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06/07/2012 Leave a Comment
Via Chinasmack.com
Read the Fully: http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/pictures/excavator-on-rooftop-of-12-story-building-in-taiyuan-shanx.html
Seriously, how?
phil@gadgetables.com
06/06/2012 Leave a Comment
Spotify made its big U.S. debut on July 14, 2011.
In one week, we’ll be marking the streaming music service’s six-month anniversary. And in one week, all those users who signed up for the free all you can eat desktop music that day will find out that they’re going to be limited to just 10 hours per month now. You’re also only allowed to play individual tracks no more than five times per month.
(Some of users have already received notices from Spotify that the party’s over.)
That’s because Spotify’s unlimited music on your desktop feature, which is ad-supported, is only a limited time offer.
After your six month period is up, Spotify will hold you to 10 hours of streaming per month with hopes that you’ll sign up for one of its paid plans.
Those paid plans cost $4.99 per month for ad-free desktop streaming and $9.99 for access to the mobile app. Now the question is: Will Spotify users start paying up once the party’s over?
Contributor: Steve Kovach .
Via Businessinsider.com
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal.[2][3] Launched in October 2008 by Swedishstartup Spotify AB, the service had approximately ten million users as of 15 September 2010;[4] about 2.5 million of whom were paying members.[5][6] The service is, as of November 2011, available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, the Netherlands,Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Via Wikipedia.org – Image: Wikipedia.org
phil@gadgetables.com
06/03/2012 Leave a Comment
In it, he shared some of his research on what over 50 former high-flying companies – like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn – did to become complete failures. It turns out that the senior executives at the companies all had 7 Habits in common. Finkelstein calls them the Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.
These traits can be found in the leaders of current failures like Research In Motion (RIMM), but they should be early-warning signs (cautionary tales) to currently unbeatable firms like Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Amazon.com (AMZN). Here are the habits, as Finkelstein described in a 2004 article:
Habit # 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment
This first habit may be the most insidious, since it appears to be highly desirable. Shouldn’t a company try to dominate its business environment, shape thefuture of its markets and set the pace within them? Yes,but there’s a catch. Unlike successful leaders, failed leaders who never question their dominance fail torealize they are at the mercy of changing circumstances.They vastly overestimate the extent to which they actually control events and vastly underestimate the role of chance and circumstance in their success.
CEOs who fall prey to this belief suffer from the illusion of personal pre-eminence: Like certain film directors, they see themselves as the auteurs of their companies. As far as they’re concerned, everyone else in the company is there to execute their personal visionfor the company. Samsung’s CEO Kun-Hee Lee was so successful with electronics that he thought he could repeat this success with automobiles. He invested $5 billion in an already oversaturated auto market. Why? There was no business case. Lee simply loved cars and had dreamed of being in the auto business.
Warning Sign for #1: A lack of respect
Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests
Like the first habit, this one seems innocuous, perhaps even beneficial. We want business leaders to be completely committed to their companies, with their interests tightly aligned with those of the company. But digging deeper, you find that failed executives weren’t identifying too little with the company, but rather too much. Instead of treating companies as enterprises that they needed to nurture, failed leaders treated them as extensions of themselves. And with that, a “private empire” mentality took hold.
CEOs who possess this outlook often use their companies to carry out personal ambitions. The most slippery slope of all for these executives is their tendency to use corporate funds for personal reasons. CEOs who have a long or impressive track record may come to feel that they’ve made so much money for the company that the expenditures they make on themselves, even if extravagant, are trivial by comparison. This twisted logic seems to have been one of the factors that shaped the behavior of Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco. His pride in his company and his pride in his own extravagance seem to have reinforced each other. This is why he could sound so sincere making speeches about ethics while using corporate funds for personal purposes. Being the CEO of a sizable corporation today is probably the closest thing to being king of your own country, and that’s a dangerous title to assume.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of character.
Read the Fully: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/
Contributor: Eric Jackson.
Via Forbes.com
phil@gadgetables.com
06/02/2012 Leave a Comment
Why Best Buy is Going out of Business… Gradually
Page 1:
Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years. Consider a few key metrics. Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City, the company is losing market share. Its last earnings announcement disappointed investors. In 2011, the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value. It’s forward P/E is a mere 6.23 (industry average is 10.20). Its market cap down to less than $9 billion. Its average analyst rating, according to The Street.com, is a B-.
Those are just some of the numbers, and they don’t look good. They bear out a prediction in March from the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, which forecast “the worst is yet to come” for Best Buy investors. With the flop of 3D televisions and the expansion of Apple’s own retail locations, there was no killer product on the horizon that would lift it from the doldrums. Though the company accounts for almost a third of all U.S. consumer electronics purchases, analysts noted, the company remains a ripe target for more nimble competitors.
The reasons for the company’s dwindling prospects are easy to find. Just walk into one of the company’s retail locations or shop online. And try, really try, not to lose your temper.
