Facebook’s New Estimates, New BlackBerry 10 Chatter: Tech Business Update

With the doleful days after its famous IPO long over, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) saw its price target and 2013 estimates elevated by Laura Martin at Needham on Monday. The new target for the shares is $33, way up from the previous $25, and the analyst’s new revenue estimate for the new year was raised from $6.27 billion to $6.5 billion with earnings of 65 cents as opposed to the prior 59 cents. Martin’s rationale for the increases included her belief that Facebook’s mobile monetization endeavors will pay off with “strong growth” in the fourth quarter and then surpass Street projections in 2013. Because of this, she thinks that fourth quarter mobile revenue will be around $250 million, up from $150 million in the third. Another reason is that Martin believes reports that consumers spend more time on Facebook than on any other website. How could that not be good for business?

Confirmations and rumors for Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) new BlackBerry Z10 appeared on Monday. The company says that there will be 70,000 applications available at intro and the screen will be 1280 x 768 and 4.2-inches along with having LTE connectivity. The battery will be removable and the product will have 2 gigabytes of RAM. Chatter has it that the processor will be Dual Core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 and a Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon MSM8960 for the United States and Canada. The offical unveiling is set for January 30th.

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A spokesperson for Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) has told ZDNet that although a hacker claimed to have stolen more than 3 million customer records from the firm, its examination of data posted by the hacker confirms that the information was not stolen from Verizon Wireless.

The world’s fourth-biggest personal computer maker by shipments, Acer (ASIYF.PK), intends to introduce an Android tablet priced around $99 early in 2013, says an inside source. The company is looking to become the first name-brand competitor to the Chinese white-box tablet makers for consumers in emerging countries. The so-called Iconia B1 tablet  is expected to be 7 inches with a 1024 x 600 resolution screen and a 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor.

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