Apple Makes Record Sales In India

Apple sales achieve their all time high in India

Apple Inc. has deciphered the reason behind the decline observed in the sales of the iPhone. There has been staggering economic growth in the Chinese market but the company has done quite well in the emerging market of India where they have succeeded in achieving record sales during the last trimester of FY15. Several policies that encompass a wider distribution network, discounts, installment packages have assisted the company in shipping 800,000 products in India which is an achievement in itself. Ironically, consumers are not quite interested in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus due to the hefty price tag.

The catalyst churning growth for Apple products is the price reduction in the Indian market. Some of the devices by the tech giant that had low prices are now retailing at a 50% lesser rate than the original cost. Moreover, the price of the iPhobe 5S has been reduced to $350 to $360 which in return has bolstered sales. A buyback program was also initiated by the company in FY14 where Indian consumers were granted the leverage to exchange their old iPhones for new models.

Apple has also collaborated with various banks in India to offer interest free loans so that the cost of the iPhone becomes affordable for the masses.

The saturation in the smartphone fraternity has now become quite evident where Chinese manufacturers are pushing in competition by coming up with mid-range smartphones that are becoming an imminent threat to Apple iPhones. The stocks of the company have gone down by 30% over the past six months and are now residing below $100.  The tech market is quite flustered now and the pressure will get more due to the Chinese economic slowdown.

Considering this, the growth opportunity which India has to offer is extremely lucrative. As per the consensus made by analysts, almost 35% of all the phones retailed in the region are smartphones. a research was conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggested that by FY17 India will take over the position of the second largest smart phone market from United States and will stand right behind China.

Apple has been extremely successful in India which adds value to the claimsa. The year which climaxed by the end of March 31, 2015, the Indian wing resulted in revenues worth $1 billion. A 44% increase has also been observed in contrast to a year back. However by September, only 2% of the local smartphone fraternity was under the company’s control.

Watson Need Not Be Blamed For IBM's Downfall

Watson is not the dominant force contributing to IBM's downfall

If you have seen the advertisements of the International Business Machines Corp. or if you’ve read the declarations made by the company then you might agree that they are making a huge bet with Watson. Its popular “cognitive computing” engine might make many believe that the project is not doing quite well.

The company informed the investors recently, irrespective that the company has tried to make all sort of services available with Watson insight, the net income of the company dropped down by 19% during the last trimester of FY15 and will drop down further this annum. However, the issue is not that Watson has failed as a technology. The challenge by the business segment of IBM is so extravagant that it makes it difficult to believe that any other smart business service could actually solve it.

To be particular, masses have the right to ask how valuable Watson actually is. Two years back, it was made obvious that the processing of natural language, geniuses designing the data scanning program paved its way to a show Jeopardy! Was not actually conveying and attracting businesses in the right manner which other businesses could use. The Financial Times recently observed two weeks back, that IBM has brought so many cloud computing technologies under the Watson label making it very difficult to deduce what the service primarily is. This however aroused several questions regarding the brand is now making use of a halo effect for several technology that are not as evolutionary as perceived.

Even if the company would have transformed Watson into a business, still IBM would be in hot waters due to the present market trends that have strengthened over a relatively long span of time. The increase in popularity of the cloud computing services has minimized the need for big organizations to buy mainframes and IBM servers. This was happening before the time Ms. Ginni Rometty became the CEO of the company in FY11.

However, the predecessor of Rometty, Mr. Palmisano was great enough to camouflage the shortcoming and still make Wall Street happy by selling out all those unprofitable business segments. The strategy deployed was simple, the company was buying high end software firms and then paid investors back in the via share buyback plans and dividents. However, there are a few financial cards that the company needs to pull out. It has been 15 consecutive quarters where revenues have ripped apart. It needs to change now before it’s too late.

Visa Appoints Lynne Biggar As New Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Visa makes another addition to its employees by hiring Lynne Biggar as its chief marketing and communications officer.

Visa has made another addition to its senior associates by appointing Lynne Biggar as the new chief marketing and communications officer, who will become an operational member of the financial business from February 1. She was previously working at Time Incorporation as the executive vice president of consumer marketing and revenue.

Her position indicates that she has a good experience in the field and is eligible for the post at Visa. She also spent 20 years from 1992 at American Express in different designations including many marketing and managerial positions in the United States and even internationally. She was also a member of American Express Global management department.

The CEO of the financial services provider, Charlie Scharf, had a few words to say regarding the recent addition to the company. He said, “We are delighted to have Lynne joint the Visa team to guide our marketing, brand and communications efforts, Lynne’s extensive global marketing and product experience will be a great complement to our talented marketing and communications team.”

