By Scott Moritz, writer

Research in Motion (RIMM) is facing a delay with the introduction of its new hotly anticipated 3G BlackBerry phone for AT&T (ATT).

The release of the phone, apparently named Meteor, has been pushed to as late as August, from the planned June launch, say people close to the companies. The reason for the delay isn’t clear, but people close to the companies say AT&T had concerns about call quality.

Some of these people speculate however that AT&T may be using a tech glitch as an excuse to avoid having two competing 3G smartphones launch at the same time. Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone is expected to debut in June, and analysts have speculated that the release will likely coincide with the one-year anniversary of the original iPhone, which is June 27.

AT&T declined to comment. A RIM spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company does not discuss unannounced products or comment on “rumors and speculation.”

The delay of the new BlackBerry comes at a particularly sensitive time for RIM. As product cycles and phone fashions go, the current crop of BlackBerries - the Curve, the Pearl, etc. - are due for a refresh as demand slows. Among the big things expected from RIM was the first 3G version of BlackBerry, being called Meteor or the 8900. It is a black phone with a silver metal edge, curved corners and a flatter Qwerty keyboard than the namesake bumpy berry-skin keypad.

A new product delay from June to August would mean fewer phone shipments and lower subscriber growth than some may be expecting in the company’s fiscal second quarter ending Aug. 30.

AT&T and Verizon (VZ) represent about 40% of RIM’s new subscriber growth, according to an estimate by TD Newcrest analyst Chris Umiastowski, who recently cut his fiscal first-quarter subscriber estimates for RIM based on expectations of slower sales. Umiastowski now expects full-year RIM subscriber gains of 10.4 million, down from a 11.5 million prior forecast.

Umiamstowski has not based his estimates on RIM’s 3G phone introductions.

RIM is also expected to introduce a touch-screen 3G BlackBerry 9000 later in the year that is aimed directly at the iPhone.

By Yi-Wyn Yen

A slowing economy hasn’t fazed Amazon.

The online retail giant beat the Street on Wednesday with sales that soared 37% to $4.13 billion for the first quarter. Amazon (AMZN) also reported profits of $143 million, or 34 cents per share from the same period a year ago, which came in ahead of analyst estimates of 32 cents a share on revenue of $4.08 billion.

Despite fears of an economic meltdown, Amazon raised its 2008 sales forecast slightly, to between $19.1 and $20 billion, which would be an increase of about 30% over 2007. Specifically, Amazon expects to see growth in sales from third-party retailers that sell on the site and make up about one third of its revenues, as well as from Amazon Prime, a $79 service that guarantees free two-day delivery on every purchase.

Still, analysts grilled Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak about how a consumer slowdown might affect the company. Szkutak said he didn’t have a “lot of data points on the economy,” but that Amazon was focused a simple strategy: offer customers good selections at low prices. “It’s hard to predict what will happen,” Szkutak said. “We think that in this type of environment, customers want great value for down times and up times.”

Though revenues continue to surprise investors, Amazon’s operating margins - long a concern for Wall Street - have remained flat at 4.8% as the company invests heavily to expand its technology and its businesses abroad.

“They’re driving hard for growth,” says Jeffrey Lindsay, an Internet analyst with Bernstein Research. “What keeps surprising us is better than expected growth versus lower than expected margins.”

Investors have punished Amazon before for its disappointing margins, and this latest report was no different. Shares fell 5% in after-hours trading Wednesday.

By Scott Moritz, writer

Broadcom (BRCM) will pay $12 million to settle federal charges of stock option backdating and, in an unrelated but hotly-anticipated development, the communications chipmaker posted solid first quarter results.

The Irvine, Calif. semiconductor shop posted a profit of $74.3 million or 14 cents a share for the quarter ended  March 31. Those numbers compare with $90 million or 16 cents a share in the prior quarter and a dime in the year-ago period.

Sales for the first quarer were $1.03 billion, nearly flat with the prior quarter but 14% above last year’s level.

Analysts were looking for sales of $992 million.

