Monthly Archive for November, 2011

The Personal Computer Is Dead

Published on November 30, 2011 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Power is fast shifting from end users and software developers to operating system vendors.

The PC is dead. Rising numbers of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric devices don’t merely represent a change in form factor. Rather, we’re seeing an unprecedented shift of power from end users and software developers on the one hand, to operating system vendors on the other—and even those who keep their PCs are being swept along. This is a little for the better, and much for the worse [Source].

The transformation is one from product to service. The platforms we used to purchase every few years—like operating systems—have become ongoing relationships with vendors, both for end users and software developers. Jonathan Zittrain wrote about this impending shift, driven by a desire for better security and more convenience, in my 2008 book The Future of the Internet—and How to Stop It.

BRICs at 10

Published on November 30, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So, was he right? Ten years ago Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs looked at four growth economies – Brazil, China, India and Russia – put their first letters into an acronym, and the Brics (as a concept) were born.

So how have they fared? What if you invested in the Brics ten years ago – where would you be now? Chart of the week finds out. There are a myriad of ways of looking at this, but beyondbrics is going to be hard-headed and stick to equities and GDP.

A quick look at the MSCI indices for the four Brics since 2001 shows that they have comfortably outperformed the S&P 500. If you invested $100 at the time of O’Neill’s report in November 2001 in each of the four Brics, you would now have $674 from Brazil, $451 from China, $459 from India and $414 from Russia. Your 100 S&P bucks? Worth $112 [Read more].

Hong Kong: still the great mall of China

Published on November 30, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Is Hong Kong losing its allure as a launching pad for foreign brands looking to tap into the Chinese market?
The decision by Gap to set up shops in Shanghai and Beijing in 2010 before making its debut in Hong Kong last week certainly seems to suggest that some foreign businesses have no qualms about bypassing Hong Kong and taking a more direct route into the mainland’s estimated $2,100bn retail market.

There are obvious reasons why brands would jump straight into the mainland. Apart from the sheer size of the market, mainland China’s top cities increasingly offer high-quality shopping centres and department stores where western brands feel at home.

Meanwhile, the cost of doing business in Hong Kong could be prohibitive. Retail rent is now the second-highest in the world and fast-approaching levels charged on Fifth Avenue [Source].

Protect And Attack: Lenovo’s New Strategy

Published on November 18, 2011 in Emerging Markets and Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Once an unlikely rival for HP and Apple, Chinese computer maker Lenovo has grown and adapted as quickly as its homeland. Now, with a savvy blend of East and West, it’s poised to be China’s first global brand.

Lenovo is a company the likes of which we’ve never seen. It is a product of Communist China (the government still owns 36% of its parent, Legend Holdings); it is heavily influenced by the democratized West; it boasts an international workforce of 27,000 employees and customers in more than 160 countries.

“This is Lenovo’s moment,” says Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing, 47, a former salesman who once delivered computers by bicycle and is now China’s highest-paid chief executive. (His 2011 salary: $12 million.) Yang calls Lenovo’s strategy “protect and attack,” three words you hear repeatedly at the company’s headquarters in Beijing and its offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Yang spends a third of his time.

Lenovo seeks to protect its core business–the China and enterprise (large-scale commercial and public-sector) markets, which generated about 70% of its $21 billion in revenue last year. On the attack side, he’s pumping Lenovo’s profits–$273 million in 2010–into emerging markets, new product categories (tablets, smartphones, smart TVs), and, of course, the U.S [Source].

What Is Sony Now?

Published on November 18, 2011 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

At 69, Sir Howard Stringer’s time as CEO of the unwieldy electronics giant is running out. Can he and heir apparent Kazuo Hirai turn it around?

Sony has been trying to adapt to the Internet Age for at least a decade, yet remains a gargantuan and unwieldy manufacturer, with 168,200 employees, 41 factories, and more than 2,000 products from headphones to medical printers to Hollywood-grade 3D movie production equipment [Source].

Consumers should expect to hear more about Sony Entertainment Network, the company’s most ambitious effort yet to connect all of its devices with all of its content. In addition to movies and music delivered through the disaggregated magic of the cloud, Hirai, who’s overseeing the project, is pushing his team to create additional services and exclusive content. That could include everything from Sony-produced TV shows to extended scenes from movies such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Arthur Christmas.

“The plan is to bring everything under the Sony Entertainment Network umbrella,”

Hirai says, including the PlayStation Network and its 45 million unique users. He adds that only now has hardware become powerful enough to deliver Sony content across all four screens of TVs, smartphones, tablets, and computers [Source].

Russian internet biggest in Europe; will earnings follow?

Published on November 14, 2011 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The moment Mail.ru and Yandex investors have been waiting for has arrived: Russia, at long last, has finally surpassed Germany to become the largest internet market in Europe.

According to comScore, the research firm, Russia had 50.8m internet users in September versus 50.1m users in Germany. And, luckily for those who bought into Russian internet stocks such as Mail.ru and Yandex at sky-high valuations, the market still has a lot of growth left.

With broadband penetration set to reach 60m people in Russia this year – a third of the population – there is still a large swath of the country where the internet revolution has yet to take hold [Source].

HTC’s Anti-Apple Strategy Wins U.S. Market

Published on November 10, 2011 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

HTC has become the top seller of smartphones in the U.S. with a strategy that’s precisely the opposite of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s. Where Apple is secretive, HTC is open. Where Apple is exclusive, HTC works with all carriers. Where Apple is proprietary, HTC is collaborative. Where Apple customizes for no one, HTC customizes for everyone. It’s the anti-Apple and, so far, it has worked.

By quickly incorporating the latest technologies and customizing phones for customers, Chou has forged ties to more than 100 wireless operators on six continents. The company has climbed to the No. 4 position in smartphones globally, behind Samsung, Apple and Nokia.

The question is whether HTC can stay on top. Chou has benefited as people trade in traditional phones, used primarily for voice calls and texting, for smartphones, which can download apps and surf the Web. Carriers scrambling to keep up with demand such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint turned to HTC for smartphones that use Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software during the almost four years AT&T had exclusive U.S. rights to the iPhone [Source].

Indonesia is next for Asset Managers

Published on November 7, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co., South Korea’s second-largest money manager, is considering an acquisition of an Indonesian asset-management company to tap rising affluence in the Southeast Asian nation.

Mirae Asset Global Investment is betting on higher income levels in Indonesia, whose middle class grew by 62 percent from 2003 to 2010, according to World Bank estimates.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are considering buying brokerages in Indonesia, two people with knowledge of the matter said in September, while South Korea’s Hyundai Securities Co. also said last month it’s considering an acquisition of a brokerage.

The International Monetary Fund predicts Indonesia’s economy, Southeast Asia’s biggest, will expand between 6 percent and 6.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, according to a statement on Oct. 21. Indonesian gross domestic product gained 6.49 percent in the second quarter, compared with growth of 4 percent in neighboring Malaysia and 2.6 percent in Thailand. [Source].

Buffett Broadens Portfolio by Spending $23.9B In Quarter

Published on November 7, 2011 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $23.9 billion in the third quarter, the most in at least 15 years, as he accelerated stock purchases and broadened the portfolio beyond consumer and financial-company holdings.

Buffett, 81, drew down Berkshire’s cash as Europe’s debt crisis and Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. pushed stocks to their worst quarterly performance since 2008. The investments disclosed Nov. 4 include $6.9 billion of equities, $5 billion for preferred shares and warrants in Bank of America Corp. and the acquisition of Lubrizol Corp. for about $9 billion [Source].