Three2Tango » Business

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

Vivek — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:46:36 +0000

Apple’s iconic co-founder Steve Jobs has relinquished his position as CEO. Jobs has been the face of Apple’s success story over the years and his resignation from the position means a lot.Perhaps the importance of Steve Jobs at the helm of Apple is suggested by the market reactions,as Apple’s shares took a dip as soon as the news came out. Steve Jobs will join the Board of Directors as chairman while Tim Cook will succeed him as the new CEO.So it’s not that Steve Jobs is quitting Apple and hence he would have a say in important decisions.
Steve Jobs has had many detractors, mainly because of the closed nature of Apple or iOS ecosystem, but there is no denying the fact that Steve Jobs has played the most important role in reshaping Apple as one of the largest corporations in the US,a fact that even his biggest detractors will agree.
When Jobs rejoined Apple 13 years ago,Apple’s fortunes weren’t looking that good.Jobs can be credited with being at the forefront of many innovations that have come through Apple,a list that includes iPhone,iPods,iPad,App Store etc,all revolutinary ideas that has shaped today’s Gadgets.
We will all miss Steve Jobs,especially his key note address at the Apple World Developers Conference.Steve’s charisma was one of the main reasons of Apple’s success.Will Cook be able to match Steve Jobs?it’s going to be very difficult as a person like Steve Jobs is irreplaceable.

Google’s Motorola acquisition-Will it help Android

Vivek — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:33:36 +0000

Taking a peek at what’s happening in the smart phone wars,we get the idea that almost everyone are involved on suing one another,like it’s a game to find out who sues the most.Most of these suing is made on Google.From Apple to Microsoft to Oracle,all of them were against Google in court.So was Google feeling the heat? Or is it Android’s success that is making all these to come out against Google in one way or the other? Most of these cases are dealing with patent rights and it did corner Google , or rather the Android ecosystem in a way. Innovations were always going to be affected and Google needed some other strategy to deal with it rather than just accusing that the others are trying to destroy the Android ecosystem, which rather seems true.That could have been Google’s primary objective when they bought Motorola Mobility for a whopping 12.5 billion dollars.
Google always have a history of making big acquisitions but the Motorola acquisition is by far it’s biggest in terms of money and perhaps in terms of relevance.
The acquisition means that Google can make it’s own phones without depending on the other Android partners. Google came out with the announcement that the Android partners will have equal access to the Android innovations, but one can’t help thinking that sooner or later, Google will give preference to Motorola when it comes to using the open sourced Android.But the patent wars were so much that Google had to try stopping it, perhaps even by taking the risk of alienating it’s partners like Samsung,HTC,LG etc. With Motorola’s acquisition,Google has almost put an end to the patent wars against it.Why? It’s because Motorola have more than 17000 patents in it’s name and most other manufactures or OS makers are using one or the other.So Google can now easily say that if you are suing us over that patentthen we will sue you on this patent. That will surely end or at least give some respite from the combined attack from it’s rivals.
As stated earlier, the acquisition has it’s pros and cons on Google and perhaps it will be one acquisition that goes wrong. With the acquisition, other leading manufacturers may well feel let down when they see some innovative features on the Motorola powered Android phones.Motorola may always get the first look in the new featurers and this fear may alienate the others from Android. Since most of these manufacturers also make Windows phones, they always have an option to move away from the Android system. This opens up an oppurtunity for Microsoft and they might well hope on cashing in on any disagreements between Google and it’s Android partners. How Google handles this will play a big role in the future of Android.
It will be Interesting to see Google’s strategy on Motorola.The patent wars may stop probably, but whether the strategy will in turn alienate the others remains to be seen. So far,it’s seems good as many of the partners have welcomed the acquisition,but if and when Google plays Big Brother,disagreements could come out.Only time will tell.

Roles Changes at CEO levels:2011

LG — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:26:56 +0000

Information Technology industry is placed reasonably high in terms of revenues and reputations since the second quarter of 2010. And people say its raining IT jobs. Software engineers are in demand.Attrition and poaching are two terms in every interviews with VPs. This is what happening at a 3LpA to 12LpA.But it seems something similar is happening at the senior management level as well, POACHING CEOs..!!! Sounds bit odd, but that might be the reason a few role changes happened in a number of companies.Examples Google Inc, Wipro Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Co. etc.

