Taiwan based electronics manufacturer HTC has recently made its official foray into the tablet market with its new Jetstream tablet.  Although HTC made a little noise with the HTC Flyer last year, the new Jetstream will actually be a direct competitor to the iPad 2…well; actually it will be a direct competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Palm TouchPad.

HTC's new Android based tablet could be a competitor to Apple's iPad 2

The new Jetstream will utilize Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system and will have a 1.5-gigahertz processor and will also have a 10.1-inch screen.  Although HTC has had a lot of success when working with Google (HTC Evo 4g, Evo 3D, HTC Thunderbolt, etc.), the tablet market has been dominated and will continue to be dominated by Apple.  That being said, Apple does need competition in the tablet market, and the HTC-Google team is the right team to do just that.  Samsung made the mistake of not only making a tablet that many courts deemed too similar to Apple’s iPad (an absolutely horrendous ruling by any court and Samsung should look for a new corporate litigation team), but also engaging in the legal battle with Apple all over the globe.  However, HTC not only is a powerful, successful company in its own right (much more successful than Samsung in the smartphone market), but also has the ability to look at Samsung’s mistakes and not follow in Samsung’s footsteps.

The "King of the Tablets," Apple's iPad 2 has been untouchable.

Matt Lundy’s blog on canadianbusiness.com presents a compelling case of how Google emerged from the NBA lockout stronger than ever.  Simply, Google was able to manipulate the lockout to get players such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade, to go on a “Google+ Homecoming,” (and don’t worry, I’m on Google+ too).  This is simply another great business maneuver by Google to control every sector of the tech world.  In a Facebook dominated social media landscape, Google must do everything in its power to boost the popularity of Google+ in order to even compete with Facebook.  Although many people believe Facebook is untouchable, even by Google, they forget to look at the past.  Not too long ago, Myspace was thought to be untouchable and Facebook was just something for college kids to use.  However, Facebook soon overtook Myspace in popularity and now nobody in his or her right mind uses Myspace, because Facebook is “in.”  Google will soon do with Google+ what it has done with everything it has ventured into: make it popular!

Being an American, Black Friday is something special.  Thanks to Chris Wong’s blog, I received inspiration to shed some light on one of the most peculiar holiday traditions.  In the States, Black Friday is more than just a day of great holiday sales; it’s a lifestyle.  To be honest, the people who take full advantage of Black Friday aren’t normal.  These are the same people who camp for days to get the new iPhone or Playstation.  These fanatics, however, are given the greatest justification to flaunt their idiosyncrasies because not only are Apple nerds or Sony nerds out to play, housewives and grandmothers are out for the fun too!  One of the most undesirable tasks for any retailer to do is open the doors on the morning of Black Friday.  In fact, last year a salesman was trampled to death at a Wal-Mart because customers were just so exited to get great deals that they forgot about the poor man getting paid minimum wage and killed him!  While these fatalities aren’t a common occurrence in the U.S., they do give an example of just how seriously people take the holiday season.  However, Black Friday presents a great opportunity for retailers to actually turn a profit in an extremely volatile market place.  Keep on spending!

Seriously, it's Office Depot!

Although it is becoming a current trend for large companies to create a fun, low-stress environment for its employees to work in (notably Zappos and Google), companies must be careful not to create entitled, lazy employees who demand frivolous things such as toga parties regularly without feeling the need to actually work for them.  Aaron Chan recently wrote a blog commenting on Google’s fun work environment as well as pointing out the decrease in turnover rate and absenteeism.  In fact, Google was even voted the world’s number one employer by Universum.  While a positive and friendly work environment will in fact increase productivity, employers looking to change their current work environment need to ensure that they strike a balance between giving employees an incentive to come to work and creating a culture in which the employees lose respect for not only their employers, but also for the company itself.  This balance is vital, as falling on either side of the line will be devastating for the company.

