aapl - What We're Reading - StockBuz2024-03-28T17:26:02Zhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/feed/tag/aaplMarket Predictions For 2018? Bring 'Em On!http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/market-predictions-for-2018-bring-em-on2017-12-12T19:13:54.000Z2017-12-12T19:13:54.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><h2 id="ae-body">Saxo Bank has a few</h2>
<p><img title="" class="cms-png img-responsive" src="http://az705044.vo.msecnd.net/20171212/2017-12-12_10-26-20.png" /></p>
<p>Naturally, predictions like this are more for bank PR than education but they have some value.</p>
<p>For one, they're a reminder that unexpected, huge and unpredictable moves happen in markets. And they happen far more often than we expect.</p>
<p>The thing is, they usually happen somewhere you least expect.</p>
<p>As for this set of predictions, let's hope this trader is you (from the report):</p>
<p>"World markets are increasingly full of signs and wonders, and the collapse of volatility seen across asset classes in 2017 was no exception. The historic lows in the VIX and MOVE indices are matched by record highs in stocks and real estate, and the result is a powder keg that is set to blow sky-high as the S&P 500 loses 25% of its value in a rapid, spectacular, one-off move reminiscent of 1987. A whole swathe of short volatility funds are completely wiped out and a formerly unknown long volatility trader realises a 1000% gain and instantly becomes a legend."</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.forexlive.com/news/!/who-wants-some-outrageous-predictions-for-2018-20171212" target="_blank">ForexLive</a></p>
</div>As The Cable-TV Bundle “Breaks Down,” Change Is Cominghttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/as-the-cable-tv-bundle-breaks-down-change-is-coming2017-02-02T20:54:39.000Z2017-02-02T20:54:39.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a href="https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/tim-cook-future-of-tv-is-apps.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=320" target="_blank"><img src="https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/tim-cook-future-of-tv-is-apps.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=320&width=400" class="align-left" width="400" /></a>Apple doesn’t have a solid TV strategy yet. But CEO Tim Cook thinks he can see the writing on the wall—the much loathed cable-TV bundle is on its deathbed.</p>
<p>Speaking on the earnings call after Apple <a href="https://qz.com/899509/apples-aapl-q1-2017-earnings-were-massive-and-everyone-loves-the-iphone-7/">posted a record first quarter</a>, Cook said (emphasis added):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The way that we participate in the changes that are going on in the media industry that <strong>I fully expect to accelerate from the cable bundle beginning to break down</strong> is, one, we started the new Apple TV a year ago, and we’re pleased with how that platform has come along. <strong>We have more things planned for it</strong> but it’s come a long way in a year, and it gives us a clear platform to build off of.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apple is on the fourth generation of the Apple TV. It now has an app that makes recommendations across streaming-video services and has a universal search function; it is currently limited by only allowing you to find a program across a <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205321">limited selection</a> of third-party services, but it has the potential to become the online equivalent to a TV Guide for all programming. (The company is also developing <a href="https://qz.com/884002/apple-music-aapl-will-get-original-tv-and-movies-at-the-expense-of-a-massive-opportunity-for-innovation/">a library of original content</a> tied to its Apple Music subscription.)</p>
<p>Media experts have been forecasting the death of the traditional TV bundles for years (BTIG Research media analyst Rich Greenfield <a href="https://twitter.com/RichBTIG/status/826130126014390273">tweets with the hashtag “#goodluckbundle”</a>)—and it hasn’t happened yet. But there has definitely been some movement, as Cook pointed out.</p>
<p>Popular cable networks like ESPN are <a href="https://qz.com/613923/not-even-disney-knows-whats-going-on-with-espn-right-now/">losing subscribers because of unbundling</a>, cord-cutting is becoming <a href="https://qz.com/668253/the-number-of-internet-cordcutting-homes-in-the-us-has-doubled-in-three-years/">more common</a>, TV brands like HBO offer their own subscriptions on platforms like Apple TV, and streaming services like Netflix are <a href="https://qz.com/888801/netflix-shares-are-rising-on-strong-fourth-quarter-2016-subscriber-growth-nflx/">hitting member records</a>.</p>
<p>So far, bundling hasn’t as yet disappeared in the US. It’s just taken on new forms.</p>
<p>Companies like Verizon have released slimmed-down packages that allow customers to cherry pick the channels they pay for. Dish Network’s SlingTV, Sony’s Playstation Vue, and AT&T’s DirecTV Now, among others, offer live and on-demand TV packages through the internet. And Hulu and YouTube are expected to introduce live TV offerings this year.</p>
<p>None of these packages seem to top the user experience that you get with cable yet. But they have their benefits—they’re more affordable, the video quality is improving, and their customer-support teams can’t possibly be <a href="https://qz.com/704042/time-warner-cable-has-earned-the-miserable-reputation-it-has-with-customers-regulators-find/">as miserable</a> to deal with as those at the cable company.</p>
<p>But with Apple, and <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-video-television-apple-tv-streaming/">now Facebook</a>, expanding into the TV business, a real contender that could take down cable might soon emerge.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="https://qz.com/900357/tim-cook-ceo-of-apple-aapl-says-the-end-of-the-cable-tv-bundle-is-coming/" target="_blank">QZ</a></p>
</div>Big Tech Lost A Boatload When Trump Killed TPPhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/big-tech-lost-a-boatload-when-trump-killed-tpp2016-11-18T22:00:41.000Z2016-11-18T22:00:41.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p id="bdmami"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1291359?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1291359?profile=RESIZE_480x480" style="padding: 10px;" class="align-left" width="350"></a>The giant international trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/10/the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-dead-schumer-tells-labor-leaders/">died last week</a>. It was supposed to be the largest regional trade deal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-11-nations-formally-sign-largest-regional-trade-deal-in-history/2016/02/03/2db4ab26-caa4-11e5-88ff-e2d1b4289c2f_story.html">in history</a>.</p>
<p id="cjRMIL">The TPP itself was a massive 30-chapter lawbook that would have freed access to markets for things like car manufacturing, data storage, online commerce, intellectual property and medicines.</p>
<p id="tBVyf8">Hoards of technology and media companies supported the trade deal. Google <a href="https://blog.google/topics/public-policy/the-trans-pacific-partnership-step/">was pro TPP</a>. As was <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2016/06/14/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-will-drive-growth-opportunities-for-vietnam-and-region/#sm.000002g1okxtqifs4rh48xzvsfyuy">Microsoft</a>, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/5/11601520/silicon-valley-trade-groups-open-letter-trans-pacific-partnership">Apple</a> and Facebook. The Motion Picture Association of America <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/the-tpp-will-foster-digital-trade-grow-our-economy/">supported</a> it too. The deal would have allowed them to make it easier to store user data across borders, offer stricter copyright protections and clamp down on digital pirating.</p>
<p id="jzBzIM">President-elect Donald Trump <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-28/trump-channels-brexit-in-anti-trade-speech-at-pennsylvania-factory">positioned his opposition</a> to the trade deal as one of the defining issues of his campaign. He compared the TPP to the North American Free Trade Agreement of the 1990s that allowed U.S. manufacturers to move jobs to Mexico.</p>
<p id="u4sKlt">President Obama, on the other hand, was betting on the trade accord to be a part of his foreign policy legacy, refocusing the American economy toward Asian countries and hedging against China’s growing power. But after Trump’s unexpected win, there are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/10/the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-dead-schumer-tells-labor-leaders/">no hopes</a> for the Republican majority Congress to ratify it. China, meanwhile, has a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/18/news/economy/trump-china-tpp-trade/">trade deal of its own</a> the country is hoping to pass in the wake of the TPP’s failure.</p>
<p id="3U63j0"><span class="font-size-5">Now that deal is off the table, the large companies that supported it will have to go back to the foreign policy drawing board.</span></p>
<p id="7pBLaX">Here’s what American technology companies would have gotten had the deal been finalized.</p>
<ul>
<li id="CdEUyD">The TPP’s e-commerce chapter included the world’s first set of international trade rules that would have <strong>barred</strong> <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-rewards-apple-facebook-google-others-unrestricted-flow-2129310"><strong>governments from blocking</strong></a> <strong>how companies share data across national borders</strong>. The internet works by freely moving data across the world. It’s how an artist in Mexico is able to have a fanbase in the U.K. just by posting a video on YouTube. Now governments can impose laws on how data is ferried outside of their country, potentially blocking content and balkanizing the internet. On the flip side, technology companies cooperate with digital surveillance operations across borders too, and the TPP would have muddled the way countries would have been able to pass national privacy laws.</li>
<li id="amucd9">In many of the participating countries <strong>it is not currently illegal to break the digital rights management,</strong> a digital lock that technology companies can add to their products to prevent piracy, tinkering and repair. But DRM is easy to circumvent, and hackers as well as media pirates have found ways to break to digital locks to make pirated copies of movies and music. In the U.S., it’s illegal to break DRM under copyright law, and the TPP would have expanded that internationally. Several countries would have had to make bans for repairing or tinkering with software or devices if DRM was circumvented, which would have been a win for the digital music and movie industry’s battle against piracy, as well as device manufacturers.</li>
