Chris Yim’s blog on China’s slowing economy of late is a very relevant topic to North America. It intrigued me because I never knew that Macau was such a big gambling hotspot in the world. As well, Chris brings up the topic of the political situation of China. Since it’s been a month since this blog, China has already picked a new leader for their country. Assuming that this was the major problem that caused the economic slowdown, it would be interesting to see the revenue of Macau’s casinos this month.

Vegas, or Macau…?

As well as being an interesting problem internally to China and Macau, this article (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/uk-macau-revenues-idUSLNE89300S20121004) makes China’s economic problem very relevant to the US and Canada. Currently, we greatly depend on China’s economic bloom as we and the USA trade a lot with them, and we feed off each other in order to stimulate our economies.

Lastly, with Macau’s casino market having overtaken Las Vegas, one can only imagine the amount of wealthy Chinese businessmen that travel to Macau to enjoy their lives. This really shows the power that China’s people have obtained in the past 15 years. China is really becoming an economic power in the world, and will probably continue to do so in the future.

Joshua Wong’s recent blog on Telus’ strategy has intrigued me. I found that he brought up some interesting questions and topics about Telus’ actions of late, and its future. You can find his blog here

“The future is friendly”

The Future Is Friendly

Telus has been renowned to be a price-riser with a sufficient amount of market power, but not anymore. They might have to look back on their slogan “The future is friendly” now that competitors Wind and Mobilicity have entered the market and selling at prices below that of Telus.

Joshua is correct, Telus cannot continue to lower its costs in order to compete with these new brands whose strategy is to become a Cost Leader. He is correct as well in identifying Telus’ unique strategy, where they give back to the community, and focus on consumers. However, I think Telus’ attractiveness to the public will dissipate, now that other companies can give the same overall service with lower prices. In such a market as the one Telus is emerged in, consumers don’t think twice about purchasing at a lower price even if Telus gives back to the community. This is because such a service is a necessity to consumers, and they must pay dues monthly rather than a one time purchase of a unique product such as clothing. In the process of buying shoes, the consumer may wonder if these were produced in sweat shops, or in America when considering the product. But when buying a service such as home phone or cellphone coverage, the consumer does not care as much about the morality of the franchise, and is primarily looking to save money .

Joshua’s blog post is very interesting and insightful and applies many of the terms we’ve covered in our COMM 101 class. I suggest reading it to understand Telus’ situation and strategy better. As well, you may benefit from reading this post because he uses the business terms well enough in a way that you can get a better understanding or review of them.

After reading Trevor Melanson’s blog on Canadian Business, I was intrigued by his newest article based on a Vancouver Apple Store employee named Sam Sung. Oh, the irony of it, surely it must be made up. But no, Sam Sung, he exists, and he works for Apple. Incase you didn’t know, Samsung, the company, is Apple’s no.1 rival and enemy. Together, they’ve battled on the fields of consumer preference, advertising, and lawsuits. It all makes for quite the funny story.

Seriously.

Jokes aside, moving onto Apple’s new iPad Mini, it is reported that Apple has sold 3 million iPad Mini’s in their opening weekend. However, their stocks are tumbling of late, and some speculate that it may be the iPad Mini’s release that is causing this. This cheaper tablet (compared to the full sized iPad) means less profit for Apple, and less revenue in a market where there are stronger competitors such as Google (Android) and Amazon (Kindle Fire) who sell for less than $329. With price competition present, Apple will have to drop its price once again to be able to sell effectively. But this means lower profits, and a drop in Apple’s share price.

iPad Mini

Perhaps this is happening, Samsung is really catching up to Apple. Or is Apple just not advancing? It seems like they are just iterating their products tweaking them to be faster, and bigger, and maybe that is why observers were disappointed with the iPhone 5 and 4S. The iPad Mini is yet another example of this iterating, where this time they have made it smaller. While Apple are still selling a desired amount of products, it is time they notice that competitors are catching up, and they didn’t get to where they are now by reiterating products, but by innovating instead. If the company wants to continue to dominate, it’s obviously going to need to starting innovating and stop iterating. No one is waiting for just a faster processor.

Peter Nowak’s blog shines light onto this problem that Apple has grown in the last year or so, and I think it highlights what Apple needs to do very well. It also gives us a good sense of where competitors are in terms of Apple, and really just how close they are as of now. Go Sam Sung!

Bank of Canada has just released a new plastic $20 bill as part of its upgrade of the monetary system. Canadians were alarmed when focus groups claimed to have seen “naked women” and the Twin Towers of the 9/11 attack.

The design itself is actually meant to evoke “the contributions and sacrifices of Canadian men and women in military conflicts throughout our history,” as it features the Vimy Memorial in France (the site of the Vimy Ridge battle) in remembrance of troops in World War I, and the current Head of State Queen Elizabeth II.

Take a look at the bill for yourself, can you see any of the claimed “pornography” or the Twin Towers?

Pornographic how?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/05/is-canadas-new-20-bill-too-pornographic.html

And the “naked women” near the top of the Vimy Memorial statue are known as the chorus. The chorus composes of Hope, Charity, Honour, Faith, Justice and Peace. Only the latter two are featured on the bill, with Peace raising a torch.

The reason for the new bills is to decrease counterfeiting and last longer. These bills are made of a high-tech polymer design, which will make it hard to counterfeit. Currently, the $20 bill is the most counterfeited bill in Canada. As well, the plastic material is harder to rip (I know by experience) and thus will last longer for citizens.

How do you like the bill?

As far as I can see, it’s just a better, improved bill to the old one. No naked women or Twin Towers stand out.