Image Source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/142239-apple-iphone-x-vs-samsung-galaxy-s8-pistols-at-dawn-for-the-ultimate-face-off

The battle between Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market never seem to end, after nearly a decade of fierce competition in the world of smartphones Apple and Samsung seem to be the two major players left. The two companies have pushed each other in terms of R&D and came up with impressive features to attract customers.

Image Source: https://www.iphonelife.com/content/evolution-iphone-every-model-2007-2016

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone product line by Apple. Ever since the launch of the Apple iPhone the company has seen its market capitalization (AAPL)  thirteen fold and net income twenty-three fold (Dunn, 2017). The launch of the original iPhone also signified the beginning of a new era where smartphones are incorporated into our everyday lives. Along with the iPhones came Siri, Touch ID, and now Face ID. Although the iPhone wasn’t always the first to introduce revolutionary features, it always managed to be the leader in high-end smartphone shipments.

Image Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-growth-since-iphone-launch-chart-2017-6

Samsung’s answers to the Apple iPhone was the Galaxy series. the Galaxy S series was introduced in 2010 and immediately became a contender with the iPhone 4. Throughout the years Samsung’s R&D department innovated and came out with game-changing features such as a virtually bezel-free display and iris scanners.

Today both of Apple and Samsung’s flagship devices sell at over a thousand dollars and have both secured itself as a leader in its respective ecosystem, iOS and Android. Both companies now among the biggest tech companies in the world with revenues in the hundreds of billions. But have you ever wondered what are the real costs associated with the production of the smartphones your buying with over a grand?

The Samsung Galaxy S8 released earlier this year costs $309 CAD to manufacture and is sold for $1035 CAD (Morris, 2017). This cost is not including the cost of shipping, marketing, operating and most importantly R&D. At the time of the release, it was the most costly phone to manufacture on the market but not anymore.

Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDjGnWO_fG4

With the much-hyped release of the iPhone X this fall, Apple beat numerous records. The new iPhone retailed at the price of $1319 CAD is indeed very expensive for the average consumer but wait until you hear the price it costs Apple to manufacture the phone alone (Jenkins, 2017). It is reported that it costs $470 CAD  for Apple to manufacture the iPhone X due to the new designs (Jenkins, 2017). Some examples are the new screen which costs double and the new True Depth Camera for Face ID.

Image Source: https://www.androidpit.com/smartphone-camera-blind-test

So are the smartphones worth the hefty price? Is the profit margin for smartphones too high or too low? Are the new features worth an upgrade or just a gimmick?

While I personally believe the new iPhone is quite expensive, these questions will be left for the free market to decide.

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Dunn, J. (2017, June 29). How far Apple’s business has rocketed since the iPhone first launched. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-growth-since-iphone-launch-chart-2017-6

Jenkins, A. (2017, November 8). Apple iPhone X: Heres How Much the Parts Actually Cost | Money. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from http://time.com/money/5014941/iphone-x-cost-price/

Morris, I. (2017, April 21). Samsung Galaxy S8 is Monstrously Expensive to Produce. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2017/04/21/samsung-galaxy-s8-is-monstrously-expensive-to-produce/#42e7da64572a

Image Source: https://www.tandemploy.com/en/coca-cola-blog-01-12-15/

In today’s world where social media and fast culture dominates every aspect of life companies must seize the attention of their audience within seconds and leave an impression that would invoke emotions. In the article, “What Under Armour and Coca-Cola are doing that every company should do today” the author Louis Hsieh analyses the up-and-coming marketing strategies to accommodate the 21^st century. In his article, Hsieh uses brands that most of us are fairly familiar with such as Coca-Cola and Under Armour. He argues that by the use of social media and creative advertisements Coca-Cola encouraged their audience to click into their official website. The author also states the sportswear company Under Armour is able to distinguish itself from fierce competitors such as Nike and Adidas by the development of a free smartphone application that tracks a person’s calorie intake and exercise. The article is crafted with care and provides insight on the changes in the field of marketing to adapt to the newer generations and not fall out of the consumers’ favor.

Image Source: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles

Coca Cola’s advertisements include elements of happiness and almost always invoke a feeling of thirst. In most of Coca Cola’s advertisements people are fatigued by work or sweating under the scorching sun the people then obtain a bottle of Coke and suddenly feel refreshed and nourished. The overall theme of Coca-Cola advertisements stays the same but the brand continues to come up with creative ideas to accustom to different demographics and events. The company will often take advantage of upcoming events such as the World Cup, highly anticipated movie release, and the Olympic games to promote their products. As well as have famous celebrities and athletes endorse their brand. All the above will be combined into an attention-grasping video and posted on social media.