<li id="AL8QBi">Six of the twelve <strong>participating countries would have expanded their copyright terms</strong> an additional 20 years. Under the TPP, it would have taken over 70 years for a copyrighted work to enter the public domain, which is what happens when a song or film is so old that it’s legal to access it for free.</li>
<li id="ZAWzol">Tech companies also were in favor of the <strong>TPP’s ban on “forced localization,”</strong> or laws that require a company to keep its citizens’ user data stored within its borders. Technology companies oppose these statutes on the grounds that they inhibit their increasingly cloud-based business models. When a country requires that data generated in the country stay stored within its borders, tech companies are forced to build data centers there in order to do business. Forced localization could also open a technology company or website to being compelled to follow a country’s censorship laws by dint of operating servers there.</li>
</ul>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/11/18/13669196/google-facebook-apple-trump-win-killed-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp" target="_blank">ReCode</a></p>
<p></p></div>What's Inside The iPhonehttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/what-s-inside-the-iphone2016-09-22T18:31:30.000Z2016-09-22T18:31:30.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><div style="clear: both;"><a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-single-part-inside-iphone/"><img src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/iphone6s-breakdown-1070.png" border="0" /></a></div>
<div>Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com">Visual Capitalist</a></div>
</div>The Top 10 Millenial Brandshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/the-top-10-millenial-brands2016-03-12T16:53:18.000Z2016-03-12T16:53:18.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><div style="clear: both;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-10-millennial-brands-charts/"><img class="align-full" src="http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/millennial-brand-survey-chart.png" /></a></div>
<p>The market for U.S. millennials is expected to blossom to $1.4 trillion by 2020, according to international consulting firm Accenture. While this generation of digital natives is already a primary marketing target today, in the upcoming years millennials will make up a hefty 30% of all retail spending in the country.</p>
<p>However, millennials are complex and notoriously difficult to read, even for professional marketers. With values that seem to contradict one another, it’s a challenge for companies to successfully gain market share with this audience.</p>
<p>As millennials mature, researchers are gaining ground on the needs and wants of this generation. This week’s Chart of the Week shares data from a comprehensive survey of 3,500 millennials that were asked, without any prompt, about their favorite brands over the past three years. The results, which can be found in deeper depth here, help give us some insight as to what millennials look for in a brand.</p>
<p><br />
<span class="font-size-5">Tech Brand Disparity</span></p>
<p>It’s likely that no one will be surprised to learn that tech brands are among the best polling for millennials.</p>
<p>Apple claimed the top spot in the shortlist of the Top 10 millennial brands, while Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Amazon, and Google all helped to round out the group.</p>
<p>That said, what did surprise is the lack of showing by other prominent technology brands. Facebook, a company that reaches more than a billion people every day, came in at an extremely disappointing 65th place. That’s behind companies such as LG (20), Dell (28), HP (36), HTC (48), ASUS (52) and eBay (53). It’s even behind dreaded telecom companies like Verizon (61) and AT&T (62).</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Twitter, IBM, Intel, Paypal, and LinkedIn didn’t even register on the Top 100 radar.</p>
<p>Why are some tech brands rocketing up the rankings, while others are falling flat?</p>
<p><span class="font-size-5">Some, but not others?</span></p>
<p>According to Moosylvania, the researchers behind the survey, there was a major commonality between the top brands for millennials.</p>
<p>They found that millennial cohorts prefer fun and entertaining content to news and information in their social media feeds by a margin of six-to-one. Norty Cohen, CEO of Moosylvania, elaborated on this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Entertainment provides a natural opportunity for a brand to connect as shareable content. These cohorts are marketing themselves, and when a brand doesn’t take itself too seriously but instead provides fun that can be shared, it works."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Could Facebook be the destroyer of fun, by monetizing people’s news feeds? Are IBM and LinkedIn too “businessy” to poke fun at themselves? Perhaps Paypal is too financial – a damning trait, since not a single Top 100 brand was a bank or financial institution.</p>
<p>This may explain why a higher degree of millennials are happy to leave traditional and boring financial institutions in the dust. In a previous chart, we showed 49% of millennials are much more open to engaging tech companies for financial services, while only 16% of people of other generations feel the same. It may also be a problem that rising fintech companies such as Venmo, Lending Club, Nutmeg, and others can solve.</p>
<div>Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com">Visual Capitalist</a></div>
</div>Smartwatches Overtake Swiss Watcheshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/smartwatches-overtake-swiss-watches2016-02-19T18:51:03.000Z2016-02-19T18:51:03.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1291275?profile=original"><img class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1291275?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="310"></a>According to the latest research from <a href="https://www.strategyanalytics.com/strategy-analytics/news/strategy-analytics-press-releases/strategy-analytics-press-release/2016/02/18/global-smartwatch-shipments-overtake-swiss-watch-shipments-in-q4-2015#.Vsdia9Dw_6m" target="_blank">Strategy Analytics</a>, global smartwatch shipments reached 8.1 million units in Q4 2015, compared with 7.9 million Swiss Watch shipments. It is the first time ever that smartwatches have outshipped Swiss watches on a global basis.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Cliff Raskind, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “We estimate global smartwatch shipments reached 8.1 million units in Q4 2015, rising a healthy 316 percent from 1.9 million in Q4 2014. Smartwatches are growing rapidly in North America, Western Europe and Asia. Apple Watch captured an impressive 63 percent share of the global smartwatch market in Q4 2015, followed by Samsung with 16 percent. Apple and Samsung together account for a commanding 8 in 10 of all smartwatches shipped worldwide.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Steven Waltzer, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, “We estimate global Swiss watch shipments reached 7.9 million units in Q4 2015, falling 5 percent from 8.3 million in Q4 2014. Global demand for Swiss watches is slowing down, and major players like Swatch are struggling to find growth.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “The Swiss watch industry has been very slow to react to the development of smartwatches. The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away. Swiss brands, like Tag Heuer, accounted for a tiny 1 percent of all smartwatches shipped globally during Q4 2015, and they are long way behind Apple, Samsung and other leaders in the high-growth smartwatch category.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ccffcc;">The question now is, who can gain market share as usage grows and who will lose?</span></p></div>How Much Wealth Accumulated In Ten Secondshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/how-much-wealth-accumulated-in-ten-seconds2016-02-19T18:08:45.000Z2016-02-19T18:08:45.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_blank" href="http://pennystocks.la/battle-of-internet-giants/"><img class="align-left" src="http://pennystocks.la/battle-of-internet-giants/images/social/battle600.gif?width=600" width="600" /></a>The numbers are astounding, and hopefully help to create perspective on the scale of technology and business.  In just 10 seconds, close to 225,000 GB of data is transferred, with over 500,000 posts on Facebook, 57,000 tweets, 46,000 searches on Google, and 2 million messages sent on WhatsApp. </p>
<p>There is no question that the most profound factor affecting modern life is the ability to replicate and store data at almost no cost. This revolution in information has provided us with a wealth of benefits and possibilities for an incredibly low marginal price.</p>
<p>At zero cost, we can connect to a global store of all human knowledge. New apps with impressive features can cost less than a dollar, and our monthly Netflix subscriptions hardly register on our credit card statements. Meanwhile, we share our thoughts about the world with our friends and family at no cost through social networks, email, or other means of communications. This hasn’t been possible throughout human existence, and it is only feasible now because of the incredible scale of the internet.</p>
<p>While we all make the connection that these individual activities help to bring in revenue to the world’s tech giants, the ultimate size and scale of the numbers in aggregate are almost incomprehensible to the human brain.</p>
<p>How many Google searches do you make each day? What about your neighborhood, city, or country? How about the world?</p>
<p>Today’s two visualizations look at the sheer amounts of data processed every 10 seconds by the world’s tech giants, as well as the amount of impressive profit yielded.</p>
<p><br />
<span style="font-size: 12px;">Click above to view the full version [h/t <a href="http://pennystocks.la/">Penny Stocks</a>].</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12px;">Click above to view the interactive version [h/t <a href="http://pennystocks.la/">pennystocks</a>].</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12px;">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.visualcapitalist.com/tech-giants-visualizing-profits-for-every-10-seconds/" target="_blank">VisualCapitalist</a></span></p>