Google dropped a shell on Jan-2011 , announcing a major decision to change its organizational structure. Eric Schmidt joined Google a decade ago replacing Larry Pages, acknowledging the demand for a mature leader from the venture capitalist firms which backed google in its initial stages. Schmidt was previously the Chief technical Officer with Sun MicroSystems and later CEO of Novel Inc, both companies where bigger than google at that time. Now after 10 years when Mr.Pages is back in the driving seat, Google is having a market value of more than $200 billion. Reason for the role change is being said as Eric needs some change in the kind of work he do.In his new role Mr. Schmidt, 55, will become executive chairman and will be available to advise Mr. Page, and co-founder, Mr.Sergey Brin. Mr. Schmidt indicated he will focus on meeting with Google’s business partners and government officials around the world.
Another big organizational restructuring happened in India,Wipro Technologies, the countries third largest IT company and one of the global players in the IT industry with clients like Wal*mart, Credit Suisse, Cisco Systems etc. Company was following a Jt.CEO structure since 2008, the structure was adopted just before the industry was hit by the greatest recession of our time. Wipro Ltd on a note said that Mr. Girish Paranjpe, Jt CEO and Director and Mr. Suresh Vaswani, Jt CEO and Director have resigned from the services of the Company and from the Board of Directors of the Company with effect from Jan 31 2011. Further the Company has confirmed the appointment of Mr. T. K. Kurien as CEO (IT Business) & Executive Director with effect from February 01, 2011.

Other news which drew attention on same day as the Google announcment came, was from another computer giant Hewlet Packard Co. HP on a press release said-four of its board of directors are leaving the company and 5 new members will be appointed in place. Chairman Ray Lane said in an interview that the stepping down decision was voluntary.The company said in a statement that Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan and Lucille Salhany will not seek re-election to the board at the annual shareholder meeting in March.The new board members are Shumeet Banerji, chief executive of consulting firm Booz and Co.; Gary Reiner, former chief information officer of General Electric Co. (GE); Patricia Russo, former chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent (ALU); Dominique Senequier, chief executive of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former chief executive of eBay Inc. (EBAY).

What is Inflation?

LG — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Inflation is the most sought out term in economics. The word etymology is inflatio, to blow. Eg: Inflated balloon. In an economic sense enlargement of prices. A formal definition states inflation as a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services. It is measured as the percentage rate of change of price index, annual change in the price index expressed in percentage. To explain inflation in a lay men language, Rs1 today won’t buy you same number of candies what it could buy a couple of years back.Say the inflation rate is 50%, then it requires Rs1.5/- to buy the same number of candies. Inflation erodes the purchasing power of money. People think inflation as a negative effect, but veteran economists say a steady and low inflation rates are actually a boon in disguise. We will discuss such things towards the end of the article. Now let me mention a few variations of the term inflation.

1. Deflation: The exact opposite of inflation, it happens when general level of prices is falling. Deflation increases the real value of money and thus increasing the purchasing power. At a glance people think deflation is a good trend, but its not. Deflation also causes problems like, lower production due to low prices and profit margins, which in turn leads to lower wages and demand and which in turn leads to further decrease in price.This situation is termed as a deflationary spiral. Too much of inflation or deflation is detrimental.

2. Hyperinflation: Is the rapid inflation rate. This can lead to a break down in the monetary system.Suddenly liquidity of cash will vanish. People will struggle to get necessities and to adjust with the sudden price hikes. The situation will be out of control and will bring lot of social restlessness. Think about a situation when you have to pay Rs500/- for a bottle of water instead of Rs15/-, that too in few weeks time. Hyperinflation is often associated with wars or their aftermath.

Reason for Inflation:

1. Demand-Pull Inflation:This causes due to an imbalance in the demand – supply proportion. If demand exceeds supply in huge margin the cost will go up resulting in inflation. Too much money too few goods. This happens normally in a growing economies and can be considered as a symbol of growth.

2. Cost-Push Inflation: When raw material costs, wages, taxes etc go up companies increase product prices to maintain their profit margin and this will lead to a high inflation rate.Most people think inflation means a downward trend of countries economy, but it isn’t.

If the inflation rate corresponds to what the majority of people are expecting (anticipated inflation), then we can compensate. For eg: banks can vary their interest rates and workers can negotiate for salary hike as the price level goes up and thus we can compensate the price hike. Unanticipated inflation on the other is detrimental, it can cause serious trouble. Such cases companies and organizations can’t plan long term. Production and services will be hit as the prime focus will move to steering the company so that it won’t turn to the loosing side.