I admit. I can’t do it. A few days ago, I visited a Best Buy store in Pinole, CA with a friend. He’s a devoted consumer electronics and media shopper, and wanted to buy the 3D blu ray of “How to Train Your Dragon,” which Best Buy sells exclusively. According to the company’s website, it’s backordered but available for pickup at the store we visited. The item wasn’t there, however, and the sales staff had no information.
But my friend decided to buy some other blu-ray discs. Or at least he tried to, until we were “assisted” by a young, poorly groomed sales clerk from the TV department, who wandered over to interrogate us. What kind of TV do you have? Do you have a cable service, or a satellite service? Do you have a triple play service plan?
He was clearly—and clumsily–trying to sell some alternative. (My guess is CinemaNow, Best Buy’s private label on-demand content service.) My friend politely but firmly told him he was not interested in switching his service from Comcast. I tried to change the subject by asking if there was a separate bin for 3D blu rays; he didn’t know.
The used car style questions continued. “I have just one last question for you,” he finally said to my friend. “How much do you pay Comcast every month?”
My friend is too polite. “How is that any of your business?” I asked him. “All right then,” he said, the fake smile unaffected, “You folks have a nice day.” He slinked back to his pit.
As a sometime business school professor, I could just imagine the conversation with the TV department manager the day before. “Corporate says we have to work on what’s called up-selling and cross-selling,” the clerk was informed in lieu of actual training on either the products or effective sales. “Whenever you aren’t with a customer, you need to be roaming the floor pushing our deal with CinemaNow. At the end of the day, I want to know how many people you’ve approached.”
But this is hardly customer service. It’s actually getting in the way of a customer who’s trying to self-service because there’s no one around who can answer a basic question about the store’s confusing layout. It’s anti-service.
Read the Fully: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2012/01/02/why-best-buy-is-going-out-of-business-gradually/
Contributor: Larry Downes.
Via Forbes.com – Image: BestBuy
phil@gadgetables.com
06/01/2012 Leave a Comment
“During its first week on sale in Japan, PS Vita sold 320 K units. The sales period tracked was just two days, so hopeful fans thought that perhaps the first full week would bring good news.
But the second week brought devastation – just 72 K units sold. WhenNintendo launched its latest handheld, the sales of the 3DS declined from 370 K to 210K over the first two weeks. That drop-off led to a steep further sales erosion, which forced Nintendo to implement an unusually early and steep price cut. This cut combined with the launches of big franchises like Monster Hunter, Super Mario Land and Mario Kart turned the fortunes of the 3DS around in Japan. The 3DS has now sold more than 4 Million units in Japan and in the past week it crushed Sony‘s more advanced PS Vita by 484 K vs. 72 K in unit sales.
Sony will likely be forced to cut the price of the PS Vita from 24’000 yen to well below 20’000 yen very soon. The upcoming US launch could be a true debacle for several reasons. Sony has decided to price Vita at $250, higher than the Amazon Kindle Fire. The hottest games like the latest Uncharted are priced at $50, while many other major titles are $40. The pricing seems delusional in light of the Japanese response to the PS Vita. The older PSP handheld console has been a bigger hit in Japan than it has been in the US market. The tablet and iPhone market penetration rates in America are higher than in Japan – consumers may well be more reluctant to splurge on expensive, proprietary handheld consoles. The launch of the Kindle Fire at $200 has changed the US consumer electronics pricing environment.
I believe Japan could well be the last stronghold of portable game consoles. Even though the 3DS stumbled badly during its early months, Nintendo revived the console with a steep price cut and nearly simultaneous launches of three major franchises near the end of the year. The 3DS should have been a surefire blockbuster in its domestic market – the summer softness in Japan may have been an early warning sign of the coming global portable market malaise. The disastrous second week of the PS Vita is the second sign. Sony clearly had some anxiety about the Vita’s launch – it built it massive early support via an extensive line of launch titles. Despite the fact that Sony’s PSP has been a big hit in Japan, the PS Vita is foundering badly out of the gate – the ancient and heavily discounted PSP outsold the brand new Vita by 40% during the Christmas week. Much is now riding on the Vita debut in the US market in February.
I argued last week that PS Vita could mark the end of the era of portable game consoles. There is no doubt that Nintendo’s 3DS is going to sell at least 30 Million units globally over the next couple of years. But the portable console market may now have entered an age of permanent, slowly accelerating decline.The true test of the industry is the United States, where consumers are embracing games designed for smartphones and tablets. The possible shrinking of the portable game consumer base would hit the runner-up Sony before Nintendo really gets mauled. The rot sets in first at the periphery.
Sony has approached the PS Vita launch in America with arrogance, pricing the console and games high while opting to debut the device during the slow retail month of February. Mobile app sales more than doubled during the Christmas of 2011 – solid triple digit volume growth. In the meanwhile, even in the Japanese heartland of video games, video game software unit sales are set to decline by double digits in 2011.
Mobile games have traditionally been simple and often very childish – yet slowly but surely, deeper and more sophisticated games are arriving, chipping at the depth advantage long held by the games designed for portable consoles. The majority of consumers are not interested in the 30 to 60-hour epics dominating game charts. The fickle casual gamers have started their grand migration from portable consoles to smartphones and tablets. 2012 could well be the first year when we see the shape of this transition. Early warning signs arrived in 2011.”
