Financial and Investment News

The Apple corporation has sold some eight million iPhones and it looks very much like they may achieve this landmark they have set for themselves, which is ten million by the end of the year. With a few more months to go it seems indeed together possible that they will make their goal of 10 million sold much earlier than expected even as early as September. There are 2 groups who have been watching this activity very closely, the Observers’s Apple Finance Board and Investors Villiage AAPL Sanity. Additional iPhone news can be found at the  Trivalley Technology Blog

 The members of these boards have been tracking the sales of these mobile phones and recording them on a large Google spreadsheet which may be found on the web. They are able to do this by using the International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers of the iPhones which have already been sold. These sales include the Apple 3G iPhone, with about 5,649,000 manufactured and 2.4 million first generation iPhones. Figures like this show that the Apple Corporation has produced well over eight million iPhones this year so far in the current year. That is pretty impressive and shows the power of their brand in particular. This and the complied spreadsheet have iPhone watchers excited that the technology giant will make its goal of ten million of their phones sold before the beginning of  next year. In other related news, Apple has launched it’s product in some twenty nations around the world. In this summer’s second rollout of the iPhone 3G, Apple introduced the smart phone in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Greece as well as certain other countries. All the while, that other giant AT&T has been shunting what phones it had to customers who placed direct fulfillment orders, which required them to go to a store, place an order and pay for the iPhone. When it arrived — sometimes as many as 14 days later — AT&T called the customer, who then had to return to the store.

Have you ever read the book ’The Sovereign Individual’?
For a very long time I had wished to read it since best-selling writer Robert Kiyosaki had listed it as informative read in one of his own books. One of the authors was Lord Reese-Mogg, a Briton who specializes in global strategic investments plus predictions
with regards to how to invest now with various trends in mind. He makes the point that there tends to be a major shift every 500 years or so in Western civilization.
For example, the year 1492 marks the official beginning of the industrial age, thus ending the feudal age, according to many historians. Some 500 years later, in 1992, the world wide web went wide, marking the beginning of the information age and the end of the industrial age.
According to Mogg, this shift will be more pronounced even than the shift to the agrarian or industrial age. This is because microprocessing will have a more fundamnetal impact on human society in it’s entirety, over time. He says that by the year 2045 or thereabout the world will look much different than
it does today, as many industrial age institutions either fade away or are severely modified. The impact of all this is debatable, but Mogg says big changes are inevitable. Just as the changes made from the invention of the printing press during the industrial age could not really be stopped once the genie was out of the bottle,
so too will the changes from microprocessing and a wireless world be. It is already happening, of course. Mogg and his co-author made the fascinating point that, during the beginning stages of these types of great shifts, those on the cusp (as we are now and the Europeans of 1492 were) rarely know what is happening,or just how dramatic the shift is going be.
At the time the first printing press was invented, for instance, the church had a virtual monopoly on printing and binding books, including the Holy Bible.  Few people really understood at the time the full ramifications of this invention in not only ushering in the end of the dominance by the church but also the positive impact
of having books available for the first time to the masses.  By the the late eighteenth century the standard of living of the advanced industrial nations went up tremendously. For the first time ever unskilled workers could move to urban areas and earn a wage far above the normal subsistance level so common in the agrarian or fuedal era.. Suddenly, however, the unskilled workers could go to a factory and earn a wage above the subsistence level, introducing true upward mobility. Huge quantities of relatively cheap manufactered merchandise became available. General wealth prosperity and an increased standard of living followed thereafter.
Now we are at the starting point of a similar era, except that instead of the german-invented printing press we have microprocessing and the American invented information superhighway. The overall ramifications of this shift will indeed be indeed enormous,  particularly as the cost of wireless networks continues to drop globally.
In the future, certain entrepreneurs will get richer at ever younger age. You may even see some that go on to become billionarre’s by the time they are in their early twenties.
Is there anything to be wary of in this new information driven economy? Well we have to be beware of mega-mergers perhaps more than ever. If we get to a point where, say, ninety percent of all purchases are made online, and the big search portals then merge, it
will be easier than ever for the big companies to monopolize the marketplace, since most people tend to find things via a handful of search engines now.
A merger of Google and Yahoo for instance, would be very bad for the consumer. Having almost 90 percent of all searches go thru one source (which would be the case if they merged) would be a real stranglehold on the buying public. You could eventually see bribery by deep pocket companies to get the top spots in the organic search results so the blue chip biggies could have a monopoly on the big retail and wholesale terms, much like they do now to a de fact degree in the brick and mortor retail world.
I mean just look at how the big boys have knocked out many mom and pop coffee shops and retail stores in recent years, some using blatantly unfair practices. So as consumers we should all be on gaurd against such abuses in cyberspace and especially the search engines, where a few  people on top could filter the results in a way that benefits a few corporate players at the top. How should you deal with these changes? I suggest you find a good information age home business, such as Trilogy International and get to work