In 2005, David Schottenstein had a vision: provide both the rich and famous as well as the business professionals with high-quality, custom-made clothing.  Although the extremely wealthy have been having their suits, shirts, and even ties made for them for a number of years, Schottenstein’s company, Astor and Black, has been extremely successful at providing everybody from doctors and lawyers to Chad Ochocinco and Larry Ellison (founder Oracle Corporation) business attire made specifically for them.  Astor and Black has grown substantially over the past six years; in fact, David Schottenstein was recently awarded both the Ernst and Young Award as well as being named one of the top-30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Business Magazine.  According to Joseph Schumpeter, an entrepreneur is defined as someone who provides new products to new markets, with new production methods and new forms of organization.  Astor and Black has fulfilled all of these criteria perfectly, with Schottenstein representing what it truly means to be an entrepreneur.

After much deliberation, the European Commission approved Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Internet calling innovator, Skype.  Although Microsoft’s stock prices have been slowly declining, along with just about everything else, this opportunity would allow Microsoft to take advantage of Skype’s soaring popularity to boost its stock prices and regain its reputation as a market innovator and leader.  However, Microsoft needs to be careful and avoid making drastic changes to an already popular product that might either prevent new customers from coming or push away the millions of existing users.  When Google bought the popular site YouTube 2006, it decided to make changes to the site to help business, but those changes actually pushed existing and potential customers away from the site.  Now, that’s not to say that Microsoft shouldn’t work to build Skype into an extremely lucrative subsidiary, but rather that it must be careful in its decisions about the website and avoid any tremendous reformatting that would impede user experience and force a decrease in customers.

Much to the dismay of many Apple Inc. enthusiasts, the iPhone 4S was released just days ago to an unprecedented amount of negative press.  The reason for this is simple: people wanted an iPhone 5, not an iPhone 4.5.  However, this isn’t the first time that Apple has done this in recent memory.  Just a few years ago, shortly after the release of the second installment of the iPhone, the iPhone 3G, Apple released what it called the iPhone 3GS.  Rather than a complete redesign, Apple simply revamped the software and added video capability to the phone.  These changes are almost identical to those made to the iPhone 4 to create the iPhone 4S.  Apple added the Core A5 dual-core processor to the phone (although this means nothing to the average consumer, the dual-core chip boosts performance by leaps and bounds, particularly during uploading/downloading and while multitasking), which is the same chip currently in the iPad 2.  Apple also upgraded the camera to an 8-megapixel camera to compete with companies such as HTC and Samsung, as well as adding some software updates such as iCloud and iOS 5.  Combined, this makes the iPhone 4S a major improvement over its predecessor.

Currently in the works in the European Union are talks to have foreign airlines pay for carbon pollution caused by their activity in the EU.  For obvious reasons, many major foreign airlines, including Continental Airlines and American Airlines, are fighting back with the help of the U.S. Air Transport Association as they feel they additional €6-€12 per ticket is ludicrous.  However, the airlines fighting back against the proposed EU legislation are not isolated to the United States.  In fact, both India and China have threatened to retaliate if the legislation is passed; with China threatening to cancel an order for 10 Airbus A380 jets, due to Airbus’ manufacturer being based in the EU.  The proposed legislation, while admirable with regard to respecting the environment, comes at the wrong time for the rest of the world.  While all 27 countries in the European Union would benefit due to their terrible financial situation, the rest of the world is in a similar situation as well; not to mention the fact that airline travel only accounts for 3% of all global carbon emissions.

The mysterious and much anticipated Apple iPhone 5 has still yet to be released, leaving many to wonder what exactly Apple is waiting for.  However, Apple’s decision to hold the release of its newest upgrade to the ever-popular iPhone is actually working to Apple’s benefit.  Rather than releasing the phone mid-Summer as it did with the iPhone 4, Apple is building anticipation for the product and it opened up an opportunity for Apple to promote its iCloud technology because the consumers themselves were creating the hype for the iPhone 5.  However, the delayed release will also present Apple an opportunity to rebound from the losses it has incurred in its stock value due to the recessing Nasdaq.  Whether or not this move was calculated, we may never know, but Apple will surely be able to exploit the opportunity presented to close the year out with a profit; something that many major corporations will not be able to achieve.

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