Contributor: Ter Kuittinen
Via Forbes.com – Image: bakersfieldnow.com
Wow, that’s saddening due to the advancements of the Hand-held console. It may be a different story when the unit is introduced State-side; expected date: 2/2012.
phil@gadgetables.com
06/01/2012 Leave a Comment
“See drug side effects reported to the FDA by people like you.”
Via drugcite.com
Image: drugcite.com
phil@gadgetables.com
06/30/2011 1 Comment
Apple is set to unveil its next-generation iPad – which will come in two versions – at the iWorld scheduled for January 26, 2012, according to sources at its supply chain partners. The new models will join the existing iPad 2 to demonstrate Apple’s complete iPad series targeting the entry-level, mid-range and high-end market segments, the sources claimed.
The iPad 2 will be competing directly with Amazon’s kindle Fire in the price-sensitive market segment, while the new models will focus on the mid-range and high-end segments respectively, the sources said.
Apple officials declined to comment.
Instead of the previously-rumored 7.85-inch, the upcoming iPad models will still feature 9.7-inch screens but come with QXGA resolution (1,536×2,048 pixels), the sources indicated. Dual-LED light bars are designed for the new iPads to strengthen the brightness of the panels, the sources added.
Sharp will be the major panel supplier for Apple’s next-generation iPad series, while Samsung Electronics and LG Display are also responsible for a part of the orders, the sources said. Minebea, from which Sharp sources backlight units (BLUs), has accordingly entered the supply chain for the new iPads, the sources pointed out.
Apple continues to contract Samsung to manufacture its quad-core A6 processors, which will be used in the next-generation iPads, the sources revealed. The existing iPad 2 is based on the dual-core A5.
Samsung is also among the CMOS image sensor (CIS) suppliers for one of the versions of the new iPad that comes with a 5-megapixel lens, marking the Korea-based vendor’s first time to grab CIS orders from Apple, the sources noted. Sony is the other CIS supplier for the other model with a higher 8-megapixel lens, the sources added.
In addition, Simplo Technology and Dynapack International Technology have both secured orders for batteries with a capacity of as high as 14,000 milliampere-hour (mAh) used in the new iPads, according to the sources.
Yenting Chen and Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES.
Via digitimes.com
phil@gadgetables.com
06/30/2011 Leave a Comment
Amazon.com/CEO: Jeff Bezos.
After launching an electronic assault on local shops and abusing sick and pregnant warehouse workers, Amazon.com has been sued for ripping off and royally screwing over in every other possible way a partner that made Kindle cases. Maybe the e-tailer’s 2011 New Year’s resolution was “be evil constantly.”
A federal lawsuit filed Thursday by M-Edge Accessories LLC accuses Amazon of all manner of bullying. According to M-Edge, it agreed in Nov. 2009 to pay Amazon a roughly 15 percent commission for the right to sell Kindle cases. That deal was supposed to last three years, but after two months, M-Edge says, Amazon demanded 32 percent and threatened to take M-Edge cases off its website if the company refused. M-Edge refused. About a year and a half later, Amazon demanded it agree to the onerous new terms, this time threatening to bury M-Edge in Amazon search results where “no one will be able to find you.” With Amazon providing 90 percent of the company’s revenue, it agreed, shelling out $6.5 million in additional fees.
Finally, Amazon just went ahead and violated M-Edge’s patent, the company claims, and began making its own Kindle case with a built-in light just like the M-Edge. Then it dropped M-Edge from its list of “Amazon Approved Accessory Vendors,” even though M-Edge had been paying for just such a right, and began to falsely list M-Edge cases as “currently unavailable” on its website. Of course these allegations won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who follows how Amazon normally treats its customers, workers, and competitors. But it still sounds surprisingly evil. Maybe when Anderson Cooper tried to warn us about Amazon, we should have listened, mmm?
Via Gawker.com/Ryan Tate – Getty Images.
phil@gadgetables.com
06/30/2011 Leave a Comment
World’s largest vertical press – Northern Heavy Industries Group Co. 36,000 ton ferrous metal vertical press.
7/6/2009, Norinco Group announced in Beijing that after 3 years of tackling the challenge, and in conjunction with Inner Mongolia Northern Heavy Industries Group Co., Tsinghua University, and other research institutions, they have successfully developed a 36,000 ton ferrous metal vertical press. This is currently the largest ferrous metal vertical press in the world.
Vehicle with the most tires in the world.
2008, Suzhou Dafang Special Vehicle Co., Ltd joined together four platform trailer at Yantai DSME SHANDONG CO. to successfully transport a 40 meter wide, 2000 ton segment of a ship, setting at the time the Asian record for transporting the largest tonnage using platform trailers.
Yea, OK…So, how come my table-lamp from Walmart does not have the same Quality-Engineering?
phil@gadgetables.com
Via chinasmack.com
Read the Fully: http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/chinas-top-engineering-industrial-feats.html