Monthly Archives: September 2014

http://www.pinoytechnoguide.com/2014/07/blackberry-passport-square-display.html

As you may have heard, Blackberry released its new smartphone, the Passport this past Wednesday.  The Passport attempts to bring Blackberry relevance by emphasizing the differences between it and other comparable smartphones on the market.  The Passports square shape, physical keyboard, and emphasis on email and messaging is made to appeal to what the company calls “power professionals”, people who are constantly working through heavy usage of messaging.  Blackberry is aiming to hopefully win over half of the power professional market; a segment they estimate represents 7 to 8% of the total smartphone market.  They are well on their way towards meeting this mark as the Passport’s initial order sold out within 10 hours of release and over 200,000 phones had been ordered by Friday. The Passport’s release however, has been greatly overshadowed by the release of the iPhone 6 earlier this month.

While the iPhone 6’s domination of headlines has diminished the Passport’s publicity, it may actually work to Blackberry’s advantage as initial reports of the iPhone 6 have highlighted flaws with the phone.  For example, Apple is currently under fire with reports that the iPhone 6 bends while being carried in one’s pockets.  This controversy trended on Twitter under the tags #bendgate and #bendghazi.  Furthermore, Apple’s iOS 8 was released this past week and was quickly pulled as users reported a major software glitch left their phones unusable.  As a result of the negative publicity, Apple is currently in a vulnerable position, which could be taken advantage of by Blackberry.

Works Cited

http://www.cnet.com/news/blackberry-ceo-200000-passports-ordered-since-launch/

http://www.cnet.com/news/blackberry-hopes-love-it-or-hate-it-passport-earns-it-a-second-chance/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/11119846/Apple-pulls-iOS-8-update-after-iPhone-users-complain-of-major-software-glitch.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/24/iphone-6-plus-bend-pockets-complain

http://www.foodbeast.com/2014/08/25/burger-king-to-merge-with-tim-hortons-will-create-3rd-largest-fast-food-company-in-the-world/

As you have probably heard, Burger King recently bought Tim Horton’s for ~$12.5 billion and subsequently moved its corporate location to Canada.   Interested in the ramifications of the deal, I read up on the merger and stumbled across this article, in which the US Treasury department decried the move, arguing that BK was merely abusing a loophole in order to pay lower taxes.

This, of course, led to the pondering of some questions of the situation.  Is BK unethical by moving countries?  Is it less ethical if they moved countries solely to pay less?  Why is this considered unethical?

Examining this through the lenses of the two sources we had to examine for class three, and through a reading of this article, I decided the move was not unethical.  BK has the right to make profit, the responsibility to make its shareholders money, and the ability to support the communities around it.  Furthermore, they only pay ~1% less in taxes, or ~$3.4 million less a year.  It wouldn’t make sense for a company to pay $12.5 billion dollars to save $3.4 million, thus BK didn’t organize the deal for the tax reduction.

Overall, I believe the deal was ethical as BK has the right to maximize profits, as long as it does so in a legal manner.

Sources:

http://www.foodbeast.com/2014/08/25/burger-king-to-merge-with-tim-hortons-will-create-3rd-largest-fast-food-company-in-the-world/

http://time.com/3262821/burger-king-tim-hortons/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/corporate-inversion-tax-deals-wrong-loopholes-must-close-treasurys-lew/article20466300/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIRUaLcvPe8

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171

Here’s to a good semester in Comm 101!