March 10th, 2010
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components of hard drive
Hard Drives will soon be available in a new format which might not run with XP. Currently the drives are manufactured in 512 bytes format which will be replaced by the 4k bytes format. The 512 byte format has reached saturation levels. i.e. it is becoming difficult to reduce its size further. Whereas 4k byte format has scope to reduce the size and increase efficiency simultaneously.
Experts in a discussion said that the industry has agreed to phase out the old formats by 2011. Except XP all other new operating systems are likely to support this new format. Some say that this new drive will still be compatible to XP but the data transfer speed might suffer.
I was trying to figure out why this 4k and not more or not less. Is this an incremental innovation strategy to milk the customers or is it the best solution? This move by the hardware industry might reduce the life cycle of technological products further.
Rogues
March 9th, 2010
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turbulence
After the season of recalls, it is now time for the major players to reshuffle their stakes. The reason may be the unpredicted growth in automobile sales all over the world in the month of February. The recovery of JLR sales have increased the SPI of TATA Motors which in turn triggered Daimler to sell its 5.34% stake. Daimler, also plans to enter India by investing more than Rs.4000 crores for which it had collaborated with Hero Honda. However, the deal was called off. Now, after raising cash from stake sale at TATA, Daimler might strategically enter India and other developing nations.
In another move, Suzuki has raised its stake in Maruti-Suzuki to 55%, up 0.8%. Analysts say that Suzuki might go for further increase in stake in near future. Maruti, which sells every second car in India, has established itself as the crown jewel in Suzuki’s global operations and is a rare bright spot for sales across the world. It already contributes nearly 80% of Suzuki’s profits, and in volumes too, it has eclipsed its parent’s tally. So it is wise for Suzuki to leverage on this rare asset.
As the small car market is heating up, every major motor company is planning to launch small cars, whether they have experience or not. Ford for the first time, has launched a small car ‘Figo’ targeted at middle class people of India. Honda has also launched ‘Jazz’, a small car, but at a higher price(Rs.7.21 lakh) to target the niche market by making it a limited edition car. Except Toyota every car company plans to launch new products in recent months.
These big news in the automobile market in just a month calls for an in depth analysis by investors and consumers before taking major decisions.
Is it a consolidation phase, where first movers might end up as market leaders or is it time to en cash on the growing automobile industry?
Rogues
March 9th, 2010
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underdog
Formula one will soon experience the unbeatable strategies of the greatest underdog of business world. Yes, it is
Sir Richard Branson! He through his team Virgin Racing has developed a car with best aerodynamics created in half the cost of other competitors. Traditionally, teams used to test physical cars in wind tunnels, whereas Virgin has used computational fluid dynamics to cut through the expenses. His newly hired team of 200 designers have done it. Richard Branson known for his underdog approach to compete with British Airways, NASA spaceships and many more, will change the F of F1 to finance. His objective is to become the best team with minimum investment. Earlier top teams like Ferrari and McLaren used to make money from money but now he has brought in the innovative element. It seems like formula one will become the next big thing in sports! Whether he can sustain this by continuously innovating is the next question?
Rogues
March 9th, 2010
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three oscars
Rogues
March 8th, 2010
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The largest developing country, China has pledged to improve the industrial efficiencies so as to grow sustainably for few more decades. Chinese officials, after doing a root cause analysis found that most of its fragmented industries were running under capacity because of high bargaining power with few large organizations. In a move to exploit rare and inimitable resources, China will try to consolidate the industrial sectors. It has be observed over the last century that big economies start with small companies but to sustain the growth, big is better.
The notice issued by the government is focused on electrical power, coal, steel and iron, cement, nonferrous metal, coking, paper making, leather making and dyeing and smoothed out policies and schedules on how to wash out industrial overcapacity in 2010-11. In order to force industries to cut over capacity, the government will charge extra tax on utilities and it is also planning to levy environment tax on companies not abiding. This move makes it clear that the growth in China is here to stay and it is not just a coincidence!
Rogues
March 7th, 2010
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Luxury products can be defined as mature products which have historical attachment, global recognition and high perceived value or in short ‘a story to brag about’. These products are mildly correlated to the consumption and economic conditions of the consuming country. China, the biggest developing country of the world has surpassed US to become the second largest consumer of luxury products. It now consumes 27.5% of the worlds luxury goods. This reflects the economic power of this mighty country. Currently, the largest consumer is Japan.
Most of the luxury goods bought are western products just because China in itself does not have any big luxury brands. In-spite of having products like Maotai, Wuliangye and Shuijingfang; fashion labels like Septwolves, Baoxiniao, Bosideng and Yongzheng; and jewelry labels like Dongfangjinyu and Nobel Jewelry which are extraordinarily priced, the demand for western luxury brands is more because of the historical connection and their global recognition.
Thus, luxury is not only about price but also about BRAND!
Rogues
March 6th, 2010
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brand ambassador
The
advertisement industry experienced drastic fall in revenues during the economic downturn last year. WPP, the world’s largest advertising company saw a fall in profits by 11% in 2009. Organizations in all major sectors in order to cut short their losses reduced the advertisement budgets handsomely. It is said that the health of the economy can be judged by the amount of advertisements. If its low then something is wrong and vice verse.
» Read more: The rise of Advertisement industry
March 5th, 2010
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victim of price war
Apart from decline in profits for telecom companies, this price war has also affected the cash rich BPO industry of India. It is seen that because of the declining profits, telcos are reorganizing their contracts with BPOs to get better price points. The cutting edge competition between the telcos have forced them cut their operating expenditures drastically.
Moreover, the volume and revenue per user has reduced against predictions because of people opting for multiple SIMs to make use of the best schemes by various service providers. As a result BPO organizations like Hinduja Global Solutions, Firstsource and others have seen significant dip in their bottom lines in the last quarter. The only party enjoying his war is the consumer. They are just enjoying!
The question is how long will this price war last? Is it time for consolidation as seen in the airline sector a year ago?
Rogues
March 3rd, 2010
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In a recent statement, Steve Jobs, head of Apple said that HTC had used around 20 of their patented technologies to fuel the growth of its competitors like Google. Therefore they have sued HTC whose products are used widely in the smart phone market. He emphasized on healthy competition which would create more value to consumers by means of better innovation. However, we have seen before that Apple is no saint in this regard. Nokia, RIM and Apple were already in a patent war which is yet to be settled. This case against HTC is just another brick in the wall.
What makes such huge organizations commit such mistakes? Is it an intentional mistake or an innocent mistake?
Rogues
March 3rd, 2010
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corporate football tournament, Bangalore
Event Mogul after successfully organizing Seven Studs last year, is now all set to launch the new age corporate football tournament ‘5′occer under the back drop of UB City, Bangalore’s most famous land mark. This time the excitement is even more because of the excellent promotion based on last year’s feedback. The event will happen on the 17th and 18th of April 2010. This new age football concept compromising of small teams is definitely here to stay. Who knows that some day the entire world might see and hug this concept!
Rogues