Measurment of Inflation:Inflation is measured using certain price indices. Developing economies like India uses the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to calculate and decide the inflation rate in the economy. WPI is the index which is used to measure the change in the average price level of goods traded in wholesale market. Most developed countries use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate inflation. The CPI measures price change from the perspective of the purchaser. There is one other index called Producer Price Index(PPI) which also is used for calculating inflation rates.

EPL News: Blackburn Rovers

LG — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 10:26:05 +0000

English Premier League club Blackburn Rovers sold to an Indian comapany. Paul Egerton-Vernon, chairman of Blackburn’s trustees who completed the deal said-”We are very pleased to be passing on the Rovers to the Rao family“. Venky’s the new owner bought the club in a 23 million pound deal. Venky’s have become the first Indian concern to own a Premier League side. The Rao family has an extensive range of business interests in India which includes their flagship company Venkateshwara Hatcheries. The company was established in 1976 and was mainly into poultry business. Later on it diversified into health care products, pet food, oil extraction etc. With this $36.66 million deal Venkys stepped into another area-Sports and entertainment.
EPL one of the biggest football leagues in world has follower count in billions.Blackburn Rovers currently ranked 14 in the 20 member league is not a poor bet at all. Its a club with history, blackburn is amoung one of the few clubs which are founder members of the football league itself. Established in 1875 based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. Later in 1890 shifted its permanent home to Ewood park. Prior to the formation of Premier League in 1992, Rovers shelf was full of trophies. After 1992 they won the UEFA Champion’s in 94-95, relegated a couple of times, came back strongly. Altogether the club’s history is good. Clubs Premier league legends include Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton.

More about the club:

Full name : Blackburn Rovers Football Club
Nicknames : The Riversiders, Rovers
Motto : “Arte et labore”(Latin)- means “By Skill & Hard Work”
Manager : Sam Allardyce is managing Rovers since 2008.

International Travel SIM : IndMobile

LG — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:13:41 +0000

Indmobile introduced new international prepaid SIM card service for Indians travelling abroad. According to sources HopSIM has tie ups with around 400 different networks which enables a hassle free network in around 200 countries. The higlight about hopsim is that its prepaid thus helping the users to keep a tab on their expenses. But I found that marketing strategy a bit odd. Other highlights include life time of sim and air time never expires, which hopsim doesn’t demand a periodic recharge for the sim to be active.Also there is no annual registration or subscription charges. The public relations department in their press release mentioned one other thing which also looks pretty good, FIXED TARIFF rates across all countries.Company also informed that unused talk time in one country will be available in other country also. Retail outlets will soon be launched in all major cities. Now Mumbai is the only place from where one can grab a Sim. But its available through company website also”www.hopsim.com“. And also retail outlets will be open soon in cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and also at all major airports. Chairman Mr.Somil Gupta said-” We hope to do Rs.40-crore business in the first year, and which is likely to go upto Rs.150-crore in the next 3 years.”
Other Highlights:

Minimum recharge of $10.
Free incoming calls as well as messages.
Region specific SIMs to further lower the call rates for travelers who go only to specific regions such as Western Europe, Middle East and South East Asia.

Regarding the cost, the sim comes in 3 different packages. The cheapest is a $16 sim, which has no talk time. Other two packages are $45 and $100 with $35 and $100 talktimes respectively.

Google restricting Microsoft OS internally

Sam — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:41:07 +0000

Google internally discouraging Microsoft Operating systems.Sources say its due to the so called security issues of Microsoft OSes. The move is initiated on grounds of the google’s china operation got hacked. One employee said its as part of a security effort. Most of the employees are shifting to Mac OS and the open source Linux.New hires are given only two options on there desktop installations, Apple Mac and Linux. Google wouldnot comment on its policy. But inside sources say its pretty confirmed that google is dumbing windows operating systems. If an employee is in need of a windows OS then he needs CIO level clearance. Other than these reasons, google is trying to move to its own products.With the chrome OS is workshop making its final touches, this move can also be considered as an act of publicity and hype for sake of their own new OS. Google and Microsoft compete on many fronts, from search, to web-based emails etc.While Google is the clear leader in search, Windows remains the most popular operating system in the world by a large margin. So with this internal banning of windows OSes google is making a statement we are moving into the OS sector as well.