Broadcom didn’t provide immediate detailed financial guidance, but said it saw strong sales trends in the current quarter.

“While we remain cautious on the macroeconomic front, based on strong ordering trends from our customers throughout the first quarter, we expect solid revenue growth for the second quarter within each of our three major target markets,” CEO Scott McGregor said in a press release.

The company also settled Security and Exchange Commission charges that it falsified income accounting by backdating employee stock options. The $12 million payment comes more than a year after the company took a $2.2 billion charge to account for 234 million backdated stock options.

Broadcom shares were up $1.36, or 6%, to $24.91 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

By Michael Copeland

On the eve of the latest and largest Internet gathering this year, O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Conference and Expo, Forrester Research dropped a report that concludes that companies will spend $4.6 billion on Web2-related technologies by 2013. What that means for you, fellow office dweller, is that Forrester believes the world of wikis, widgets, blogs, mashups and social networks will increasingly find a way into your work life.

The emphasis won’t be entirely on internal collaboration, Forrester analyst G. Oliver Young writes, but will also offer “a fundamentally new way to connect with customers and prospects…By 2013 investment in customer-facing Web 2.0 technology will dwarf spending on internal collaboration software by nearly a billion dollars.”

In other words, you will interact with your customers and prospects the same way you do with friends on Facebook or maybe more likely with colleagues on LinkedIn, and with the same Web-based communication and tracking tools.

It makes sense that companies embrace the same easy-to use Web-based tools that we use increasingly in our social lives. Mark Benioff at Salesforce.com has been preaching that for some time now, both through AppExchange and his latest brainchild Force.com, his so-called platform-as-a-service offering. There are numerous other Web-based services including Jigsaw, BaseCamp, Yahoo’s Zimbra, Zoho, and many others that are already bring a Web2 flavor to the work world. What Forrester is arguing, however, is that for everyone who still thinks AJAX is a cleaner, and Twitter is what birds do, a lot of Web2.0 will come.

Does that mean you will be getting Twitter updates from your customers or your boss? If not actual Twitter updates, than perhaps a more corporate version that can offer the same immediacy and easy access to a list of key people. Much of the consumer Web2.0 stuff that makes it fun won’t make the leap, no doubt, but the ease of use and connectivity will.

Will it be a less exciting and dynamic Web-based world that Forrester anticipates? Clearly. What it might also be, however, is a more profitable one. And that is something that many of the Web2 startups that are piling into San Francisco at the moment will be very happy to hear.

By Scott Moritz, writer

The pinch on consumer spending continues to cause big hangups at phone companies where their core businesses — landline telephone service — is eroding faster than ever.

The latest round in the alarming decline in phone lines will come Tuesday morning, when AT&T (T) presents its first-quarter earnings. Analysts are expecting AT&T — No.10 on the Fortune 500 list — to report that the rate of line losses in Q1 exceeded the 8% hit it took last year. No. 2 telco Verizon (VZ) has an even higher cancellation rate, losing 8.1% of its lines last year compared with a 7.6% decline in 2006.

The news signals an acceleration of a troubling trend for the sector as consumers, already hit by higher gas and grocery prices, look to their phone bills as a place to trim expenses. AT&T was the first telco to ring the warning bell when it said in January that there was “softness” in some regions of the consumer market.

This sluggish economic backdrop has made a tough competitive market even tougher, as cable companies such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) grab market share with their triple play offerings — video, Net and phone services.

If there’s one area that may help offset the landline defections, it’s wireless. But even AT&T’s high-revving mobile unit — the Apple (AAPL) iPhone’s only U.S. carrier –  is feeling the slowdown as the market becomes saturated. AT&T is expected to have added about 2 million net new mobile phone customers in the first quarter, a number that is down seasonally from the 2.7 million user it picked up in the busy holiday quarter that ended in December. Verizon Wireless — a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone (VOD) — is expected to post a retail post-paid net subscriber gain of 1.5 million, down from 1.9 million in the fourth quarter. Verizon is scheduled to post earnings next Monday.

