animation with his other company, Pixar, but it was the iPhone in 2007 that capped his legacy in the annals of modern technology history.

Two years before the gadget that forever transformed the way people around the world access and use the Internet, Jobs talked about how a sense of his mortality was a major driver behind that vision.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” Jobs said during a Stanford commencement ceremony in 2005.

“Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Apple has unveiled the latest iteration in its iPhone range, but there was no sign of the widely rumoured iPhone 5.The iPhone 4S, as the model will be known, boasts an improved camera, an extra antenna for faster loading, voice recognition software and a significantly extended battery life.

It will run the latest iOS5 operating system, which is set for release on 12 October.

The event was the first major announcement for new boss Tim Cook who took over from Steve Jobs in August.

The iPhone 4S, which will go on sale on 14 October, will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models – in both black and white.

It has the same look and feel as the existing iPhone 4 which was launched 15 months ago.

However, Apple said that updates to iOS meant the phone would boast some “200 new features”.

Shares in Apple fell by almost 5% within minutes of the eagerly anticipated launch, with analysts saying that investors and Apple fans had expected the latest version to be a more radical improvement over its predecessor.

However, the company’s shares later regained most of their losses to close down just 0.6%, albeit underperforming the NASDAQ index as a whole.

Among the additions is  a voice recognition software or a “intelligent assistant” that allows users to ask questions aloud and receive detailed answers back.

Siri, which began life as a third-party app, was purchased by Apple in 2010 but has yet to appear within its software.

Details of the new phone were unveiled by Apple’s Philip Schiller

For Apple’s new chief executive, the event was as much about making a statement about his leadership as it was new products.

Tim Cook had previously acted as interim boss, looking after the company while Steve Jobs was on sick leave.

Unlike his charismatic predecessor, Mr Cook left the biggest announcement of Tuesday’s event to a colleague – marketing boss Phil Schiller.

The watchdog regulator Phonepayplus, has issued plans for more protection for consumers from rogue traders in the UK phone industry.PhonepayPlus is the organisation that regulates phone paid services in the UK

The premium rate regulator has uncovered two cases of smartphone apps charging users without their knowledge or consent.

In one case an app automatically sent and received text messages that could cost the user £4.50 each.

It was shut down by the regulator.

Now Phonepayplus has started 10 week consultations on app based mobilw payment proposals that consumers’ consent to charge is clearer, password requirements are strengthened to prevent children buying items, and there is more explanation of the cost of virtual credit.

“We need to be nimble and flexible in our approach. We know that the best regulation is one that works collaboratively with industry to pre-empt problems that harm consumers and damage markets,” said Paul Whiteing, Phonepayplus chief executive.

“We will not hesitate to use our robust sanctioning powers to drive out rogue providers who could damage a vital part of the UK’s growing and innovative digital and creative economies.”

The new web browser designed by Amazon for its Kindle Fire tablet has sparked security concerns that the firm will be able to track users’ every online webpage.The new browser, Amazon Silk, uses the firm’s network of giant data centres to pre-load web pages before they are delivered to the device.

According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, this “split browser” approach will offer “ultra-fast” mobile web access. It will reduce the computation required from the Kindle Fire’s processor, which is lower performance than that of Apple’s iPad 2.

But it also means that Amazon’s systems will keep a record of every single web page that Kindle Fire users visit, which could be used to profile their interests for advertising and other commercial purposes. The records will also be subject to data requests from police and intelligence agencies, as the relatively limited data held by broadband providers.

The browser will even aim to predict your next move in its effort to shave milliseconds off loading times, by learning how users tend to browse individual websites.

“All of your web surfing habits will transit to Amazon’s cloud,” said Chester Wisniewski, of the British computer security firm Sophos.

“If you think that Google AdWords and Facebook may be watching you, this Amazon service is guaranteed to have a record of everything you do on the web.”

Amazon’s approach is similar to that of Opera Mini, a mobile browser available on Android, iOS, Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. Its Norwegian developer, Opera, also pre-loads and compresses web pages to speed up browsing and cut the amount of 3G bandwidth that smartphones consume.

Unlike Amazon, however, Opera has undertaken not to keep records of the web pages Opera Mini users access or profile their individual browsing habits.

“The system brings with it a need to reassure people that their privacy is being protected,” said Pål Unanue-Zahl, Opera’s communication manager.

The terms and conditions announced for Amazon Silk provide no such reassurance.

“Amazon Silk also temporarily logs web addresses for the web pages it serves and certain identifiers, such as IP or MAC addresses, to troubleshoot and diagnose Amazon Silk technical issues,” they say, adding that users are also subject to Amazon’s broad privacy policy. It allows users’ personal information to be exploited for a host of commercial purposes.

“We generally do not keep this information for longer than 30 days,” the Amazon Silk terms and conditions say.

The new browser will also pose a challenge to website owners, including some of Amazon’s major rivals.

When a user directly accesses a website from a normal browser, the website typically logs their IP address. These unique numbers are used by firms to track where their visitors come from, and for other commercially-useful traffic analyses.

But when a Kindle Fire user accesses a website, all the website will be able to log is an IP address for one of Amazon’s network of giant data centres.

