http://ibnlive.in.com/news/new-ios-7-security-bug-exposed-iphone-5s-fingerprint-scanner-cracked-again/426274-11.html

The competition in the smart phone industry is abnormal, phones have been in a competition of pushing out new features as fast as possible, while some “new features” a year ago might is now considered a point of parity in the smartphone industry.

Marketing relies heavily on the point of difference on top of the point of parity to differentiate a product from its competitors. Some phones establish its point of difference through a chase of numbers: more pixels, larger screens and etc. Apple, however, took a different approach, they put new functions on their phone, now you can unlock your phone through fingerprint.

My focus however, is on the drawback of this competition for points of difference. The fingerprint unlock system creates wide concern and security issue.  The article suggests that fingerprint is overall not a very good way to secure your phone, while other raise concern over whether the government and hackers can now get the fingerprint information of individuals. In my opinion, over focusing on points of difference might lead to putting immature technologies into phones, ruining the product in the end. I personally won’t want a perfectly designed smartphone to be ruined that way.

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http://www.voanews.com/content/us-government-shutdown-continues-with-no-clear-end-in-sight/1764071.html

United States, one of the world’s most powerful countries has been shutting down its operation for days. I wonder what if U.S. is actually a company.

In a management terms, U.S’s management is in turmoil and there are divergent in the direction for the future. It can be said that it is managing issue that leads to the shutdown of operation.

In accounting terms, U.S. seems to be facing greater problems, the amount of liabilities U.S. government has is about 75% of the GDP and rising in Obama years. U.S. might face a “debt default and a near-certain credit downgrade” if it doesn’t resume its operation according to the article.

In theory, U.S. reassembles how the world’s worst company might look like on paper. In my view, however, U.S. most valuable asset is its brand and the value of the brand “United States of America” is priceless, thanks to their great marketing as the “protector of freedom and democracy”.

However, like any company with a big brand, the value of the brand cannot operate the company and finance its liabilities itself. U.S. needs to look way ahead in how to grow themselves and improving their finance.

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http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/30/blackberry-ltd-falls-off-top-100-global-brands-list-as-apple-takes-top-spot/?__lsa=89cd-f861

This news article refers to the result of the 100 biggest global brands standing, which BlackBerry recently fall out of the table.

The issue of BlackBerry’s downfall has been on the table. It is close to the hearts of Canadians as BlackBerry is a Canadian company and as much as it is reported again and again how BlackBerry is failing, I can still see people on the street, using BlackBerry.

How did it happen? Motorola once launch this product called Envoy, which was like a personal assistant. It was one of the gadgets with the most functions at that time. Despite its list of “capabilities”, a product called PalmPilot 1000, with much less capabilities, sold much better than Envoy.

BlackBerry is in similar shoes: compared to iPhone and Androids, it has much less function, yet it has its points of difference, security and efficiency. BlackBerry failure to position itself according to its strength is crucial. As BlackBerry launch its tablet “BlackBerry Playbook”, it failed miserably. The way I see it is that BlackBerry is about getting things done, tablet is about entertainment, exactly everything that BlackBerry doesn’t have. Focusing on strength can be a key to brand positioning.

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