Here is the latest news regarding the iPod, the iPhone ansd also the Apple Corporation. Thanks for reading and also thanks for bearing with me during the re-building and re-designing of the blog!

 In a recent new release the Apple Corporation has added to their popular iPod Touch and also the iPhone to enhance the pleasure of using both of these appliances. One that many iPod users have waited for, they company has added to the appeal of these by giving the iPhone 16 gigabyte capacity and the Apple iPod Touch has been upgraded to a 32 gigabyte capacity, giving the Touch twice the space that it currently has in the iPod Touch.

  This space will hold more of the iTunes music and now the movies that they will carry and in a statement by the Apple vice president; Greg Joswiak said sometimes there is never enough memory for some people to store their music, movies and photos.

  This updated iPod Touch and the iPhone will go on sale immediately in stores and both will be priced at the same amount.

  While this upgrade has given the iPod Touch more room, it is still behind the iPod Classic in terms of storage, which is an important feature with not only music and photos but video and movies that some may start to download, or television shows that will also be available on iTunes.

I really have to hand it to Apple, they are constantly improving and otherwse modifying their products. In related news, it was reported in the MacWorld online magazine that added applications which already appeared on the iPhone along with other new features delivered some confusion among iPod touch owners who wondered why they were being charged $19.99 for a software update, but as it tuens out, Apple had no control over the rpicing, according to the article.It turns out Apple didn’t have much of a choice about charging for the iPod.

It appears that the vaunted Apple Corporation might be mulling taking their iPod line to the next level.

   There has been some rumors circulating all over the world wide web concerning iPod owners being able to have digital downloads of films available to them.

  This appears to be in negotiations of some sort with Apple and the various film studios, to make digital copies of films which will be compatible with the Apple iPods to download. A deal such as this could make using an iPod a whole new experience for the individual iPod owner.

   This will also be found at iTunes for downloads or as a feature on DVD’s when placed in a PC there will be a place on theDVD menu that will tell the viewer what version of iTunes needs to be loaded in order to watch the iPod version of the movie and a serial number that will need to be used to access the digital download at iTunes.

   Having a feature like this will change the use of iPods for some owners who will be able to view the latest movies that are available to download, along with listening to music of all genres.  Meanwhile, in

related news, the overall numbers are in from this past November in the radio industry and they are down from November of 2006 by six percent.

According to the Press Release news Wire,  the Maxell Corp has
retooled its entire line of iPod accessories, such as portable
entertainment & connector-compatible gadgets, giving buyers a little bit more practicality
in the applications.  New packaging updates include the
Blow-Away Guy icon to form a more visible, eye-catching
presence on the retail shelves. As it stands now, the
Maxell firms’ portable accessories include such items as FM transmitters,
headphone splitters, speakers, power adapters & even various protective
casings which have been updated for enhanced buyer appeal. Their
Back-Up Battery Pack for MP3 as well as iPods is
now much more sleek in general.  A USB slot has also now augments the P-2 2G so
consumers may hook-up any item which connects with a USB cord.  The P-3 2G Universal Charging Dock &
P-3A 2G Universal Charging Dock with Remote Control now has an adjustable
dock support to fit all different size iPods, taking away the requirement for variable-sized
trays, and a standard AC adapter to permit owners the complete liberty of recharging
their iPod without a pc which is a huge plus for many individuals, to be certain.
They also have the P-4 Digital FM Transmitter, P-5A Digital FM Transmitter with Auto
Adapter, P-6 Headphone Splitter, P-8B Digital Ear Buds and P-18 Portable
Speakers which likewise got makeovers to alter the look of these particular items.
And for the specificic Pod buyer who wishes to protect their player from the elements,
 the firm has added some brand new styles to its line-up of skin cases with
the new P-20B skin cases for iPod nano third rd generation and new P-33 skin
case for iPod touch.  The P-20B features the same shock-absorbing, durable
design of the P-20, but now with a 4-pack variety of sleek colors - clear,
black, blue and pink (new).  For on-the-go use, the P-20B Skins are also
conveniently equipped with a neck strap and belt loop. In addition, their
P-33 skin case for the iPod touch is now being made available in black and even comes complete
with invisible cling-film screen shields.