Lynne has massive experience in the field she has been hired for according to the evidence, and is quite excited to be joining the banking business. She has also worked in San Francisco for different companies at different position of strategy and marketing. She was included as one of Folio’s top women in media in 2014 and included as the list of 25 most influential women in travel by ForbesLife.

The position at the e-commerce mobile payments provider taken by Biggar previously belonged to Antonio Lucio, who decided to leave the company in April and joined Hewlett-Packard instead.

Lynne Biggar received her Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University at international studies and did her MBA from the Columbia University. Huge improvement in terms of marketing can be expected from the company after this extensively experienced addition.

Visa received good news recently by major merchants adding its service in digital payments known as, Visa Checkout. Many merchants including Starbucks and Walgreens have added the company’s payments services, which will help the business to grow more and prosper.

The same service was launched by the organization in 2014, when it saw its competitor MasterCard generating profit from launching the same service in 2013, known as MasterPass. It is making good progress this year according to report so far. Visa learned much from its competitor to launch the service and exceed in the same game. 

BlackBerry Is Far From Being Dead, Says CEO

Blackberry was considered to be the strongest company in the mobile phone business but not anymore.

Over the years, cellphones revolutionized the world of innovation. Many telecom companies introduced their creative products in the market and received great response from the targeted audience. Among such organizations, Blackberry was the most prestigious one but in recent years, it has not only lost the popularity but its loyal customers too which are miffed by the company's confused approach of introducing and upgrading two different operating systems simultaneously.

Android and iOS operating systems provide easy interface to users. Smartphones recently changed the definition of a cellular phone and integrated almost everything in one device. Blackberry has an arsenal of good apps and except a couple of designs, it still has the conventional design of a mobile phone.

Recently, Blackberry introduced its new smartphone, named PRIV, based on Android. The company expects that the new addition will provide better and higher returns to the country. Although it was hopeful that its new product would be well received, the results turn out to be opposite.

Since its launch on November 6, 2015, the company has witnessed significant decline in the shipment of the high-hoped product. From third quarter of fiscal year 2015 to third quarter of fiscal year 2016, its unit shipment has declined from 2 million to 0.7 million. However, the tech corporation is hoping to get consolation when its deal with T-Mobile and Verizon networks will operate.

BlackBerry is also looking forward to invest in its operating system BB10 and believes that the updated version will be more beneficial to the users. The company believes that the improved version of the operating system will ensure greater security making the data and operations of the users safe and secure therefore, the company anticipates attracting government officials and those customers that demand high level of security. However, the company faces the financial issues in order to work on the software upgrade.

BB users were given free access to BB10, which means that users do not have to pay anything when they convert from BB7 to BB10. This left the organization with lack of monetization opportunities to spend it on its new research and developments.

Not disturbed by the current crisis, Blackberry struggles to survive in the competitive world of Silicon Valley. In a blog post, Blackberry CEO waived off all the speculations regarding BB10 being obsolete and commented that BB10 is ‘far from being dead.’ The business is currently running with a share price of $6.75 significantly lower than its competitors. 

Apple Wins The Samsung Lawsuit

Apple wins an old patent battle against Samsung

Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics have been competitors since a very long span of time. Both the companies have been competing with one another over various segments such as smartphones, wearable tech etc. the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and 

Apple iPhone are concerned to be the dominant forces in the fraternity.

There was a patent dispute that was running between both the tech giants since a while and now the final verdict has been observed according to which Apple has sabotaged Samsung. 

Ironically, this defeat is not really that damaging for Samsung. The Apple iPhone maker was granted the leverage to make changes to certain Samsung smartphones that were infringing their patents. However, all these devices have now become obsolete and the latter has already retired them.

This decision does not really bother Samsung since they believe that the consumers in America will not really be under any impact.

The quarrel between both the companies is pertinent to features like slide to unlock, autocorrect which were used in Galaxy S II along with Galaxy Nexus. These models are already been removed from circulation by the company.  The verdict regarding an injunction was granted by the company this week which has an impact on similar devices. Moreover, Samsung has also been restricted from making use of the infringing software or to retail devices that make use of this technology.

"We would like to reassure our millions of loyal customers that all of our flagship smartphones, which are used and loved by American consumers, will remain for sale and available for customer service support in the U.S.," Samsung mentioned in a statement. As per the company, the decision will not have any impact on America based consumer. Moreover, AAPL was derided for "abusing the judicial system to create bad legal precedent which can harm consumer choice for generations to come."