No.3 wireless player Sprint (S) has already indicated that it may lose as many as 1.2 million subscribers in the first quarter as users continue to flee its ailing service in mass.

AT&T’s so-called landline business accounts for about 59% of total revenue and about 55% of its profits. With the number of lines falling, AT&T has had to trim costs to keep in pace. Last week AT&T said it was cutting about 4,650 employees, or 1.5% of its staff in a “streamlining” effort.

Analysts expect AT&T on Tuesday to post a pro forma profit of 74 cents a share, up from 65 cents in the year-ago quarter. Sales for the first quarter are expected to be $30.7 billion, an increase over the $29 billion a year ago.

By Scott Moritz, writer

Packeteer’s white knight arrived in a Blue Coat. Network security shop Blue Coat (BSCI) says it will pay $268 million in cash for Packeteer (PKTR).

The deal calls for Blue Coat to pay $7.10 a share for the Internet traffic management outfit — a 15% premium over the closing price Friday.

As part of the deal, Blue Coat will buy the 10%  Packeteer stake held by private-equity firm Elliot Associates. Packeteer had rejected a $200.8 million takeover offer from Elliott earlier this year. In the new deal, Blue Coat will issue $80 million in convertible notes to Francisco Partners, a unit of Elliot Associates.

Packeteer, known as a wide-area-network optimization shop, uses software and hardware to speed up transmission of data communications. Packeteer and rival Riverbed (RVBD) have seen a steady decline in sales growth in the last year as tech spending slows.

Riverbed is down 58% in the past year. And prior to the deal, shares of Packeteer were down 36% since last year. Packeteer rose 12%, to $6.96, in premarket trading Monday.

By Scott Moritz, writer

Google’s (GOOG) blockbuster quarter squashed slowdown fears and help lead the entire market higher Friday.

Fans enjoyed the biggest one-day Google stock rise — up $89.72, or 20%, to $539.26 — in the past two years as the Net search giant blew past earnings targets by sidestepping a big drop in U.S. paid click traffic during the three months ended March 31.

Wall Street had been a little pessimistic going into the earnings report Thursday, after ComScore (SCOR) surveys showed a third straight month of miniscule advertising traffic growth related to domestic searches. The reports helped confirm suspicions that the drag of decreased consumer spending was starting to spread beyond retail and housing to the tech sector.

But the fears of a revenue slump at Google were overestimated as the company saw strong international paid click sales, and the effects of higher prices. ComScore felt a little investor scorn, perhaps undeservedly, for its role in the Google earnings anxiety.

Google reported 20% growth in overall paid click revenue over year-ago levels, which was down from the 30% pace in the prior quarter, but well above the 1.8% U.S. rate ComScore reported for March. ComScore’s snapshot flagged the U.S. slowdown but did not capture the bigger picture, namely Google’s expansion overseas, which accounted for 51% of total sales, up from 47% a year ago.

Analysts who had braced for a slowdown going into the earnings report quickly turned bullish after Google’s earnings were released.

Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali upgraded Google to Buy from Hold because the company demonstrated it was capable of “defying economic headwinds.” Squali however, kept his stock price target at $600.

Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart, started coverage on Google Tuesday with a neutral rating with concerns about a slowing economy and declining ad budgets. On Friday Aggarwal upgraded Google to a buy for the company’s ability to penetrate international markets and make more profitable product improvments.

Aggarwal’s price target for Google is $615.

One notable downward adjustment came from Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker. Meeker, who rates Google a buy, cut her 2008 sales estimate by about 3% to $22.4 billion from $22.9 billion. Meeker said the move was a “precaution to potentially continuing paid click volatility.”

Meeker does not set price targets.

One element of Google’s big performance may reflect well on rival Yahoo (YHOO). Though Google gained market share in the first quarter at Yahoo’s expense, the health of the sector seems to be intact. This should give Yahoo some added sway in its standoff with Microsoft (MSFT) over the $42 billion proposed merger.

Slumping consumer spending leads to more belt-tightening in techland as AT&T (T) says it will cut about 4,650 employees as part of a “streamlining” effort.