To launch the the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the firm unveiled Rolly, an MP3 player and also robot. This palm-sized, egg-shaped media gadget moves its “arms”, “shoulders”, and wheels to the beat,
 all while flashing an array of lights. Apparently it can show some seven hundred colors, according to the firm. As it stands now, Rolly features some two Gbytes of flash memory, which will store about 520 128-Kbit/s MP3s files.
In addition, it supports AAC files, which is pretty cool. It is evident that while the Sony Corporation is not giving up entirely on the revival of its Walkman product line, this is evidence of Apple’s supremacy of the portable media player market segment.
As it stands now, The 2 systems act as charging speaker docks for iPods and likewise feature aux inputs
for computers plus additional audio players (and remote controls, for that matter). The CMT-BX20i has a single disc CD player and supports the AIFF CDs and MP3 CDs, and will read ID3 tags and display them on. In addition, it comes with a very handy thirty station
 AM/FM tuner and will be available to buyers in about a month. All in all,  the EC series has 3 distict speaker systems titlting towards the iPod—the MHC-EC98Pi, the MHC-EC78Pi, and the MHC-EC68Pi. The first 2 will be available in about five months or so and the the other will be on shelves in 4 months.
All of the systems have CD players, AM/FM tuners, plus built-in iPod docks, “Digital Media Ports” for connecting additional music such as the Walkman or perhaps some kind of Bluetooth-enabled gadget, for example. A pretty nice mix overall if you ask my opinion. besides the
iPod dock systems is the LBT-ZUX9, a segment of the Muteki product line. Supposed to fill a party with sound due to it’s very high wattage output, it also has a 3-disc changer which plays both AIFF CDs and even a dual cassette deck. In addition to all of this, it is capable of recording to a USB flash drive,
so that you may store your old cassettes as MP3s.
Rolly features Bluetooth for streaming audio from a compatible PC or phone, and the firm says the 2 built in speakers pack a big punch. It will apparently be available in the spring.

In other gadget and technology company related news, Pioneer has produced a multitasking navigation & entertainment system which will permit voice control of iPods as well as Bluetooth-enabled cellular phones.

The AVIC-F500BT aggregates all the things we take with us and also seeks to control them all by changing the existing in-car system as opposed to mandating a complete
changing out of the standard audio. It may be installed through an auxiliary audio input or using an installation module from Pioneer to become a major center for all personal audio and communication gadgets.
The wonderful thing about this of course is the voice control aspect of it.

the Apple Corporation has secured over seventy percent of the market share for MP3 players. That is respectable and impressive by any standard, if you ask me.
What is perhaps less well known, is the ratio of Apple’s investment in the iPod platform relative to its return. In the last 3 and half years or so, the Apple Corporation has added
only a single solitary item to it’s iPod stable, the iPod touch, making some 4 pieces of in all. In that time span, the catalog of
 available content has increased amazingly six-fold, to over four million items, rather staggeringly.
Meanwhile, the quantity of iPod accessories has increased tenfold, to some three thousand or so. The firm then collects fees for the vast majority of those accessories, with 3rd-party vendors
 and various producers paying to add the “Made for iPod” logo to a package or perhaps a fee to use the proprietary Apple connector. We should all be so lucky.
But I guess really a lot of it is skill and some strong business sense thrown in as well for good measure. As it tuens out,
quite a few firms have attempted to duplicate their methods by copying at the product level and placing an emphasis the design of the object itself.
But all of this effort has been largely for nothing as the underlying business strategy and structure as well as system is very difficult to properly
copy. The Sony Corporation, for instance, even with a strong brand. cutting edge product platforms such as the portable transistor radio laid the groundwork for the current era.
But they have not really transformed and morphed that success to this century, at least not yet.  All of this time they have released a rather frantic spectrum of digital cameras which
recorded on all different sorts of media such as DVDs yet now has merely 3 lines to show for the effort. The Apple Corporation
Apple ended its fiscal year on September 30, 2007, with a net margin of almost fifteen percent. To succeed on this level, firms should recognize the consumer whom they are targeting.
Apple knows that it can’t have everyone as its customer. But it is nonetheless ready and willing to eliminate some sections by emphasizing a strong core of individuals which are known as Cultural Creatives.
 These are folks who wait hours in line for the latest iPod or MacBook. With this in mind,
design is used for meaningful experiences which are authentic to the brand. It is not about paring product lines or simple creating making cool stuff. Done well, design can add value to the bottom line.
Design done right goes well  beyond the appearance and behavior of the object itself. It takes the entire product ecosystem into consideration.

