Ebits

Punters bet on Sky

SkyBet, an interactive betting service launched last week, allows Sky Digital customers to place bets on horse racing, rugby, soccer and rugby league through their televisions. The service is available at no extra cost to all customers with a TAB account.

It was developed by Holotype New Media and in the two weeks it has been operating has taken more than $40,000 of sales.

The system works through information being transferred from the Sky decoder, via a telephone line, to the TAB's central Jetbet computer system.

Survey process fixed

Statistics New Zealand has corrected its 2002 Information Technology Survey after discovering an error in the process used to calculate the revised estimates for the 2001 financial year.

The survey now shows that the total value of sales of IT commodities, excluding communication services, was 1 per cent higher than the 2001 financial year, not 2 per cent down as previously reported.

Apple income falls

Apple Computer says its net income fell 65 per cent from a year ago, but it hit its own revenue target and profits were at the high end of Wall St's expectations.

Revenue rose from the previous quarter's US$1.47 billion ($2.63 billion).

For its second quarter ended March 29, Apple posted net income of US$14 million compared with net income a year ago of US$40 million.

Intel exceeds forecast

Intel shares rose 6 per cent after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, despite fears that weak flash memory sales would offset strength in its computer microprocessor business.

For the three months ended March 29, Intel earned US$915 million on sales of US$6.75 billion. In the same period last year, the company earned US$936 million on sales of US$6.78 billion.

Analysts were expecting a profit of 12USc a share on sales of US$6.7 billion in the latest quarter, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

Microsoft pleased

As other technology companies languish, Microsoft has delivered financial results that have surpassed expectations and pleased investors.

But the software giant has cautioned that weak technology spending is likely to keep its earnings on the lower end of analysts' forecasts next year.

Microsoft said its third-quarter income rose 2 per cent to US$2.79 billion, compared with US$2.74 billion for the same period a year ago.

Bigger loss for AMD

Advanced Micro Devices, the No 2 maker of microprocessors, has posted a wider first-quarter loss on revenues that rose slightly from the previous quarter as it said it took market share from larger rival Intel.

But analysts were cautious about whether AMD would hit a bump in the coming quarters as distributors run down excess inventories, and said it could suffer if Intel decided to start a price war in the market for flash memory used in cell phones.

AMD's net loss for the quarter was US$146 million compared with a loss of US$9.16 million a year earlier.

* Email Chris Barton