</div>Apple Apps Infected. What Would Steve Jobs Dohttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/apple-apps-infected-what-would-steve-jobs-do2015-09-21T15:09:44.000Z2015-09-21T15:09:44.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p data-track-pos="0"><a target="_blank" href="http://standforsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BadAppleContractors-logo-noweb.jpg"><img class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://standforsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BadAppleContractors-logo-noweb.jpg?width=200" width="200" /></a>Apple has owned up to a rare incursion of malicious software into its App Store, forcing it to pull some of the most widely used mobile apps in China from the service.</p>
<p>Late on Sunday in California, the iPhone and iPad maker confirmed reports by security researchers who had warned that a swath of popular Chinese apps had been created using developer tools that were infected with the malware, resulting in the compromised apps.</p>
<p data-track-pos="1">“Hundreds of millions” of users of the popular Chinese apps were at risk of having their personal data exposed, including people who use <a class="wsodCompany" data-hover-chart="hk:700" href="http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=hk:700">Tencent</a>’s WeChat mobile messaging service and ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi, according to Palo Alto Networks, a US cyber security company.</p>
<p data-track-pos="2"><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/965a2e38-5e3b-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3mLtdikkN" title="Apple meets US regulator to discuss driverless cars - FT.com">Apple</a> said it had removed the infected apps, which had been created with what it said was a fake version of its software for app developers, known as Xcode.</p>
<p>It did not explain how developers of a large number of China’s most widely used mobile services had all been infected with the same piece of malware, or how the infected apps that resulted had got through its security screening for the App Store.</p>
<p>“To protect our customers, we’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and we are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps,” Apple said.</p>
<p data-track-pos="3">The admission is a black eye for the US company, which has made much of its superior security record in mobile apps compared with that of <a class="wsodCompany" data-hover-chart="us:GOOG" href="http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=us:GOOG">Google</a>. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, last year criticised Google for what he claimed were insecure apps, quoting a report that criticised the search company’s Android Play store as a “toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities”.</p>
<p data-track-pos="4"><a href="http://researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/2015/09/malware-xcodeghost-infects-39-ios-apps-including-wechat-affecting-hundreds-of-millions-of-users/" title="Palo Alto Networks blog post">Palo Alto Networks</a> said in a blog post on Friday that it had found 39 apps in Apple’s App Store that had been created with the infected developer software, which has been dubbed XcodeGhost. Along with WeChat and Didi Kuaidi, the compromised apps include ones for games, banking, stock trading, maps, social networks and mobile phone services, it added.</p>
<p data-track-pos="5"><a href="http://mt.sohu.com/20150918/n421556810.shtml" title="Tencent statement">Tencent</a> said in a statement on social networking service Sina Weibo that it had replaced the compromised version of its app. It also said that users had not lost personal information or other property because of the infection.</p>
<p data-track-pos="5">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dd9696ce-6011-11e5-a28b-50226830d644.html#ixzz3mNyYio8O" target="_blank">ft.com</a></p>
</div>Chinas Move Won't Help U.S. Tech Firmshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/chinas-move-won-t-help-u-s-tech-firms2015-08-30T15:37:43.000Z2015-08-30T15:37:43.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>China’s moves to spur its slowing economy and restore investor confidence are having an important but less obvious effect on the tech sector: Strengthening Chinese companies that already were making life difficult for U.S. rivals, many of whom have staked their growth plans on the world’s second-largest market.</p>
<p>The government’s <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-moves-to-devalue-the-yuan-1439258401" target="_self" class="icon none">surprise decision in early August to devalue China’s currency</a>, in particular, could make it harder for U.S. companies to sell into the country by making their products more expensive to local buyers.</p>
<p>At the same time, a cheaper yuan makes Chinese-produced goods less costly abroad—dovetailing with government policies that have been promoting foreign sales by Chinese technology vendors.</p>
<p>“We see the key driver [of government action] being exports,” said Handel Jones, a consultant at International Business Strategies Inc. who has written books on China’s high-tech sector. Chinese companies “will become more aggressive.”</p>
<p>Once known mainly for its low-cost manufacturing, China became a prime target for many U.S. companies bent on growth owing to its huge population, which amounts to 20% of the global total. But the country is no longer merely a consumer and manufacturer of products conceived abroad. Local companies are coming up with homegrown designs for mobile devices, PCs and other products, and some are beginning to court global markets largely dominated by U.S. companies.</p>
<p>In smartphones, where China ranks as the world’s largest market, Xiaomi Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/xiaomi-chinas-new-phone-giant-takes-aim-at-world-1433731461" target="_self" class="icon none">have used attractively designed and priced products to take the No. 1 and No. 2 sales positions</a>. Chinese brands, in fact, accounted for four of the top five brands in the country in the second quarter, researchers at International Data Corp. found.</p>
<p><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/AAPL">Apple</a> <span class="company-name-type">Inc.,</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/AAPL" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a> at No. 3, is still enjoying brisk iPhone sales and generating big profits in China. But <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SSNHZ">Samsung Electronics</a> <span class="company-name-type">Co.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SSNHZ" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a> is no longer among the top five suppliers there, according to IDC. Troubles in its mobile unit have triggered declines in net profit for five straight quarters.</p>
<p>Slowing demand hasn’t helped. Smartphone shipments in China fell 4% in the second quarter year on year, Gartner Inc. said, marking the first-ever decline there. IDC this week cut its forecast for unit growth in 2015 to 1.2% from 2.5%, down from 19.7% in 2014.</p>
<p>The flagging domestic market is encouraging some Chinese phone vendors to look abroad for sales. Xiaomi, for example, has begun selling smartphones in Brazil and India. Huawei, which has long operated around the world, sells half its smartphones outside of China and is making a particularly aggressive push in Peru and other South American countries.</p>
<p>“You walk around Lima and you see Huawei almost everywhere,” said Ryan Reith, an IDC analyst.</p>
<p>The rise of Chinese brands extends to personal computers, server systems and networking devices. Chinese customers in many cases are shifting their buying to products from local companies, hurting U.S. companies like <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/HPQ">Hewlett-Packard</a> <span class="company-name-type">Co.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/HPQ" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a>, <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/IBM">International Business Machines</a> <span class="company-name-type">Corp.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/IBM" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a> and <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CSCO">Cisco Systems</a> <span class="company-name-type">Inc.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CSCO" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-KB075_chinat_TOP_20150827174258.jpg"><img class="align-right" src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-KB075_chinat_TOP_20150827174258.jpg?width=300" width="300" /></a><span class="wsj-article-caption-content">Xiaomi has used attractively designed and priced products to take the No. 1 smartphone sales position in China, where Apple ranks No. 3. Above, the Xiaomi Note, left, next to an iPhone 6.</span> <span class="wsj-article-credit" itemprop="creator"><span class="wsj-article-credit-tag">Photo:</span> Peter Earl McCollough for The Wall Street Journal</span> Chinese vendors that once relied mainly on low-cost manufacturing have realized they can do better if they handle design and other chores themselves, said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University Channel Islands. “The money is in design, distribution and marketing,” he said. In servers, for example, China’s <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/LNVGY">Lenovo Group</a> <span class="company-name-type">Ltd.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/LNVGY" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a> reached No. 1 in its home country <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/lenovo-gains-all-approvals-for-ibm-deal-1411964681" target="_self" class="icon none">after completing the purchase of IBM’s high-volume server line</a>. Lenovo’s server shipments in China more than doubled in the second quarter, IDC estimated. Huawei, which ranked second in China server sales behind Lenovo, posted a 30% jump in sales. H-P, the world’s largest server maker, grew just 9% in China in the quarter and ranked fifth in the market. Dell Inc.’s unit shipments in China fell 2.5%.</p>
<p>The sheer scale of the Chinese market makes such trends worrisome for foreign companies. The country is expected to spend about $211 billion this year on information technology excluding telecom services, IDC estimated before the recent economic gyrations. That is second only to the U.S., and accounts for about 10% of total global spending.</p>
