DigiNews - Apple, Amex, Borders, Google, Africa mobile

[Ramakrishnan Laxman]

Fun Facts: Apples to (Ahem) Apples

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/07/apples-to-apples-q3

Apple’s Q3 results hugely outpaced analysts’ estimates. The company earned $28.57 billion in total revenue, $7.31 billion of which was net profit. It shipped 20.3 million iPhones and 9.25 million iPads, in addition to 3.95 million Macs and 7.54 million iPods.

If those statistics aren’t staggering enough, here are a few more comparisons to help put things in perspective.

• The $6 billion in revenue from Apple’s iPad sales, up a whopping 183 percent year-over-over, now exceeds Dell’s consumer PC business. Twice.
• Apple’s $358 billion market value now totals more than the former Microsoft-Intel “monopoly” combined.
• Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded company in the world, is less than 20 percent larger in market value than Apple.
• Apple’s cash and marketable securities now totals over $76 billion. That sum in $1 bills would fill Apple’s new 500,000 square foot data center to a depth a six feet and weigh 83,000 tons.
• Using only this quarter’s net profit, Apple could empty out the $1 billion in unused dollar coins sitting in U.S. vaults more than seven times over. The resulting sea of golden Sacagaweas would weigh over 130 million pounds, or about 65,250 cows

.Hitwise Estimates Google+ Got 1.8 Million Visits Last Week And Grew 283 Percent

Online Media Daily: Record Sales For Intel

Intel Corp. reported strong earnings and record quarterly sales that beat Wall Street's forecasts.

Timeline of Borders’ rise and fall

Borders' Downfall And What's Next

American Express flexes its muscles in local deals market

American Express, a 162-year-0ld financial services company that is marshaling its vast resources in pretty impressive ways to create what could be one of the strongest offerings in the local commerce space. It just inked a deal to bring personalized deals to Facebook through its Link, Like, Love platform and previously signed up partners in Foursquare and SCVNGR’s LevelUp

Facebook partnership launches with Dunkin Donuts, Whole Foods, H&M, and more.

Amex Emerges as a Digital Deals Leader

Google to kill Labs, but not all of them!

Is Google becoming more mature — but less interesting?

Twitter is all about real-time commerce, says CEO Dick Costolo

Twitter wants to be “the world in your pocket,” according to CEO Dick Costolo — but more than anything, it wants to be the engine of mobile and real-time commerce in your pocket, judging by his comments at the Fortune BrainstormTech conference in Colorado on Tuesday.

Africa Mobile Ads Grow 40% in Three Months

Independent mobile advertising network, InMobi, reported a 37.9% growth in mobile advertising in Africa over the three months from February to May.

Publishers ready to admit web ads don't work

The days of reading online content for free while blissfully skimming over those ubiquitous display ads may be drawing to a close, as several major publishers are considering charging for online content in the coming year,