The San Antonio, Texas-based phone giant says the cuts will amount to about 1.5% of its 310,000 staff and largely involve regional managers. The move comes amid a steep decline in local phone lines as customers cancel service. The shrinking trend in Ma Bell’s core business also comes during an economic slowdown and signs that consumers are becoming more tight-fisted.

Competition has also intensified in the past year as cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) sell more phone services as part of a video and Internet bundle. AT&T has been slow and somewhat stymied in its efforts to roll out a competing video service to more markets.

AT&T says it will take a $374 million charge in the first quarter. The company is on deck to report its first-quarter results Tuesday.

By Michal Lev-Ram

Intel announced first-quarter sales and full-year guidance that beat Wall Street estimates after the market close on Tuesday, sending shares up more than 8% in after-hours trading.

Intel’s (INTC) sales came in at $9.7 billion, above the $9.63 billion analysts had expected and up 9% compared to its year-ago quarter.

The chipmaker also reported earnings of 25 cents per share, in line with analysts’ projections but below the 27 cents per share the company earned in the same period a year ago.

“Our first quarter results demonstrate a strengthening core business and a solid global market environment,” said Paul Otellini, chief executive of Intel in a written statement. “We saw healthy demand for our leading-edge processors and chipsets across all segments.”

Intel’s second-quarter outlook was upbeat as well. The company raised its forecast for the quarter, saying it is projecting sales of $9 billion to $9.6 billion, compared with current estimates of $9.2 billion. It also said it anticipates slightly better-than-expected profit margins for the current quarter and full year.

But it’s been a bumpy few months for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based semiconductor giant. The company lowered its sales targets for the first quarter in January. Last month, it reduced its first-quarter gross margin forecast to 54% — compared to a previous forecast of 56%. According to today’s first-quarter results, gross margins came in at 53.8%.

Gross margins, which measure how much money a company makes after subtracting cost of sales, is a key profitability metric in the chip industry that is looked at closely by analysts. Intel cited lower than expected prices for the type of flash memory chips used in digital cameras and MP3 players last month as the reason margins would be lower than it first anticipated.

On Tuesday the company said that strength in its microprocessor business — the type of chips used in PCs and servers — will help offset the decline in memory prices.

Rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has also been challenged due to worries that a slowdown in economic spending is weakening PC demand. AMD recently said first-quarter sales would be well below expectations, and that it would cut about 10% of its staff, or 1,600 jobs. AMD will report its first-quarter results on Thursday.

By Scott Martin

Novatel’s big miss (NVTL) offers a glimpse of how slumping tech spending can pinch a weak player.

The wireless modem maker warned Monday that first-quarter sales came in below its target. Revenue was $91 million, or 9% below its previous forecast. Novatel will release its disclose its full earnings for the quarter on May 1.

Novatel blamed a product glitch for delays in its supplies of USB devices to a European customer, in a press release Monday after the market closed. But it became clear on a conference call with analyst that other factors weighed heavily on the San Diego tech shop. Among the problems in the quarter ended March 31 was the continued collapse of Sprint (S), a big buyer of so-called 3G modems. The company also saw sluggish demand from another key customer Dell (DELL), which has seen its own share of struggles in the PC market.

Novatel’s product stumble, combined with weakening customers, left the door open for a third condition familiar to players in a cutthroat market beset by slowing orders — losing business to a rival. In this case, wireless modem giant Sierra Wireless (SWIR) swept up business that Novatel expected to book. Novatel shares fell 21% Tuesday in the wake of the warning.

The triple treat was too much for Novatel’s board. The company also announced that Peter Leparulo, the company’s chairman and former chief, would take over immediately as CEO from Brad Weinert, who will continue as president.

“Everyone around this table agrees that better execution is required for this unforgiving market, where carriers are looking to maintain leaner inventories,” Leparulo told analysts on a conference call Monday.

Brace for a rough ride, he seems to be saying, which is something tech investors and analysts fear they will be hearing a lot this earnings season.