Bloomberg has also highlighted that this decision will not damage Samsung instantly. However, in the times to come, the tech giant will get more significance and an upper hand whilst negotiating for patents.

The tech behemoths in the fraternity seem to be on the side of Samsung. Recently, many tech giant including Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. have filed a petition where the Supreme Court has been pleaded to hear Samsung’s side of the story.

Hence, in a nutshell, Apple may enjoy the superiority in the times to come but so far winning the battle is actually futile for them since it won’t result in anything fruitful.

McDonald Is Ripping Off its European Consumers

McDonald's is giving a tough time to the European consumers and franchisers

When it is about McDonald’s Corporation, the Americans quickly start thinking about burger, fries and value meal offerings. On the other hand, things are different towards the Atlantic where the company is known for increasing prices and harassing consumers.

A coalition of European Consumer Rights organization recently filed a complaint to the European Commission, where they have demanded an investigation. The authority has been asked to conduct an investigation on the mostly neglected ways by the company through which they abuse their power, and sabotage the right of consumers and franchises all over Europe.

So this might provoke some to ask that how a company that retails fast food items be an imminent threat to the masses. The explanation is quite simple, the company has a reputation f selling foods however, and their business model is not just made up of this. The company has a core business of selling real estate which most of us aren’t aware of.

MCD forces all its franchises to lease the property on which they are operational directly from the company which no other company retailing fast food does. So since franchisers do not have any other option, thus the company y charges them almost 10 times more than the original price which is mere brutality.

So it will not be wrong to say that a substantial chunk of the company’s revenues are governed via rents. It has been estimated that two third of the company’s income is via rent.

Apart from charging high rents, the restaurant is forced to comply with the other hardsh conditions. This includes contracts which are long terms, high royalty fees, “one-to-two year non-compete clauses”, and broad termination clauses.

According to Huffington Post, “What allows McDonald's to get away with this scheme is the fact that it is, by several orders of magnitude, the dominant fast-food company in Europe, with some 8,000 stores across the Continent serving 15.7 million customers. These stores generated $19 billion in sales in 2014, nearly twice the sales of its nearest competitor. In other words, McDonald's is big enough to write its own rules.”

So now it will not be wrong to say that MCD is the evil perpetuator in the food industry of Europe. In one part of the world, the company is offering price cuts to the consumers whereas in the other half, owners and consumers are being sabotaged off their rights. This needs to end here before the European Commission takes any strong step. 

IBM's Anne Altman Is All Set To Depart

Sam Gordy will replace Ms. Anne Altman

Anne Altman has made up her mind to retire from her present designation with International Business Machines Corp. Ms. Anne has spent almost three decades with IBM where she was closely working with the federal government.

A press release was observed recently where the tech giant announced that Ms. Altman who is presently designated as the General Manager for the federal business at IBM will retire on January, 31, 2016.

“During her tenure, [Altman] devoted her leadership and passion to drive IBM solutions that have enabled our U.S. federal agency customers in so many ways, helping transform them in the process,” mentioned the release. “We wish her the best in her retirement.”

Individuals like her are an asset to any company since she devoted half of her life serving the company and taking it to newer heights. The company observed several milestones under her able leadership and has always contributed positively towards the growth of the company.  Analysts report that Ms. Altman’s enthusiasm and devotion will be missed by her inmates at the company.

The company has already found a replacement for Ms. Altman where Sam Gordy will take over her present position. Mr. Sam Gordy also has a glistening portfoliuo where he has served as the Group President of Integrated Systems and Senior Vice President at Leidos Inc. and Reston respectively.

While Ms. Altman was rendering her services to IBM, the server hardware business of the company was led by her. She was assisting in integrating the firm’s mainframe namely the “System z” in the ecosystem of federal government. Ms. Altman has the honor of being part and parcel of the Top 50 Women in the Tech World as per Fedscoop. Moreover, she has also receive several awards for her outstanding service.

Altman has also rendered her services as the Vice Chairperson for the Northern Virginia Technology Council along with being the executive committee member of the Professional Services Council.

According to Fedscoop, “Gordy has nearly 30 years of experience in the intelligence community as both an active duty naval intelligence officer and as a contractor. Before Leidos was spun off from Science Applications International Corporation, he ran three of the SAIC’s highest growth markets: cyber command and control, intelligence systems, and logistics.”

Sources suggest that Gordy who is a well known former intelligence officer was appointed to conduct operations in Iraq, Libya, Panama, and Soviet Union.

Mr. Sam Gordy will render his services to IBM from January 18, 2016.