<p>The stakes are high for startups as well. China has attracted a mob of Silicon Valley upstarts, some of which have been banking on money from Chinese investors or raising money on the prospect of sales in the country.</p>
<p>The Chinese affiliate of Uber Technologies Inc. is close to securing about $1 billion in new funding from investors in the region, part of the ride-hailing company’s rivalry with deep-pocketed Chinese rival Didi Kuaidi Joint Co.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BT-AD911_CHINAT_9U_20150827165105.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BT-AD911_CHINAT_9U_20150827165105.jpg?width=400" width="400" /></a>Investors have agreed to funding that would value UberChina at about $7.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The final paperwork has been signed but it could take several weeks for the round to officially close, the person said.</p>
<p>China also looms large for home-rental site Airbnb Inc., which has announced it would work with Sequoia Capital’s China arm and China Broadband Capital to expand in the country. The Chinese investment firm Hillhouse led Airbnb’s latest financing round, which valued the company at $25.5 billion based in part on big projections of future growth that may require substantial international expansion.</p>
<p>Developments in the Chinese market aren’t all bad for U.S. companies. The declining yuan, for example, could reduce the costs of goods they buy or manufacture there, helping their profit margins.</p>
<p>And not all U.S. companies face credible local competition. <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/INTC">Intel</a> <span class="company-name-type">Corp.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/INTC" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a> and longtime rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., for example, are the only companies that supply the kinds of processor chips used in PCs.</p>
<p>But Chinese companies are developing expertise in other chips, including cellular modems and another variety of processor found in most smartphones. That trend could pose a challenge to Intel’s attempts to penetrate the mobile market, and to mobile-chip leader <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/QCOM">Qualcomm</a> <span class="company-name-type">Inc.</span> <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/QCOM" class="chiclet-wrapper"></a>’s effort to defend its turf.</p>
<p>“The Chinese government has been very open and public about wanting to reduce their reliance on foreign silicon,” said Derek Aberle, Qualcomm’s president, in a recent interview.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-moves-wont-help-u-s-tech-firms-1440745381" target="_blank">WSJ</a></p>
</div>Doubts Begin Chipping Away At The Stock Markethttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/doubts-begin-chipping-away-at-the-stock-market2015-08-16T18:08:48.000Z2015-08-16T18:08:48.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="71" data-total-count="71" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-1"><a target="_blank" href="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/08/15/business/GRET-web/GRET-web-master675.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/08/15/business/GRET-web/GRET-web-master675.jpg?width=300" width="300" /></a>In the stock market, until recently, just about any news was good news.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="122" data-total-count="193" itemprop="articleBody">Company earnings stumbled? Investors shrugged them off, sending shares higher. Economic growth was disappointing? So what.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="25" data-total-count="218" itemprop="articleBody">But now that is changing.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="337" data-total-count="555" itemprop="articleBody">Consider the recent trading in Apple, the world’s most valuable public company and a certifiable stock market darling. Apple announced <a title="Apple's report." href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/07/21Apple-Reports-Record-Third-Quarter-Results.html">third-quarter results</a> on July 21 that were “amazing,” according to Tim Cook, its chief executive. Revenue rose 33 percent over the same period last year, and earnings per share were up 45 percent.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="174" data-total-count="729" itemprop="articleBody">But investors seized on the fact that demand for the iPhone and the company’s new smartwatch didn’t meet expectations. Apple’s shares have lost 11.3 percent since then.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="267" data-total-count="996" itemprop="articleBody">“I thought the break in Apple was a pretty big deal,” said Bill Fleckenstein, a veteran money manager at <a title="The site." href="https://www.fleckensteincapital.com/">Fleckenstein Capital</a> in Seattle. “They made all the numbers, but units were light. Maybe that is a precursor to what the entire tape is going to show us.”</p>
<p></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="375" data-total-count="1371" itemprop="articleBody">The reaction to China’s devaluation was even more telling. Instead of viewing it as a competitive tool to lift exports and stimulate growth — as was the case when Japan took steps to devalue the yen — global investors were rattled, fearing that it meant the Chinese government was convinced that its economy was in much worse shape than conveyed by official statistics.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="217" data-total-count="1588" itemprop="articleBody">As investors absorb the meaning of these moves, they also seem to be opening their eyes to other market wonders that may prove ephemeral. The question is, Are we seeing signs of a sea change in investors’ attitudes?</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="378" data-total-count="1966" itemprop="articleBody">Another example is the recent rout in shares of Keurig Green Mountain, the maker of specialty coffee and single-cup brewing systems. A former highflier that traded as high as $137 in January, the stock collapsed after the company warned on Aug. 5 that sales and earnings would decline this year. The shares lost 30 percent the following day and are down 62 percent year-to-date.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="243" data-total-count="2209" itemprop="articleBody">Trying to plumb the mind-set of investors is always a tricky exercise, of course. But when one investment assumption is questioned — a perpetually strong Chinese economy, say — other bits of conventional wisdom go under the microscope too.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="229" data-total-count="2438" itemprop="articleBody">Doubts may be creeping into the notion that companies with no earnings should trade at sky-high valuations. Some are starting to wonder whether corporate profits are being artificially elevated by share buybacks or other tactics.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="116" data-total-count="2554" itemprop="articleBody">Then there’s the biggest assumption of them all — that the Federal Reserve will always be there to save the day.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="120" data-total-count="2674" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-2">An aging bull market often coincides with investors’ starting to question these kinds of assumptions, strategists say.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="156" data-total-count="2830" itemprop="articleBody">That’s the view of James Stack, president of <a title="The site." href="http://www.investech.com/index.php">InvesTech Research</a>, a money manager in Whitefish, Mont., who publishes a highly ranked investment newsletter.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="257" data-total-count="3087" itemprop="articleBody">“This is the third-longest bull market in 80 years, and we are starting to see some deterioration develop,” Mr. Stack said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “If you look at market breadth, the number of stocks participating has been narrowing.”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="247" data-total-count="3334" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-3">Even as the Nasdaq was reaching new highs this year, for example, other indexes, including those made up of transportation stocks or utilities, were trading well off their highs. This divergence is not the sign of a healthy market, Mr. Stack said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="306" data-total-count="3640" itemprop="articleBody"><a title="About Mr. Gannon." href="https://www.roycefunds.com/people/francis-gannon">Francis Gannon</a>, co-chief investment officer at Royce Funds, which specializes in small-cap stocks, also thinks we are at an inflection point. The upside-down market — where untested companies’ shares vastly outperform those of more solid companies — may be in the process of righting itself, he said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="351" data-total-count="3991" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-4">Mr. Gannon noted that fully one-third of the companies in the Russell 2000 stock index do not earn any profits, the highest percentage in a nonrecessionary period. And through the second quarter, a majority of the performance in the Russell 2000 index came from companies that lost money before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, he said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="176" data-total-count="4167" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-5">“The laws of finance have been suspended for quite some time,” Mr. Gannon told me last week. “Now this is starting to crack. I think we are on a road to normalization.”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="360" data-total-count="4527" itemprop="articleBody">If market sentiment is indeed changing, Mr. Stack is concerned that many investors may be quick to sell their shares in a swoon, amplifying a downturn. He’s especially worried about two groups: investors who have bought shares on margin, using borrowed money, and those who have been pushed into the market in search of returns because of low interest rates.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="296" data-total-count="4823" itemprop="articleBody">Certainly the use of leverage to buy stocks is very near its peak. According to the New York Stock Exchange, <a title="Tables." href="http://www.nyxdata.com/nysedata/asp/factbook/viewer_edition.asp?mode=table&key=3153&category=8">margin debt</a> stood at $505 billion in June, the most recent figure available. That’s down just a bit from the April peak of $507 billion, but up 9 percent from the same period last year.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="77" data-total-count="4900" itemprop="articleBody">“Money borrowed to buy stocks tends to be nervous money,” Mr. Stack said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="357" data-total-count="5257" itemprop="articleBody">Equally nervous may be the legions of traditional savers who felt compelled to buy equities to generate a viable yield on their investments. “The multigenerational low in interest rates has driven a lot of people into stocks who would not normally be there,” Mr. Stack said. “That money could exit the markets quickly once rates start to normalize.”</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="188" data-total-count="5445" itemprop="articleBody">As an active fund manager who buys shares of companies with established operations and genuine earnings, Mr. Gannon says he is eager for a market in which investors behave more rationally.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="219" data-total-count="5664" itemprop="articleBody">“This particular cycle has been affected by the actions of the Fed and the many unintended consequences of what the Fed has done,” Mr. Gannon said. “We think we are at a point where that is beginning to change.”</p>
