Month: October 2012

Microsoft has recently launched its latest tablet, Surface in the market. Surface uses a modified version of Microsoft’s latest Window 8 known as RT. Surface seems to have numerous quality that makes it a good tablet. It is very durable and has a very tough screen and and comes with a keypad that is touch sensitive. However, it is priced at $499, which is roughly the same price as the new Ipad that was recently released. The question here is whether Surface can compete with the other tablets that are already in the market and especially Apple’s Ipad which has been dominant in the market. With the new features that Surface has and the program that it runs with, it might have a fighting chance in the tablet market; however, i believe that it will have difficulty in sales for the first few weeks or month until its competitive advantage over other tablet has been establish. Currently, it is just another tablet in the market with a pricey tag released from Microsoft. Nevertheless, the review of it as a hybrid of laptop and a tablet might be just the point of difference that it needs to attract consumers.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/microsoft-enters-hardware-business-with-surface-tablet/articleshow/16959823.cms

Recently Intel has announced its third-quarterly earnings and has managed to produce revenue that is more than what is predicted by most analysts. However, the revenue generated is still 14 per cent less than what they earned in the same quarter the previous year. The rapid decline in the revenue shows that there is major decrease in the usage of Intel powered desktops. The reason for that is because consumers have changed their preference to mobile electronics such as smartphones and tablets compared to desktops.  The lack of grip in tablets and smartphones market by Intel has made it worse for its sales. The shift in the preference of the consumers also shows how the technology has transcended. The desktop used to dominate other devices when it was first created but now has there are new technologies ( i.e. smartphones and tablets), the world is moving towards it.

It is predicted that in the next year, the sales for tablets will double and half of it will be Ipads. The market for tablets and smartphones are ever increasing and Intel must start to have a grip in the mobile electronics market to ensure that its sales does not continuously decrease.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/intel-profit-falls-as-consumers-shun-desktops-in-mobile-world/article4616623/

Recently after buying over Converse, Nike seems to be having more issues with workers abuse. The workers in Indonesia are being abused in their jobs and have no voice to complaint about it. If they were to complain , they would lose their jobs and will not be able to eat and pay for rent. Eventhough, Nike has heard all these complaints about the abuse that is faced by the workers, it is failed to stop it or at least to reduce it. It blames on the previous ownership of Converse and the contract that was signed to the contractors. Nike says that it is powerless and cannot do anything much to change the situation. What is startling is that, Nike being a giant compared  to Converse and saying that it does not have any persuasive power against them. This is the main cause for the employees to abuse their workers is because they have no teaching of business ethics. However, Nike says that they are indeed taking actions against the workers abuse as soon as possible. Nevertheless, soon seems to be something that takes a long time. One would question what is more important; the profits or the ethics conducted?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/nike-faces-new-worker-abuse-indonesia_n_896816.html

RIM’s newly playbook is anticipated to act as a lifeline or a support until the release of their new smartphone in 2013. However, does it prove to be a worthy gadget? The new playbook has certainly new characteristics that are appealing and is certainly better than the previous playbook. One of the prominent feature would be the 4G LTE. With the use of 4G LTE, potential consumers would be able to download in speeds as high as 40 mb a second. With the added features, It is clear that RIM has taken measures to improve their previous flaws by using a method of distinguish problems such as The Ishikawa diagram to improve their product. Nevertheless, similar to the first playbook the price of the new playbook is steep. It is sold at 549 CAD $. The high price would definitely be the factor that affects the sales of the playbook due to the high competitive nature of tablets nowadays. With Google releasing tablet such as nexus 7 for 250 CAD $, and with other tablets prices (except for Apple’s iPad) that are below 400 CAD $. It would be hard for it to compete with the other brands. It looks like RIM has made the same mistake as before.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/08/08/f-rim-playbook-review.html

This article depicts the ongoing battle between Apple and Samsung to win the smartphone market share.  After losing in the courtroom for infringing 5 of Apple’s patent, Samsung is now becoming more aggressive in their marketing approach. Prior to this, Samsung marketing approach has always been subtle and passive against their competitors but under the new marketing management by Todd Pendleton, it is becoming more aggressive. The aggressive approach towards marketing their product has been rather successful for Samsung. Their smartphone market share rose from 18.3% to 34.6% in a year. The dominance that is shown by Samsung in the market share is mostly due to their expertise and spending on marketing. Samsung spent 2.8 billion in marketing expenses in the second quarter, up from $1.97 billion a year earlier.

What is clear is that with the appropriate marketing scheme and spending, there is a higher chance for a firm or a company to voice out or project its product to its customer. This will enable the firm to show the competitive advantage of its product compared to other companies. Hence, the power of marketing is truly proven here.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/10/07/new-battle-brewing-between-samsung-and-apple/