Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, April 29

• Amazon’s Cloud Business Lifts Its Profit to a Record:  Amazon delivered a blowout quarter on Thursday, joining Facebook as one of the rare bright spots in a technology sector that has recently produced a string of disappointing earnings reports. Helped by its fast-growing Amazon Web Services business, the company jumped to the most profitable quarter in its nearly 22-year history.For the first quarter, which ended March 31, Amazon reported net income of $513 million, or $1.07 a share, up from a loss of $57 million, or 12 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue at the company rose to $29.13 billion from $22.72 billion a year ago. Amazon’s share price jumped more than 12 percent in after-hours trading after the results were released. Investors were happy to see the company show profits after the disappointing run of reports from Apple, Google,Microsoft and Intel. The biggest source of the company’s profits is Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing business that started just over a decade ago and is now on track to bring in more than $10 billion a year in revenue. A.W.S., as the business is known, is the most popular cloud service for start-ups and for a growing number of big companies that want to rent computing capacity, rather than run their own hardware and software. Cloud computing is also much more profitable than Amazon’s North American retail business, which runs on thinner margins, and its international retail business, which runs at a loss. The operating income for A.W.S. more than tripled in the quarter to $604 million. The profits from A.W.S. represented 56 percent of Amazon’s total operating income, even though the $2.57 billion in revenue from A.W.S. — up 64 percent from a year earlier — amounted to less than 9 percent of total revenue.

• Baidu First-Quarter Profit, Revenue Outlook Beat Estimates: Baidu Inc. posted earnings in the first quarter that beat analysts’ estimates and forecast revenue in the current quarter that also tops projections after China’s biggest search engine provider controlled its spending and increased sales from new businesses. Earnings excluding some costs were $1.06 per American depository share in the first quarter, the Beijing-based company said Thursday. That compares with the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg of $1.01. Sales for the quarter increased 24 percent to $2.45 billion compared with estimates for $2.44 billion. For the second quarter, Baidu said it expects revenue of $3.12 billion to $3.19 billion, compared with estimates of $3.10 billion.Baidu’s depository receipts rose 5.5 percent to $195.80 in extended U.S. trading.

• LinkedIn Rises on Better-Than-Expected Earnings Forecast: LinkedIn Corp. forecast earnings that beat estimates on improved performance from its main recruiting tools, suggesting a surprise slowdown earlier this year was not as dire as analysts feared. The operator of the largest online professional network said second-quarter profit, excluding some items, will be from 74 cents to 77 cents a share. That beat the 71-cent average analyst estimate. First-quarter earnings topped expectations by a wide margin and the company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $3.65 billion to $3.70 billion, from an earlier range of $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion.  LinkedIn Corp. forecast earnings that beat estimates on improved performance from its main recruiting tools, suggesting a surprise slowdown earlier this year was not as dire as analysts feared. The operator of the largest online professional network said second-quarter profit, excluding some items, will be from 74 cents to 77 cents a share. That beat the 71-cent average analyst estimate. First-quarter earnings topped expectations by a wide margin and the company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $3.65 billion to $3.70 billion, from an earlier range of $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion.  LinkedIn climbed as much as 16 percent to $142.89 in extended trading. The shares had declined 45 percent this year as of Thursday’s close. 

• Icahn: We're out of Apple, and it's China's fault: Billionaire investor Carl Icahn told CNBC on Thursday he has sold hisApple position as the tech giant's stock continues to shed value after disappointing earnings. "We no longer have a position in Apple," Icahn told CNBC's "Power Lunch," noting Apple is a "great company" and CEO Tim Cook is "doing a great job." Icahn previously owned a little less than a percent of the tech giant's outstanding shares, which were down more than 3 percent midafternoon Thursday after falling more than 6 percent Wednesday. He said he made roughly $2 billion on Apple, a stock he continued to tout as "cheap" despite his reservations.Icahn said China's attitude toward Apple largely drove him to exit his position. "You worry a little bit — and maybe more than a little — about China's attitude," Icahn said, later adding that China's government could "come in and make it very difficult for Apple to sell there ... you can do pretty much what you want there." He added, though, that if China "was basically steadied," he would buy back into Apple.

• The Apple Watch did not change the Apple Store like we thought it would: It was just over a year ago that the Apple Watch was slated to be unveiled, and the Internet rumor and analysis machine was running in overdrive: Wall Street-types weighed in on whether the new gadget could propel the world’s most valuable company to greater revenue and an even higher stock price. Tech geeks were chattering about the nitty-gritty of its features, and culture mavens debated whether it would become a game changer like the iPod or iPhone before it. And in the retail world, the major question was this: Would the arrival of a product that was not just a gadget, but also a luxury fashion item, push Apple to shake up its successful store format? The root of the speculation, or at least, the primary fuel for it, was a single paragraph in a New Yorker profile of Apple’s design chief, Jonathan Ive. In that story it was reported that Ive and Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, were working on a redesign of Apple stores, perhaps to make the setting more conducive to selling a luxury timepiece. The story noted that Ive had “overheard someone saying, ‘I’m not going to buy a watch if I can’t stand on carpet.’ ” And so analysts — and reporters, including this one — began wondering: Would certain sections of the store be carpeted? Would they be outfitted with full-length mirrors so people could see how the watch fit into their overall look? Would there be showcase lighting, like at an upscale jeweler? If you’ve set foot in an Apple store lately, you know the answer to all of these questions: No. Apple did end up adding a backroom VIP area to at least one store in New York where customers could try on the Edition, the luxe version of the watch that has a five-figure price tag. But the Apple Store, by and large, still has the same vibe and aesthetic that it did in the pre-Watch era. Sure, some newer stores have fresh features, such as one in Brussels that is outfitted with live trees. An Apple representative has said that a forthcoming store in Memphis is to be a “next-generation” Apple store, with new design elements such as a large TV screen that can display a changing array of products or artwork. But even with those kinds of potential changes, the Apple Store continues to be defined by a spare, contemporary look and feel — and the changes that have been implemented or are on the way don’t exactly seem linked to the unique needs of selling the watch.