<p data-node-uid="1" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="5845" itemprop="articleBody">Distinct market shifts are visible only in hindsight, of course. Still, it’s probably not a bad idea to be watchful for them and for the profits — and losses — they may bring.</p>
<p data-node-uid="1" class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="5845" itemprop="articleBody">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/business/doubt-starts-chipping-away-at-the-markets-mind-set.html?_r=0" target="_blank">NYTimes</a></p>
</div>Winners (or Losers) With Apples New Watchhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/winners-or-losers-with-apples-new-watch2015-05-03T15:17:57.000Z2015-05-03T15:17:57.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_blank" href="http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/09/applewatch1.jpg"><img class="align-left" src="http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/09/applewatch1.jpg?width=300" width="300" /></a>The jury's still out on Apples new watch launch, especially it's longer term demand and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/30/apple-watch-shortages-due-to-faulty-taptic-engine-from-one-of-two-suppliers" target="_blank">shortages due to two suppliers</a> have already shown.  I thought though (thanks to <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/news/2480896-brcm-stm-adi-idti-sndk-mu-land-apple-watch-design-wins" target="_blank">SeekingAlpha</a>) we could take a look at it's current suppliers:</p>
<ul>
<li>iPhone/iPad combo chip supplier Broadcom (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/brcm" title="Broadcom Corporation">BRCM</a>) is providing a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/NFC/FM radio combo chip for the Apple Watch (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/aapl" title="Apple Inc.">AAPL</a>), according to an ABI Research <a href="https://www.abiresearch.com/press/apple-watch-insides-pcb-details-revealed-for-the-f/" target="_blank">teardown</a> of the Watch's S1 chip module. As expected, NXP supplies a complementary NFC controller.</li>
<li>The teardown also uncovered a 6-axis STMicroelectronics (NYSE:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/stm" title="STMicroelectronics NV">STM</a>) motion sensor (accelerometer/gyproscope). There has been <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/news/2426166-rosenblatt-invensense-wont-lose-meaningful-s6-share-to-stm" target="_blank">some debate</a> about whether InvenSense (NYSE:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/invn" title="InvenSense">INVN</a>) will be a motion sensor supplier for the Watch, as it is for the iPhone 6.</li>
<li>Analog Devices (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/adi" title="Analog Devices Inc.">ADI</a>) supplies a touch controller IC. Barclays <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/news/2398736-adi-plus-8_1-percent-barclays-upgrades-reports-of-apple-force-touch-wins" target="_blank">reported in March</a> ADI had scored multiple design wins to enable Apple's Force Touch pressure-based response feature (supported by the Watch) on future iPhones/iPads.</li>
<li>IDT (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/idti" title="Integrated Device Technology, Inc.">IDTI</a>) supplies a wireless charging IC. The design win comes after Samsung opted to use a Texas Instruments charging IC within the Galaxy S6; IDC <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/news/2340436-idt-lands-galaxy-s6-charging-pad-deal-reveals-new-chip" target="_blank">supplies a chip</a> for the S6's charging pad. Dialog Semi (<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/dlgnf" title="Dialog Semiconductor Plc">OTC:DLGNF</a>) provides a power management chip.</li>
<li>SanDisk/Toshiba (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/sndk" title="SanDisk Corporation">SNDK</a>) supply an 8GB NAND flash chip, and Micron/Elpida (NASDAQ:<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/mu" title="Micron Technology Inc.">MU</a>) a 4Gb (512MB) SRAM chip. SRAM typically carries higher ASPs than DRAM for a given amount of capacity (it's also faster).</li>
<li>In the near-term (and perhaps longer), Watch volumes will likely amount to a small fraction of iPhone volumes - whereas Apple sold 192.7M iPhones in 2014, IDC forecasts 15.9M 2015 Watch shipments, and more bullish estimates are still generally in the ~20M range. However, strong growth is expected over the next several years, and the first-gen Watch serves as a valuable reference win when competing for other smartwatch/wearable designs.</li>
</ul>
<p>It certainly cannot hurt to look at these names from a technical standpoint.  Whether it <em>survives</em> over the longer term, we shall see.  But buy on pullbacks near supports and limit your risks. Pick and choose wisely.</p>
</div>eBays Big Step Into Advertisinghttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/ebays-big-step-into-advertising2014-09-12T15:47:47.000Z2014-09-12T15:47:47.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><div style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 5px 0;"><object id="cnbcplayer" width="400" height="380" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" bgcolor="#000000"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" ></param>
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<p>When EBAY was blow torched this week after AAPL unveiled Apple Pay at their investor event on September 7th, I saw the knee-jerk <em>fear </em>that Apple Pay would take down PayPal as one to raise an eyebrow, however considering the possible number of iphone6 and Apple watch sales (because it won't be available on current Apple products) versus worldwide usage of PayPal, this would not something that would immediately destroy the EBAY name.  On Wednesday I jumped in on EBAY calls (cheap at that point) feeling the reaction was over done.</p>
<p>Booyah!  Was I glad today that I did.  Dumb luck is definitely better than no luck at all.</p>
<p>Not only are other market participants now beginning to question the depth of impact from Apple Pay (again only available on the new iPhone6 or Apple Watch), but it's <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/09/09/apple-pay-mobile-payment-credit-cards-security/15352109/" target="_blank">overall security</a> in a day and age of endless hackers when it comes to one's digital wallet replacing their plastic card and cash.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EM757_ebayad_G_20140911143933.jpg"><img class="align-right" src="http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EM757_ebayad_G_20140911143933.jpg?width=200" width="200" /></a>Then today the news hit when <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/11/ebay-prepping-new-mobile-ad-network/?KEYWORDS=Ebay" target="_blank">EBAY</a> announced they are set to launch an advertising network for its mobile app in this year’s final quarter, opening up a new avenue for marketers to reach the app’s roughly 4.6 million daily visitors.  “We know what these people bought, what they looked for, what they want to buy,” said Howard-Sarin. “<span style="color: #ffcc00;">We know exactly who the users are, so we know that the targeting will be relevant</span>.”</p>
<p>By partnering with eBay, advertisers will have access to over 60 predefined audience segments, all powered by eBay's real commerce data.  With 149 million active users and <span class="bold">290 million hours of shopping</span> activity each month according to their site, this step into advertising is nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>Market researcher eMarketer estimates spending worldwide on mobile advertising will nearly double this year to $32.7 billion this year, from $17.7 billion last year. The firm said it expects U.S.-based marketers to devote 37% of their spending toward mobile devices in 2014.</p>
<p>AMZN has been seeking to revamp its advertising, quietly working on a new network that could take on Google AdWords for search-related marketing and Facebook has already ventured into converting their user data into targeted advertising.  Now enter eBay.</p>
<p>The new network could help marketers more accurately target their advertising because the app requires a log-in, meaning eBay knows about users’ activity within the app, said Stephen Howard-Sarin, eBay’s head of display advertising, in an interview.  “For the first time, we’re giving you the opportunity to connect with eBay users throughout their entire shopping journey,” eBay said on a <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://cc.ebay.com/?utm_source=Business%20Insider&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=Homepage%20Site%20Skin&utm_campaign=Triad%20Internal">new page on its website</a>. The company said that eBay users spend 150 minutes on its app per month, compared with 47 for its nearest, unidentified competitor.</p>
<p>The website said eBay can place advertisements across multiple mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. EBay is working with St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Triad Retail Media to place the advertisements, according to the site.</p>
<p></p>