Image Source: http://johnfahy.net/blog/2016/1/28/coca-colas-one-brand-strategy.html

Utilizing new and creative elements in the advertisements will be the future of marketing. Brands are already starting to rely on social media for most of their advertisement due to its extensive reach and relatively cheap cost. Having the ability to capture the audience’s attention within the first few seconds of the video is extremely crucial on social media to the audience’s tendency to keep scrolling down the new feed as soon as they feel slightly bored. Brands should not only include celebrities and upcoming events to captivate consumers. Companies should also include more creative editing and humorous elements to captivate their audiences. These new elements can be seen thought upcoming channels such as independent creators on YouTube.

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Image Source: https://marketingland.com/library/channel/social-media-marketing

If a study was to be done today on where most people get their news from, the answer will most likely be Social Media. According to Pew Research Center, around two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017). These enormous platforms are used by hundreds of millions of people daily across the world and have a profound impact on the way people think and act. An example of how powerful social media is would be the Arab Spring that happened over five years ago. More specifically a Facebook page was set up to promote and late- on organize demonstrations against then-president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Another more recent example would be the swift and ample spread of fake news throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In which supporters of a candidate would “share” articles from sketchy websites which were totally made up. And these articles would get millions of views within days spreading false or biased information.

Image Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-how-to-fix-facebooks-fake-news

Commenting on a recent article written by Steve Kovach, “Facebook and rest of Big Tech are now Big Media, and it’s time we start treating them that way”. The author argues that technology companies such as Facebook and Google are in such influential positions in terms of what type of news the average reader gets fed to, they should also be responsible for and regulated as traditional media outlets. In the article, the author emphasizes on the impact the tech giants have on their users and the ‘purposely designed algorithms’ these companies use to customize what news gets to be shown and to whom it is shown to. In addition to customized news feeds, the author also touches on the trend of increasing investments by Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple to develop originally produced content such as TV shows and movies. These ambitions to replace Hollywood are still in its early phases but it is a step closer to blurring the lines between tech giants and media giants.

Image Source: https://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/08/social-media-agency-feature-maverick-mav-digital-media-web-design-firm/

Looking ahead I believe the importance of social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube will only increase and appropriate regulations should be made by governments to hold them accountable just like existing media outlets. Facebook should be responsible for what gets posted on their website and act as if they are the publishers and not just platforms. They should be responsible for filtering the spread of fake news, hate speech, and other offensive content. This article is especially interesting when because most of us use these social media on a daily basis and we should all make sure that with the greater influence these companies possess comes greater responsibilities.

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Kovach, S. (2017, October 14). Facebook and the rest of Big Tech are now Big Media, and it’s time we start treating them that way. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-and-google-are-now-media-companies-2017-10

Shearer, E., & Gottfried, J. (2017, September 07). News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/

Picture From: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/childrens-hospital/giving.aspx

Healthcare in the United states is infamous for being ridiculously expensive and has been the center of discussion in the last election. The United States spends five times more on healthcare than on their military (Peterson, 2015). Every year the United States spends 3.2 trillion dollars on health care, this number alone would rank as the world’s 5^th largest national GDP right after Germany at 3.4 trillion (World Bank, n.d.). The healthcare per capita spending is around $10,000 compared to a GDP per capita of $57,466 (World Bank, n.d.). So why is healthcare so pricey in the U.S. despite being ranked the 37^th most efficient in the world by the World Health Organization?

Overpriced drugs set by private companies

Private companies in the U.S. have the right to set their own medicine prices and is not controlled by the congress. The congress may only hold occasional hearing to put pressure on drug makers (Kocher & Roberts, 2016) while drug prices rise way faster than inflation. The only exception to this is Veteran Affairs and Medicaid (Hiltzik, 2017).

Picture From: http://www.sgrrmc.com/Hospital/default.aspx

Administrative cost

Due to the complicated billing system of healthcare in the U.S. a lot of staffing is required to figure out the different insurance types such as copays, co-insurance and differing deductibles as opposed to the single-payer system in Canada (Epstein, 2015).

Use of higher cost specialist doctors

Patients are more often referred to specialist doctors that cost more than primary care doctors in the America (Gottfried, 2010). Whereas in other countries patients are more likely to visit a primary care doctor who would be qualified enough to address the issue but with a lower cost.

