Big Week Ahead for Tech Earnings

Look Ahead to Tech Earnings

CNBC's Jon Fortt provides a preview of earnings from tech titans like Apple, Microsoft, and more.

Next week is huge for tech earnings, with two of the biggest names in mobile, Apple and Google, stepping up to the plate.

On Tuesday, Verizon, IBM and Google are set to report.

Verizon's numbers will be particularly interesting in light of rival AT&T's announcement Thursday that it sold 10.2 million smartphones in the quarter, and concerns that Apple's growth prospects in developed markets are dim. Verizon's iPhone 5 commentary and insights into the tablet market will be particularly noteworthy. (Read More: How the Rise of Mobile Will Impact Tech Earnings.)

Google will have its first report after selling off its Home business last month, which will force analysts to pay extra close attention: The Home business will appear in a separate part of the income statement under "discontinued operations." Aside from that accounting detail, attention will focus on mobile, and the impact of the Nexus 7 tablet on holiday profits.

At IBM, investors will want to see whether the company can continue to squeeze profits out of relatively stagnant revenues as Big Blue seeks to grow by acquisition and services expansion.

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Wednesday? Apple and SAP.

SAP Chairman Hasso Plattner told me earlier this month that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison should watch this report if he thinks SAP can't make headway in database sales. SAP reports before the bell.

And then of course there's Apple. The stock has taken a beating since its peak in late September, with naysayers constructing this narrative: The iPhone 5 has reached near saturation in the developed markets where people can afford it, and has begin to saturate the upper classes in developed markets. (Read More: Apple Dilemma: Does Everyone Already Have an iPhone?)

Meanwhile Samsung is catching up in terms of cool, so Apple's margins and growth are in trouble. On Wednesday we'llsee whether Apple's numbers support or refute that narrative.

Closing out the week, we have Nokia and Microsoft on Thursday.

Nokia already pre-announced better-than-expected smartphone sales; there shouldn't be many surprises there. (Read More: Nokia Has Some Good News After Two Years of Gloom.)

At Microsoft, Xbox should have had a strong quarter, and we'll be keen to see whether sales of business software in the Server & Tools and Business Division managed to counterbalance weak holiday PC sales.

—By CNBC's Jon Fortt; Follow himonTwitter: @jonfortt

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