</div>The Ups And Downs Of Apple Payhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/the-ups-and-downs-of-apple-pay2014-09-10T18:52:47.000Z2014-09-10T18:52:47.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290859?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290859?profile=original" width="300"></a>Forgetting your wallet at home may no longer be a problem when picking up prescriptions or incidentals, as the nation’s <a href="http://recode.net/2014/09/05/apple-iphones-mobile-payments-expected-to-include-cvs-and-walgreens/">biggest drugstore chain</a> Walgreens and other major retailers partner with Apple and its new mobile payment system. Apple’s new mobile payment system — Apple Pay — could certainly make life for consumers much easier. But the move also makes the iPhone a virtually indispensable — and invaluable –piece of property that will be even more vulnerable to security risks if lost, stolen or <span style="text-decoration: underline;">hacked.</span></p>
<p>Walgreens, Target, Staples, McDonald’s, Sephora, Starbucks, and Groupon are among the 12 retailers to accept Apple Pay in October. The system was unveiled Sept. 9 along with the latest iPhone and the highly anticipated Apple Watch.</p>
<p>Apple Pay will allow consumers to pay for items using near field communication, a wireless technology that transmits payment information from the mobile device to a store’s checkout system. The SIM card in the mobile phone, which stores users’ personal information and allows them to connect to their carrier’s network, will help <a href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/what-is-nfc-and-why-is-it-in-your-phone-948410">verify users’ accounts</a>, according to TechRadar, and act as a digital wallet that holds credit card and banking information. The iPhone 6 and Apple Watch are the first Apple devices to feature the system.</p>
<p>Smartphones already carry a host of sensitive personal data through mobile apps and web activity, including financial information, usernames, passwords and home addresses. But because the payment system would be tethered to the iPhone 6 and use WiFi to transmit credit card or banking information, the device would be even more valuable to hackers or thieves.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ffff00;">Over <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/20/3428786/smartphone-thefts-double-in-2013/"><span style="color: #ffff00;">3 million smartphones were stolen</span></a> in 2013, almost half of which were never recovered.</span> Besides their value on the black market, the personal and financial information on stolen smartphones can prove lucrative.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ffff00;">Even when consumers take precautions, their phones can still be at risk for hacking and fraud. For example, research hackers were able to lift account usernames and passwords from passersby by <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/home/2014/03/20/3416961/drones-hack/"><span style="color: #ffff00;">using a drone</span></a> that masqueraded as a trusted WiFi network.</span></p>
<p>Last week, Apple’s iCloud storage service <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/09/01/3477756/lena-dunham-hacked-photos-of-naked-celebrities-was-an-act-of-sexual-harassment/">suffered a targeted breach</a> where nude celebrity photos were stolen and distributed online. Apple said the security breach affected only certain celebrity accounts and was not a result of a security flaw on its end. The company, however, also announced that it patched a security flaw that may could have exposed users data and has vowed to <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/apple-says-it-will-add-new-security-measures-after-celebrity-hack/">beef up security measures</a>.</p>
<p>The celebrity photo scandal also revived a broader conversation surrounding consumer privacy and large scale breaches. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/09/01/3477756/lena-dunham-hacked-photos-of-naked-celebrities-was-an-act-of-sexual-harassment/">Breaches have increased in recent years</a> with retailers such as Target and more recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/technology/path-of-stolen-credit-cards-leads-back-to-home-depot.html">Home Depot</a> being prime targets. As a result, many of those whose information gets stolen also become <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/07/21/3462385/flight-mh17-victims-get-hit-with-facebook-credit-card-scams-in-wake-of-crash/">victims of identity theft</a> — which is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/home/2014/04/15/3426781/1-in-5-americans-have-had-their-social-security-number-or-credit-card-info-stolen/">on the rise</a>. The trend has even taken a toll on the economy by stifling job growth as businesses <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/06/09/3446533/cybercrime-jobs-report/">spend billions fighting cyberattacks</a>.</p>
<p>But the security risk is the same if not greater when hackers home in on security weaknesses in website encryption. The <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/04/11/3425310/what-the-heartbleed-bug-says-about-our-interconnectivity/">Heartbleed security flaw</a>, which was <a href="http://threatpost.com/research-finds-no-large-scale-heartbleed-exploit-attempts-before-vulnerability-disclosure/108161">allegedly exploited</a> by the U.S. National Security Agency, went <span style="color: #ffff00;">undiscovered for two years</span> <span style="color: #ffff00;">and exposed millions of usernames, passwords, Social Security Numbers and financial account information from nearly 70 percent of the world’s websites</span>. And as technology continues to evolve with more of consumers’ everyday lives centered online and on mobile devices, similar cybersecurity breaches will likely become more commonplace.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/09/06/3564067/apple-partners-with-cvs-and-walgreens-for-new-iphone-only-payment-system/" target="_blank">ThinkProgress</a></p></div>Who Can Unveil The Apple Watch Better But Colberthttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/who-can-unveil-the-apple-watch-better-but-colbert2014-09-10T14:19:38.000Z2014-09-10T14:19:38.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><div style="background-color: #000000; width: 520px;">
<div style="padding: 4px;"><iframe width="512" height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:colbertnation.com:a18ac8ca-b1a3-47c4-85ae-66fa6b5bf58f" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p style="text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 4px; margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b><a href="http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/">The Colbert Report</a></b><br />
Get More: <a href="http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/full-episodes">Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/thecolbertreport">The Colbert Report on Facebook</a>,<a href="http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos">Video Archive</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>Amazon Growthhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/amazon-growth2014-06-25T22:26:00.000Z2014-06-25T22:26:00.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p>Jeff Bezos knows; continue to innovate, acquire and turn out new products.....or die. Investors have rewarded the stock accordingly. AAPL had the same growth and innovation. When investors began to doubt, they rang the register until Tim Cook was able to convince them that all was well. Great job Bezos - keep it up; or else. (click chart to enlarge)</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290790?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290790?profile=original" width="598"></a>Courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/EconBizFin/status/481819226580467712/photo/1" target="_blank">Twitter</a></p></div>Add A Celebrity To The Board: Does It Improve Stock Performance?http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/add-a-celebrity-to-the-board-does-it-improve-stock-performance2014-06-03T16:05:06.000Z2014-06-03T16:05:06.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><div style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 5px 0;"><object id="flashObj" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" height="326" width="580"><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=3596903548001&playerID=590314128001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAACxbljZk~,eD0zYozylZ3KmYvlyzd8myNVJz2Gttzx&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" ></param>
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<p>Bono joining the board of Fender and rumors that Dr. Dre will join the board at $AAPL. What do academics say about share prices and out performance when celebs take a seat at the board room table?  Increased exposure, higher consumer interest, improved sales.........or just a temporary blip on the chart?</p>
<p>Imagine the fight over Steven McQueen if he were alive today.  Ever car manufacturer, including TSLA, would go wild. </p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://ft.com" target="_blank">FT</a></p>
</div>Funday Monday Reads June 2ndhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/funday-monday-reads-june-2nd2014-06-02T12:25:03.000Z2014-06-02T12:25:03.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><ul>
<li>Better than expected China PMI over the weekend and ECB meeting on Thursday with LTRO announcement being anticipated and a (speculative) rate cut to help boost their economy.</li>
<li>$GOOG is planning on extending its customer base by offering internet usage to the un-wired regions of the world via satellite and boost revenue as well as earnings. The new project's estimated price ranges from $1B-$3B, and will start with 180 small, high-capacity satellites orbiting Earth at low altitude.  180 "low altitude"?  Just how many are up there anyway?  lol</li>
<li>Cost-cutting in a digital age to continue.  Imagine the possibilities.  For example one bank digitized it's mortgage-application and decision process, cutting the cost per new mortgage by 70% and slashing time to preliminary approval from several days to just one minute. A telecom created a self-serve, prepaid service where customers could order and activate phones without back-office involvement. A shoe retailer built a system to manage its in-store inventory that enabled it to know immediately whether a shoe and size was in stock—saving time for customers and sales staff. An insurance company built a digital process to automatically adjudicate a large share of its simple claims. <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com//Insights/Business_Technology/Accelerating_the_digitization_of_business_processes" target="_blank">Full post at McKinsey</a></li>