Eventhough all these reports are not officially confirmed, a google spokesman told “We are always working to improve the efficiency of our business”.Microsoft responded to the news in a cold way. In an official windows blog a post came which specifies the steps taken by Microsoft to reinforce their customers security. Also it commented that even hackers admit windows OSes are difficult to hack.

BMW On top of Indian Luxury Segment

LG — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:50:07 +0000

Since its entry to the indian market the growth of this auto giant is amazing. Its shear class, customer satisfaction and marketing strategies put BMW on top. Since its inception in 2006 the growth figures are enviable. It even overtook the German supremacy of Mercedes in Indian luxury car market. Last year almost a 20 year supremacy was shattered. Its market share in the segment has crossed 40% which was earlier 9% when they started BMW India in 2006. Dr.Andreas Schaaf, who has taken over from Peter Kronschnabl, said ” India is an exciting market full of opportunities.There will be a lot of pressure (to retain the top position in India),I take it as a challenge”. In 2010, the company has set a bigger target of achieving the sales of 4,000-units on contrary to 3619 in 2009, besides expanding its network, taking the brand to Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Company Profile(Bayerische Motoren Werke AG): Headquartered in Gurgaon (National Capital Region) BMW India is a 100% subsidiary of the BMW Group. The initial investment in India is 1.1 billion Indian Rupees.In 2007 March it officially opened its production plant at chennai,India. The BMW plant Chennai produces the BMW 3 Series and BMW 5 Series Sedans in petrol and diesel variants and has a capacity to produce 3000 units per year on a single shift basis. If we trace back to the BMW history it will take us to early 20th century.In 1917 BMW was officially setup.It started with aircraft engines and later shifted to motorcycles and cars.And now its one of the best auto makers in thee world.

HP buys Palm to enter the SmartPhone market

Vivek — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:23:13 +0000

HP has never been a major player when it came to Smart Phones.Not that HP wont be able to buid a masterpiece on its own, but when there is a short cut , everyone would take it and HP were no different. Also Lenovo’s and Dell’s intentions to enter the Smart Phone market would have prompted HP to think seriously about the Smart Phone venture. With Palm’s shares plungin down heavily,HP had the oppurtunity . HP will buy Palm for $1.2 billion.

The advantages to HP is the Palm’s WebOS operationg system,the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi smart phones. Another great advantage would be that Palm’s technical know-how about wireless connectivity would help bolster H’s own ambitions in wireless technology. All the more, the deal seems to be a very good one for HP. Add to this the large number of experienced management and engineering talent in Palm, HP has entered the Smart Phone market with a bang.

Palm has been recentky struggling to make an impact even though the Palm Pre was well received. But with the new iPhone 3G making an even larger impact that the iPhone, Palm were having a tough time in the market. HP’s decision hs come as a great relief to Palm. Also ,with HP’s global presence, Palm would also be able to make a better impact globally.With HP’s financial security, we could very well see Palm+ HP making great strides in the Smart Phone market.Finally,may be, we might just be able to see a worthy competitor to the iPhone, from the Palm+HP stables.

Google China Controversy

Dileep — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:07:02 +0000

Google Inc. is in the eye of a storm, as it’s subsidiary Google China antagonized the interest of the Chinese Government. On March 22, 2010, Google began redirecting all google.cn traffic to google.com.hk (Google Hong Kong), thereby bypassing Chinese regulators and allowing uncensored simplified Chinese search results. Prior to 2006, Google.com was accessible in the country. In 2005, a chinese language interface was developed for google.com. Google China was established in 2006, but much of its content was not accessible due to censorship. On January 12, 2010, Google announced that it was “no longer willing to continue censoring” results on Google.cn.

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region in China with a high level of freedom of speech and expression, and google.com.hk does not censor search results, making it more effective for networking and sharing information with Internet users in mainland China. Redirecting google.cn to google.com.hk thus leads to the availability of uncensored search results to the people of mainland China. “While removing search results is inconsistent with Google’s mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission,” a statement by the internet giants said. It is believed that this could be the beginning of the end of the Google brand in China. However, the shutdown of Google China would not significantly affect Google Inc., as it is only a very small subsidiary. Also, Google China has a market share of only 29%, according to Analysys International. Baidu.com is the leading search engine in the most populous conuntry in the world.