Helena's Blog

Apple has dealt the latest blow in its fight against competitor Google with the release of its iPhone 5.

Apple’s mapping goes in the wrong direction- The Globe and Mail

By dropping Google Maps, Apple has made a huge dent in Google’s core business “because about 40 percent of mobile searches are” location related. This will negatively affect Google’s advertising, putting it at risk of losing businesses that depend on it to literally put them on the map.  According to Canalys, a research firm, “60 per cent of smartphones run Android, versus 34 percent for iPhones”, but iPhone users account for half of all traffic to Google maps. By transferring that to its own maps application, Apple could generate even more profit through location-based advertising. By better integrating location services into future iPhones it could keep the anticipation for new phones (and stocks) high.

Apple’s iPhone 5 sold 5 million units within three days of its release.

Apple Maps could help Apple to conquer more of the tech world.  With its own program, Apple has the potential to optimize and customize maps for its products and services to further highlight its value proposition of power in simplicity.

Will Apple maps get you going in the right direction? Probably not, but Apple’s move in dropping Google is the right step in its climb to the top.

Apple’s feud with Google is felt on iPhone- The Economic Times

Apple iPhone 5 fever rages despite grumbling over maps- The Economic Times

In recent years, shocking reports that implicate almost every product on Chinese grocery store shelves have been released.  After the deaths of six children and reports of some 300 000 more falling ill from food contamination, public scrutiny has fallen other food products.

Recent investigation into Chinese food manufacturing has unearthed the use of a plethora of chemical additives.

The Chinese food scandals serve to provide a prime example of business ethics. A business, in a basic sense, is an institution created and driven by incentives to make a profit, not to benefit society. Business remains inclined to rely on figures, which explicitly state costs and revenue. However, numbers can dehumanize resources and markets to the point that sick children become irrelevant if products are making a profit.

Constantly, businesses abandon social responsibility for profit- taking production shortcuts to save on costs, and doing anything to stay competitive in the marketplace. Provided, profit is the incentive for business to exist, so a lack thereof would effectively halt markets and society. From a purely economic standpoint, as The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits has, CSR will contribute to inflation and ultimately harm consumers. However, when profits are made at the expense of consumers, a business will lose sight of who is giving them profit and a market for their goods, as well as how sustainable their business really is.

So the main ethical contention China’s food scandals pose? Should we favour on short-term goals such as quarterly earnings over stakeholder and societal benefit?

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/from-milk-to-peas-a-chinese-food-safety-mess/

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