<li>AAPL will unveil more Beacon tech at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco starting today. Virgin Atlantic has already installed beacons in London's Heathrow Airport so a smartphone automatically displays a boarding pass when the passenger comes to the gate or security. LabWerk has used the technology to create an app to alert drivers of empty spots in parking garages. Apple (<a target="_blank" href="http://email.seekingalpha.com:80/track?type=click&mailingid=20140602&messageid=wall_street_breakfast&databaseid=&serial=wall_street_breakfastO20140602O.c3fafe4135cfe021ed4b51be9e807857.1401705507&emailid=mrsbuz1%40aol.com&userid=304377&extra=&&&3000&&&http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/aapl?source=email_wsb&ifp=0" title="Apple Inc." style="color: #024999; text-decoration: none;">AAPL</a>) has designed the beacons to transmit the Bluetooth signal within 500 feet of a phone. (hat tip <a href="http://seekingalpha.com" target="_blank">S/A</a>)</li>
<li>With an aging baby boomer population and given the recent scandal at the Veterans Administration, I found this quite timely.  Technology and expenditure growth in Healthcare (hat tip <a href="http://ritholtz.com" target="_blank">Ritholtz</a>) 
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</ul>
</div>Einhorn On Momo Stocks, Bonds, Miners, AAPL And Morehttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/einhorn-on-momo-stocks-bonds-miners-aapl-and-more2014-05-31T21:36:46.000Z2014-05-31T21:36:46.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><h1><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_blank" href="http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?&id=HN.608023376202893503&w=300&h=300&c=0&pid=1.9&rs=0&p=0"><img class="align-left" src="http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?&id=HN.608023376202893503&w=300&h=300&c=0&pid=1.9&rs=0&p=0" /></a>David Einhorn’s Comments at the Greenlight Re (GLRE) Investor Day on May 20th 2014</span></h1>
<p></p>
<ul>
<li>Bernanke was predictable, but the new chairwoman is less predictable.</li>
<li>It has been 5 yrs into the recovery. Corporate profits have increased a lot and continue to grow. Current earnings expectations are high at a double-digit growth rate. Q1 numbers are showing the economy growing at  ~1%.</li>
<li>The fund is fully invested at 114% long and 66% short. It has increased its net long book from 35 to 50%.</li>
<li>Largest longs are Alpha Bank, Apple, gold, Marvel, Micron, and Oil States International.</li>
<li>Longs are cash-rich tech companies and businesses benefiting from structural changes. Shorts include secular decliners, momentum stocks, and iron ore related companies. Macro overlay due to monetary policy and unresolved imbalances.</li>
<li>Divergence between stock and bond markets?  Bond market is saying that economy is slowing down and yields have come down. Yields are not down because of deflation – we are not in deflation as commodity prices have been up. Equity markets are ignoring any slowdown because of the excuse that slowdown was related to bad weather. GLRE is pretty agnostic to how the market turns out.</li>
<li>Credit spreads very tight? Europe has not resolved its issues. Countries can’t roll their debt in a crisis. This is a structural weakness. France’s spreads have not widened. French bonds are mispriced relative to Italian and Greek bonds. They have hedges in France.</li>
<li>Thoughts on momentum stocks? Momentum stocks can go down a lot. They didn’t short these on their way up. If the price drops by 50% it doesn’t make the stock price half silly. It is still silly. Tech sector was 30% of the market in the bubble of 2000. Money can rotate out of these momentum stocks and go into other parts of the market. In that case the entire market may not go down.</li>
<li>Why not buy a cheap reinsurance company to grow GLRE? Have discussed acquisitions internally. They liquidated a position in Aspen and it was bought out 3 days after they sold. They sold because premiums grew quite a bit.</li>
<li>What does he think of the Hedge Fund and Reinsurance model after 10 years of GLRE? Big picture reasons still remain for the model to exist. Asset strategy and underwriting strategy support each other and one doesn’t have to stretch on either side to get decent returns. Now the new model can get a rating from AM Best.</li>
<li>How does he look at gold as a fundamental value investor? He thinks of gold as an alternative currency.</li>
<li>Why Gold miners ETF GDX or individual companies? They chose an index of companies. Individual companies have big question on reserves, nationalization risk – evaluating these is not their strength. Analyzing coal companies has similar issues and a mine can collapse. They change their position between Gold commodity and GDX. They have double-digit exposure to gold.</li>
<li>Short iron ore position? They have been short since summer 2012. Iron ore companies invested aggressively thru downturn, enormous capex and they thought this will create excess supply.  They thought that demand from China was unsustainable and even if China grew iron ore, there will be surplus capacity.</li>
<li>AAPL capital management and operations? When they started investing in Apple, capital management was poor but not important because cash was not large. Cash grew and stock went down so cash became bigger % of market cap so capital management was more relevant. AAPL operations: big question is if margins will go down dramatically especially if the next new great phone is not from Apple? Probably not.  When Motorola had the best phone it got big multiples. Then Nokia had the best phones – it got big multiples. Then Blackberry had high multiples. AAPL has iOS, people have music on iTunes, people have pictures and lot of info in the cloud. You want to keep your stuff the same way. Next new phone cant be just 10% better for you to switch to the new phone and that creates a moat for Apple. They also have sales, which are recurring like apps, which is a very high margin business.</li>
</ul>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="https://www.santangelsreview.com/2014/05/23/david-einhorns-comments-at-the-greenlight-re-glre-investor-day-on-may-20th-2014/" target="_blank">Santanglesreview</a></p>
<p></p>
</div>Throwback Thursday Readshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/throwback-thursday-reads2014-04-24T14:59:11.000Z2014-04-24T14:59:11.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><ul>
<li>No shocker here as the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/24/ftc-issues-blistering-rebuke-of-states-limiting-teslas-direct-consumer-sales/" target="_blank">FTC issues a blistering rebuke</a> of states limiting sales of TSLA direct consumer sales.</li>
<li>So much for the peace accord with Russia as they begin military exercises <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304788404579520984220917664-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwNDEyNDQyWj" target="_blank">(WSJ)</a>  Markets will not like this continued uncertainty.  Watch crude oil, gold, silver and copper.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.huntlogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/original-old-apple-logo.jpg"><img class="align-right" src="http://www.huntlogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/original-old-apple-logo.jpg?width=235" width="235" /></a>  You will note that bonds $BND (flight to safe haven) have been holding up.  Not everyone is pouring money into equities.</li>
<li>The first regulation proposals are coming out on <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304788404579520131790105314?mod=trending_now_1" target="_blank">e-cigarettes</a>  $LO currently holds a 42% market share..</li>
<li>Talk about putting <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Gq6fM4vh34hL9sUE0i2pXiRkEVZgOY7NGuuZ9hN4PQE/viewform" target="_blank">cash to work</a>.  AAPL has bought 24 companies in the last 18 months.  Searching for innovation allthewhile announcing an increase to their stock buyback, stock split and quarterly dividend to keep value investors in the name.  Oh, and an earnings beat once again to a low bar set.  Way to go Tim Cook.</li>
<li>The FCC said it will propose rules today that could give high-speed Internet providers more power on what content moves the fastest on the Web based on which firms pay the most.  These <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/23/the-fcc-is-planning-new-net-neutrality-rules-and-they-could-enshrine-pay-for-play/?hpid=z3" target="_blank">net neutrality</a> rules (to be voted on May 15th) could dramatically reshape Web experiences of consumers, where videos for ESPN.com, $FB or YouTube might be delivered more smoothly because of payments to broadband providers such as $CMCSA, $T and $VZ. The streaming videos of a smaller competitor could be halted with buffering and low-quality images if those firms aren't able to pay ISPs access to faster Internet lanes into American homes.  Whatever happened to a level playing field?</li>
</ul>
</div>Daily Readshttp://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/daily-reads-112014-03-24T12:53:52.000Z2014-03-24T12:53:52.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><ul>
<li>AAPL's iPhone6 release expected late Summer, early Fall. <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-iphone-6-launch-seen-late-summer-early-fall-2014-03-24?dist=countdown" target="_blank">Marketwatch</a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290465?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290465?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="375"></a></li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/03/24/44-stocks-on-takeover-target-radar-morgan-stanley/" target="_blank">44 stocks</a> on Morgan Stanley's radar as take over candidates</li>
<li>Yellen's gaffe that wasn't. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101514604" target="_blank">CNBC</a></li>
<li>How airlines are boosting their bottom line amid higher fuel costs; with add-on fees. Click on graphic right to enlarge.</li>
<li>China slaps Nu Skin ($NUS) on the wrist, fining them $500k for misleading consumers. Market was anticipating a much heavier fine and impact on EPS. (<em>booyah! Kos is long) </em> <a href="http://news.asiaone.com/news/business/china-fines-nu-skin-illegal-sales-and-misleading-consumers" target="_blank">AsiaOne</a></li>
<li>AAPL in talks with CMCSA over streaming-tv service. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949704579457554242014552?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303949704579457554242014552.html" target="_blank">WSJ</a></li>