The users’ IP address will go no further than the dominant online retailer.

Given the rapid growth in mobile browsing, and Mr Bezos’ plan to sell “many millions” of Kindle Fires this year alone, rivals such as Google, whose advertising business relies heavily on being able to target individuals, will miss out on valuable data.

“If you buy a Fire device, think carefully as to whether your privacy is worth trading for a few milliseconds faster web surfing experience,” said Mr Wisniewski.

Apple’s iPad has captured 80% of the tablet computer market in the US in April to July new reserach has found.The iPad accounted for six million of all 7.5 million tablets shipped in North America during the second quarter of 2011, according to research group Strategy Analytics.

It described Apple as a “formidable market leader”.

Yet they added that Amazon – which has unveiled its own tablet yesterday – could become a big challenger.

Stategy Analytics senior analyst Alex Spektor said: “Apple remains a long way ahead of its main rivals such as Motorola, Samsung, RIM, Asus and HTC.

“A combination of cool branding, user-friendly hardware, entertaining services and savvy retail distribution has made Apple a formidable market leader.”

“Provided the pricing, screen size and hardware design are right, Amazon can be one of the main challengers to Apple’s dominance,” said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics.

“Like Apple, Amazon has a strong brand, compelling content, sophisticated billing systems and widespread distribution.

“In effect, Amazon’s new tablet product represents a good opportunity to place an Amazon shopping cart in the hands of American consumers, offering optimised access to purchasing digital content or physical goods from the Amazon online store.”

The continuing popularity of Apple’s iPad comes despite its incompatibility with Adobe Flash software, meaning that users cannot view a large number of online videos.

Rivals such as Samsung are quick to highlight in their advertising that their tablets are able to use Flash.

Apple and Samsung, which makes the Galaxy range of tablets, are also continuing a number of legal disputes over patents.

The iPad was first released in April 2010, with the second version, the iPad 2, following in March of this year.

Amazon has launched a new tablet computer called the Kindle Fire- which will undercut Apple’s iPad2.The £130 device will run a modified version of Google’s Android operating system.

As well as targeting Apple’s iPad, Amazon is likely to have its sights on rival bookseller US Barnes & Noble, which already has a colour tablet.

The Kindle Fire will enter a hugely competitive market, dominated by Apple’s iPad who currently have 80% of the tablet market.

Amazon will be hoping to leverage both the strength of the Kindle brand, built up over three generations of its popular e-book reader, and its ability to serve up content such as music and video.

In recent years, the company has begun offering downloadable music for sale, and also has a streaming video-on-demand service in the United States. Those, combined with its mobile application store, give it a more sophisticated content “ecosystem” than most of its rivals.

Amazon Kindle Fire Facts

7″ IPS (in-plane switching) display
1024 x 600 resolution
Customised Google Android operating system
$199 (£130)
Weighs 413 grammes
Dual core processor
8GB internal storage

Amazon sees the hardware almost as a loss leader who can make their money by selling content whereas Apple profit from hardware sales and software sales are a “nice to have”.

Digital content has already proved itself to be a money-spinner for Amazon.

Although the company has never released official sales figures for the Kindle, it did state – in December 2010 – that it was now selling more electronic copies of books than paper copies.

Its US rival, Barnes & Noble, has also enjoyed success with its Nook devices.

In October 2010, the company unveiled the Nook Color, which also runs a version of Android, albeit with lower hardware specs than many fully featured tablets.

While the Nook Color is largely focused on book and magazine reading, some users have managed to unlock its wider functionality and install third-party apps.
Kindle Touch Amazon has dropped the keyboard from some of its Kindles in favour of touch

The Kindle Fire’s £130 price tag undercuts the Nook Color by £30 and is significantly cheaper than more powerful tablets from Apple, Samsung, Motorola and others.

It is due to go on sale on 15 November in the US, although global release dates are currently unavailable.

“These are premium products at non premium prices,” said Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos. “We are going to sell millions of these.”

Sony’s Tablet S is entering the markets in the US, UK and Japan.The tablets runs on Google’s operating system Android and has a new wedge shaped design.

Following the success of Apple’s iPad, other manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC have released their own tablets.

Analysts say while Tablet S may prove to be a popular Android tablet, it is not a serious threat to the iPad.

As it goes head-to-head with the iPad and others, analysts said the Sony Tablet S did have some unique features not available in other devices.

For one, the hardware design, a wedge shape, is different from most other flat, thin tablets.

“The unique form factor shifts the device’s weight closer to your palm, making it feel lighter and more comfortable while reading a book or magazine,” Sony said in a press release.

Other features include the ability to play PlayStation games on the device and stream music and video to your TV or home entertainment system from the tablet.

Even though Sony has come up with some distinctive features, analysts say Apple’s first mover advantage and its brand appeal has placed it squarely ahead of all others in the tablet market.

But it might still prove a threat to other tablets. Even though Sony entered the market later than many other competitors, the timing could work out in its favour.

The Tablet S is in stores in the UK on 15 September, the US on 16 September and in Japan on 17 September.