Fellow classmate, Justin Chan, his blog was about the gaming-industry. Justin commented how the gaming-industry has a low entry and exit barrier because technology is common.

I don’t completely agree. Entry barrier is low, but exiting is high. Even though the technology is common, the key success in a game is the creativity, aiming at what consumers want and keeping it that way. Anyone can enter the gaming industry, but the challenge is making the game attractive and successful, and maintaining it at that state. That’s what defines the entry barrier to be so low.

Call of Duty released a number of successful games. Most recently Black Ops 2, earning $500 million in the first 24 hours, because they create what consumers want, and make new games that continue to interest gamers.

RuneScape was a very successful web browser game. In 2009, the company made an upgrade and lost millions of dollars and customers, simply because no one liked it. This is the perfect example of a company that did excellent in targeting what consumers liked but they failed at keeping up with the trends and updates. There are no factors in common technology, but I believe its purely about strategy and product.

Read more here.

Recently, Bank of Canada released the new $20 bill. The money doesn’t rip but disadvantages are that it wrinkles easily and it’s too slippery, sticking to the other polymer bills.

The new polymer $20 bill.

With the new $20, the biggest problem is that it isn’t accepted every where. Due to the new polymer material, multiple machines weren’t modified, rejecting the money instantly.

Technicians have already been flustered with the problem of updating vending machines, dealing with the new lonnie and toonie. It will be months before modifications for $20 bills will be made.

In my views, this will make an influence on businesses. TransLink machines don’t accept the new bills. Therefore consumers will need to find an alternative such as taking a taxi. With these few issues amongst many more that are about to come, some company’s could possibly be influenced to the point where they loss money.

I don’t understand why Bank of Canada didn’t update machines beforehand, so when the new money goes public, vending machines will still be perfectly functional. No one can be successful without planning for the future, and I think Bank of Canada did the unprofessional act of doing the exact opposite.

Read more here.

I wrote about how UrtheCast is a newly developed company, thats going to launch the world’s first HD video platform of Earth.

Classmate, Taymour Bouran, did the same. He mentioned how terrorists remain hidden and how UrtheCast will present the opportunity of hopefully tracking down these criminals.

If UrtheCast existed during the time of 9-11, do you there will be enough time for UrtheCast to locate the planes, and stop 9-11 from happening?

I strongly disagree. UrtheCast gives the time when the camera will show imagines of the location asked for. This can be easily avoided. Also, the camera travels all over the globe constantly around the hour, missing several spots on earth. The time that is spent in Africa will be very short, and that certainly will not be enough to track down any terrorist activity.

Long before UrtheCast even existed, the U.S military has many satellites roaming around the globe, not the mention the number of soldiers they are overseas.

In my views, UrtheCast will be a successful company for the being the first to stream live footage of earth from space and not for the use of military action.

A few days ago in class, I had the opportunity to meet the Director, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of UrtheCast, Wade Larson.

Wade introduced the company, that is going to launch the world’s first high-definition video platform of Earth, streamed from space. Larson also explained several ways of generating profit via Media Content sales, Earth Observation Data sales, Application Platform sales and Web Advertising.

Speaking to Larson myself, I learned that the company is at a critical stage. UrtheCast needs approximately about $30,000,000 from investors in order for the project to be up and running. Without this money, UrtheCast could potentially shut down.

There is no doubt this project can be profitable. The concept of how everyone can view space live online is very unique, but the fact how they’re short so much money is unreal. Having no backup plan is even worse. Alternatives can be made such as applying for government fundings. With the information that Wade has provided me, if the company continues to have the same attitude towards potential barriers like money shortage and not working to overcome this problem, I think there will be lack of development for the company in the future.

Read more here.

I read a blog from Canadian Business, explaining with the release of the new iPhone 5, or the update to iOS 6, apple is introducing their new maps application.

Apple maps – 3D flyover function

The blogger mentioned “the possibility that Google is withholding maps in an effort to differentiate its Android phones from iPhone, but it’s equally likely for Apple because it competes with a core function of its device.”

Google maps – TransLink trip planner & street view

I believe Apple was the one who pulled Google out of their system. Google purchased Motorola Mobility,  meaning they’ve entered the cell-phone market. Now that Apple has a competitor, I think this is a reason why Apple decided to take Google Maps out of their operating system.

Why wasn’t it have that Google took their applications away from Apple? Because Google makes profit. Samsung and HTC still apply Google Maps in their operating system. Now that Google is apart of the cell-phone industry, why didn’t Google decide to leave Samsung or HTC also?

“Two powerful forces fighting it out for map supremacy is likely to mean one thing: better maps are coming.”

Read more on Google’s purchase here.

Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 7.43 million vehicles worldwide due to a faulty in power-window switch. Grease wasn’t applied evenly during production, causing friction and sometimes smoke.

Personally, I believe that Toyota’s reputation got destroyed by our social media, making a big deal. A couple years ago, Toyota recalled a number of their Prius, due to the gas pedal that cased unintended acceleration. After research, it was proven that the acceleration issue was caused by driver error or pedal misapplication. Was it made a big deal when GM recalled almost 50,000 vehicles due to a cracked part that caused fuel leaks? Or when nearly 500,000 vehicles were recalled because the car continued to roll even in park gear? No because GM is an american company. Their “strategy” is by making Toyota look like an unreliable company, trying to move themselves up the ladder.

Toyota is a very strong company because with such issues happening, they deal with these problems, overcome them and improve in the future. Toyota does right by the consumer when making a mistake, recall their products, taking responsibility and not having dealerships suffer because of their faults. I guess thats why Toyota is the largest automaker in the world.

Read more here.