<li>CSCO pledges to invest $1 Billion to build out cloud infrastructure. Better late than never I suppose. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949704579457743067494938?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303949704579457743067494938.html" target="_blank">WSJ Blog</a></li>
<li>Beneath our cities, a tangle of decaying gas pipe. {What to look forward to with Keystone in 50 years} <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/nyregion/beneath-cities-a-decaying-tangle-of-gas-pipes.html?hp&_r=0" target="_blank">NYTimes</a></li>
</ul></div>Is AAPL Still A Growth Stock?http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/is-aapl-a-growth-stock2013-06-15T17:30:00.000Z2013-06-15T17:30:00.000ZStockBuzhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/1t2xbcvddkrir<div><p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t4OEsI0Sc_s?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p></p>
<p>If you've never watched the iPhone release, it's well worth the time. Just six short years ago (January 2007) Apple's Steve Jobs unveiled their first iPhone to a enthusiastic crowd at the Mac World Convention in San Francisco and <strong><em>blew away</em></strong> the phone industry. By June, hundreds stood in lines outside of stores across the nation to get their hands on the hot, new innovative product. Remember them camping out? *lol* People scrambled to save their pennies and <em>begged</em> Mom/Dad to get a piece of the "magic". Here's a quick visual of AAPL's innovation and I realize I'm missing much but bear with me:</p>
<ul>
<li>1984 MacIntosh which changed and <em>challenged</em> the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">entire</span> computer industry.</li>
<li>2001 iPod transformed the music industry. My own kids had one iPod after another. As soon as a new one was announced, I knew what to add to their birthday/Christmas list.</li>
<li>2010 The iPhone <strong>which transformed phones</strong> (in my opinion). This was the biggie which took an ipod style phone <em>without</em> keyboard buttons or stylus and added touch screen technology from the ipod touch and incorporated it into a phone/first-ever scrolling and tap ability/Camera/a SMS internet communicator running OS10 which synched to your desktop, music, office, video, email, etc. and switched seemlessly to Wifi, maps (and much more)............ALL rolled into one.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>Fast forward to 2013. We've seen improvements <a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290251?profile=original"><img class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1290251?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="226"></a>(dare I mention Apple Maps?), pixels increase, retina display, etc. but <em>industry changing</em>? Not in my mind. iWatch or iTV coming? Meh. Yes, sales continue worldwide and in emerging markets as more users find the ability to afford such expensive devices however, show me how they're going to transform how we live, work, eat and interact each day and I'll get on board. Unfortunately we're not seeing or hearing anything to that effect. Just a new "toy" at this point (to me). </p>
<p>In fact in 2013, in terms of global internet usage, Samsung climbed ahead of Nokia to take second place behind Apple on a worldwide basis according to <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/press/apple-and-samsung-displace-nokia-worldwide-for-first-time-in-terms-of-internet-usage" target="_blank">StatCounter</a>. Another reason to wonder if AAPL's ability to innovate and draw users is waning.</p>
<p>Of course AAPL says they're still innovative but I truly beg to differ and I believe the stock's movement reflects the concern of investors. It's become more of a value play in my mind. What do you think? Now I'm certainly not saying AAPL isn't a great company. Of course it is. But a growth story? Anyone standing in long lines anymore? Not this chick.</p>
<p>Sources: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/07/apple-iphone-analysts-estimates/" target="_blank">TechFortune</a> <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/" target="_blank">MacRumors</a> <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/press/apple-and-samsung-displace-nokia-worldwide-for-first-time-in-terms-of-internet-usage" target="_blank">StatCounter</a></p>
<p><em>Edited 6/16/13 to add Stat Counter data</em></p>
<p></p></div>E-Tablets/Slates/Readers will replace textbooks in Schooling...But Hologram Projector Home Schooling in Future is Next Leap!http://stockbuz.ning.com/articles/etabletsslatesreaders-will2010-01-08T09:30:00.000Z2010-01-08T09:30:00.000ZSteve Goffhttp://stockbuz.ning.com/members/SteveGoff<div><p>I see education in the future being done exclusively in the home Via the Web and Biometric ID or as I like to call em the "digital truancy officers." Also consisting of virtual hologram technology. Both on the lower and higher levels meaning pre-k on up to collegiate. Not only driven by advancements in technology, but combined with the vast data resources/info present NOW that would allow us to do so. And for sure within 10 years time. It's a shame that MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's XO-Laptop or the "$100 Laptop for Every Child in the World Program" was just a little early. But not wasted nor in vain. Yet one of the Bush Family members is capitalising on the revamping of the computer aided education system not only in this country, but in the bombed out countries we invaded and destroyed their school systems in. A story for another time. The power that be were just too stacked against it along with where we were development and market release wise.. Also with the added catalyst of the never ending cost cutting of services by individual States/Govts. Thus to close budget gaps in the coming years in this country. Due to tax revenues falling precipitously, will also help nudge this along. We now find ourselves in an unsustainable and failing by increasing word standards wise USA schooling system. I am in my late 30's and consider myself fortunate to go through our nations school system, in what I consider it's Golden Hayday. We wrapped the issued schoolbooks in brown shopping-bags to protect them and dubbed them a canvas to decorate with self expression throughout the year....lol...Now your screen saver on you new State issued E-Tablet will do the same, yes?My time was right before the computer age hit mainstream, pre cellphone, and before the World went and got in a big damn hurry. We have come further technology wise in last 70 years the we have in our whole human existence. We just went from the rotary phone to the iPhone in no time flat. Exponential growth with avarice profit seeking sprinkle/dash is recipe' for that soup of the day. A few years ago Sir Elton John said we should consider shutting down the Internet for 5 years, He was mocked and shunned for that comment. But he might have been on to something....yes? And school violence was a non issue back then. Just a more innocent time in America I think. People still talked and did things. I have a whole nother rant on how technology has de-socialized us as a species, but only temporarily, until it fuels an explosion into higher intelligence and way of life for us. Just look at what translation software has done to allow us to globally communicate and transact with other foreign cultures and societies. The language barrier is no longer an issue.I also had great teachers not only in school but all through life's trials (sometimes criminal...I was bad boy at one time) and tribulations. As an adult and more enlightened, for sure humbled and educated, I realized that teachers were truly the most underpaid profession in America. Teachers and lawyers should switch salaries if up to me. Based upon their importance in our social species evolution up to this point. They should've been rewarded or compensated more so for being at the end of proverbial rope in the grand plan. When you think about it. Teachers as we know them now, are in an obsolete stage of existence or daily being. They're in a profession that wil be downsizing significantly in numbers in near future. Or as like to say. Going way of the 8 track tape!. I always joked when folks asked me my education level and credentials and I replied "I have a PhD from School of Hard Knocks and a Double Doctorate from Google University...like we all will have in future" And will put my brain pan up against most walking down street. Of coarse the transition will be rocky for social reasons also into public home schooling. Like children loosing out on the social growth aspect that attending school offers in adolescence molded clay stage we all once were. From a bully issue to a pimple on class photo day. That process has been our normal for some time, it's all we know. It will be rocky transition like I said. And it is also dangerous from an Orwellian standpoint with regards to children being teached a single State approved curriculum by who really knows who, that might be tainted by agenda or motive or indoctrination. Or just something you have no interest bestowing on your child either for moral or personal religious beliefs. I am of the holistic education mind set by the way. California I believe is already taking a step/nudging here by making it illegal to home school you own child if you do not have teaching credentials from an accredited institution. Thus forcing you to make your children listen to something or mingle with sorts you don't want them to. Universal home schooling solves many problems from money needed to run an unsustainable and failing by increasing word standards wise USA schooling system to programming future generations with a certain mindset or lack there of .... for oppression reasons. How are they going to make sure the kids are the ones an are at computers taking the lessons...national I.D. cards or chips and biometrics ID at first and proximity sensors to readers/computers. You will have a little box the size of cigarette box or morphed into instrument already(I dont have crystal ball ya know...lol).... plugs into computer and when school time starts ....out pops the little hologram teacher/instructor. Right out of Star Wars..R2D2 style...lol..Sounds trippy...I know...Ya see what they're doing?....One way or another they will get your kids to listen to their propaganda/agenda that is code named: Approved State Curriculum.....So much for holistic education eh?....This move to virtual classrooms per se.... will be a rocky transition said once again...But if they can convince or should I say pass a law to make ya give your kid a non tested over time and in conjunction with all the additive in foods such as steroids n antibiotics flu vaccine shot ....then they can get ya to do ANYTHING!</p>
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