A digest of the top business technology news stories from the past week, beginning with Amazon moving its Dublin City development centre from Kilmainham to more space in Ballsbridge by the middle of this year.
Amazon to move Dublin development centre to larger space
E-commerce titan Amazon is packing up and moving its Dublin development centre from Kilmainham to more space in Burlington Plaza on Burlington Road, Ballsbridge, by the middle of this year.
Amazon is to occupy three floors of the new premises, compromising a total of 69,000 sq ft that will accommodate 450 employees and have the capacity for future growth.
The first phase of the building’s development is to be finished in April, when more than 100 employees are expected to move into this new office. Remaining staff is expected to move to the new space by June.
Samsung takes over 60 Carphone Warehouse stores in Europe
The mobile retail landscape in Europe is set to change as 60 Carphone Warehouse stores in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands are set to become Samsung-only outlets over the next three months.
Carphone Warehouse and Samsung have signed an agreement making the phone retailer the preferred partner for Samsung’s European store operations. This will involve 60 of Carphone Warehouse’s 1,400 stores across Europe being converted into dedicated Samsung stores.
Carphone Warehouse will still operate the stores, but they will only sell Samsung mobile, tablet, laptop and wearable products. The extensive roll out stems from a successful pilot operation involving three stores in Spain last year.
44pc of Irish workers work from home at least once a month
Almost half of employees (44pc) in Ireland work from home at least one day a month and 45pcof them predict that over the next five years, the majority of business communications will be from home or outside the office.
The new survey from O2 also reveals 70pc of respondents who work remotely agreed or strongly agreed that working outside the office enabled them to find a positive work-life balance. A similar number (69pc) said they felt happier after working off-site for a day compared to working in their office.
“Whether it is because workers are on the road, visiting clients, because they need space to think, be creative or boost their productivity, or because they would like achieve a better work-life balance, remote working is here to stay,” said Alan Brown, O2’s business director.
Apple reports US$13.1bn profit on revenues of US$57.6bn – 51m iPhones sold
Apple has reported Q1 revenues of US$57.6bn yielding a net profit of US$13.1bn after a first quarter in which it sold some 51m iPhone smartphone devices, beating all previous records.
The 51m iPhones sold is an increase over the 47.8m units sold last year.
The consumer tech giant sold 26m iPad tablet computers, also an all-time record, up from 22.9m a year ago, and sales of Mac computers rose from 4.1m last year to 4.8m.
Google reports Q4 revenues of US$16.8bn, up 17pc on last year
Internet giant Google reported US$16.8bn in fourth-quarter revenues, up 17pc on the same quarter last year. This resulted in a Q4 net profit of US$3.3bn, up from US$2.8bn a year ago.
For the full-year 2013, Google brought in revenues totalling US$59.8bn, up 19pc on 2012.
The decision to offload Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for US$2.9bn didn’t factor in the current set of accounts. Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2012 for US$12.5bn.
Facebook is now a ‘mobile first’ business – 53pc of US$2.5bn revenues from mobile
Social network Facebook has reported Q4 revenues of US$2.9bn, profits of US$523m, and that 53pc of its revenue now comes from mobile advertising. For the full year, Facebook reported revenues of US$1.5bn and a profit of US$1.5bn.
The nearly 10-year-old company revealed it now earns 53pc of ad revenue – US$1.37bn – from the small screen, making it the social network’s first US$1bn-plus quarter from mobile.
The company earned US$241m in revenues from other income streams, like payments, apps and games.
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