Picture From: https://www.socialworkhelper.com/2016/11/10/comparing-public-healthcare-us-europe/

The current administration has been working on amending the American Healthcare Act to replace the Affordable Healthcare Act enacted by Obama. The new bill is expected to increase medical costs even further for older, poorer people and is estimated to throw 23 million people off Medicaid over the next ten years while saving 1% of governmental spending (Adamczyk & O’Brien, 2017). Personally, I think that the access to free or affordable healthcare is a basic right just like the right to express ourselves and the right to receive primary education. A single-payer governmental run healthcare system will not only save a lot of money for the average citizen but also promote a more equal and fair distribution of resources. The current healthcare system in the U.S. is strictly set up for the interest of private corporations and rich individuals who can afford to pay for their specialized treatment. It is unlikely to see any big changes coming to the U.S. healthcare system so the best bet is to stay healthy and wealthy.

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Work cited

Adamczyk, A., & O’Brien, E. (2017, May 04). AHCA: What to Know About New Republican Health Care Bill | Money. Retrieved September 25, 2017, from http://time.com/money/4766063/ahca-new-republican-health-care-bill/

Epstein, L. (2015, August 06). 6 Reasons Healthcare Is So Expensive in the U.S. Retrieved September 24, 2017, from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/080615/6-reasons-healthcare-so-expensive-us.asp

Gottfried, D. D. (2010, May 10). Too Many Doctors, But Too Few Primary Care Ones. Retrieved September 25, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dennis-gottfried/too-many-doctors-but-too_b_568703.html

Hiltzik, M. (2017, January 11). Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices is a popular solution to healthcare costs. But it may not work. Retrieved September 24, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-medicaire-negotiate-20170111-story.html

Kocher, B., & Roberts, B. (2016, December 20). Why Drug Costs Will Keep Rising in 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2016/12/19/healthcare-drug-costs-2017-predictions/

Peterson, P. G. (2015, February 04). U.S. Defense Spending Compared to Other Countries. Retrieved September 24, 2017, from http://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison

World Bank National Accounts Data. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2017, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?year_high_desc=true

World Bank. (n.d.). GDP per capita (current US$). Retrieved September 25, 2017, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=US

World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2017, from http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/

http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-wont-swap-workers-with-robots-2016-5

Job automation, the use of machines to replace human workers, has been one of the hottest and most researched topic in business today. Companies of all sizes turn to automation as a mean of cutting costs. In the past, robots primarily took away jobs from the secondary sector of the economy such as factory workers as machines delivered more consistent results and saved workers from performing dangerous tasks. But today, businesses are replacing workers from the service industry with robots that will do the same work but much more efficiently. In recent years companies such as Walmart and MacDonald’s added self-serve machines in which customers check out or make their order through machines instead of having an employee do so. With more ambitious research on the way, governments and businesses are looking to replace truck drivers, police officers, waiters and even financial officers with robots (Molloy, 2017).

Picture from: http://www.nunnovation.com/2017/06/19/dubai-invents-a-robotic-police-officer/

Fundamentally speaking, the development of new technology is not a bad thing and should not be looked down upon. However, it is the unintended consequence that is so worrying to public. Replacing workers in the service industry with robots will effectively cut costs for businesses in the long run but will eventually cause tremendous effects to the overall economy as the unemployment rate skyrockets. Finding the right balance between a profitable business model while still hiring human employees may be a challenging task in today’s world but some companies have it figured out.

Picture from: https://audi-illustrated.com/en/smart-factory/Das-Technikum-Fertigungsassistenzsysteme

Amazon, one of the leading tech companies in job automation, assigned new roles to their existing employees after their jobs have been replaced by newly introduced robots. Staff members were trained to either operate the machines or got other jobs where humans outperform the machines at (Wingfield, 2017). Some of which included picking individual items off the shelves or moving items that are odd in shapes and sizes. Such a business practice is highly respectable and will set an example of positive business ethics in its industry. As technology slowly eats into all areas of the economy, millions of people will slowly begin to lose jobs due to automation. The jobs replaced by robots will no longer be limited to factory workers but will also spread into the service sector. Sooner or later, robots with the aid of Artificial Intelligence will begin to take away jobs from banks and financial institutions, we are already starting to see banks replace bankers with technology (Nelson, 2016). Therefore, it is very important for major companies to serve as the role model for hiring human employees while undergoing transformation, so that greater economic problems do not arise.

Picture from: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-headquarters-20170907-story.html

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Source Citations

Molloy, M. (2017, March 20). Real-life Robocops will soon replace human police. Retrieved September 12, 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/20/real-life-robocops-will-soon-replace-human-police/

Nelson, E. (2016, October 04). A big Dutch bank is replacing 5,800 people with machines, at a cost of $2 billion. Retrieved September 12, 2017, from https://qz.com/799816/dutch-bank-ing-is-replacing-5800-people-with-machines-at-a-cost-of-2-billion/

Wingfield, N. (2017, September 10). As Amazon Pushes Forward With Robots, Workers Find New Roles. Retrieved September 12, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/technology/amazon-robots-workers.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness

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