iLuv has Launched the Combo iPod Dock-DVD Player….The i1255 is called a “desktop iPod/DVD player” by the firm, and it outputs 5.1 audio from its thin-frame dock. The DVD player also plays CDs, MP3 CDs plus JPEG and Kodak picture CDs.
 It is apparently entirely compatible with the latest generation of iPods released in September. There are no speakers in the mix here, so buyers would do well to think of this as a DVD player which just so
happens to have an iPod dock integrated within it. This item will be available within a few months at the latest, according to the article. It sounds pretty cool to me! Meanwhile,
The i399, which will be available in the current month, is basically a Bluetooth-enabled speaker dock for iPods. Using the “BluePin II”, a detachable Bluetooth transmitter (which is in fact included in the item),
 users can actually stream music. As a sidenote, it includes cool speakerphone capabilities for incoming as well as outgoing phone calls.
Furthermore, it features a blue LED which flashes to the beat of the music—which, while pretty cool, is admittedly not particularly functional but primarily for aesthetics. It
appears that iLuv might have ironed out some of the bizarre details which hindered the earlier model.

 from an iPod docked in the i399 to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, or send music from, let’s say, from a Bluetooth phone to the i399’s speakers

According to an awesome article by Peter Cohen from the ‘MacWorld’ online news resource,
it was reported that the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies division is currently planning to leave
 the one inch hard disk drive market, and furthermore believes that there will be substantially diminishing demand for the 1.8-inch hard drives used in devices such as, perhaps
most famously, the iPod classic. The corporation states the various flash memory storage-based gadgets are basically filling up that particular niche, and also stated that it will make it’s primary focus on various computer drives instead.
Further, they statedfor the record to Macworld (as reported on their excellent site) that the one inch and 1.8-inch hard drive markets are essentially tiny businesses as compared to the hard drive market as a whole. Well,
it certainly sounds as if the firm did it’s research and due diligence in this regard. They have a reputation for being thorough in this area. On the
whole, this information was initially reported last week by the Japanese business media giant ‘Nikkei Business Daily’. This respected publication likewise stated that the Fujitsu Corporation has basically trashed their plans to go into this relatively tiny
 market. So who recieves the “leftovers” now that these big players have left the field? Well, it has been essentially taken by both the Toshiba and Samsung corporations, respectively, which offer products all the way up to 160GB,
which is also the same size as what is used inside the Apple Corporations’ bigger-capacity iPod classic (the smaller iPod classic has an 80GB drive, by the way).
For their part, they do not identify the producers of the various components used in the iPod.
Meanwhile, the other iPod models use flash memory to store files as, essentially, a replacement for hard disk drives. But the real question
for most industry analysts is why has this particular market shrunk or is currently shrinking? Apparently, it is because,
of alterations and modifactions with regards to consumer electronics requirements. You see,
the single inch drives were initially thought of as alternatives to Compact Flash media, yet flash drive capacities now essentially outstrip the capacity of the one-inch drives.
 And the rather gentle design of tiny hard drives is simply not a real match for the durability of flash storage, generally speaking.
Historically speaking, the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies entity was formed back in 2003 when the Hitachi Corporation joined their own operations with that of the other giant, the International Business machines Corporation,
commonly referred to as IBM. The left the storage market totally just 2 years after that. This firms products include many of the two and a half inch hard disk drives used in laptop computers. As stated earlier, they will continue to focus on that market instead

You are not the only one who loves all those cool gadgets you see so much of,
especially during this time of year. Technology companies also really love them.
After all, they are like jet fuel for sales in this sector of the economy.
And investors adore them as well. This is because even as
 the real estate crises, dismal global trade deficit reports and ever-increasing fuel prices have put much of Wall Street in a cranky mood,
 many investors are still finding plenty of profits in technology stocks, which is an area that the United States leads the world in. The
Apple Corporation, Nokia and and Research In Motion are just a few of the companies which are profiting handsomely from the gadget boom.
In addition to these industry giants, the  standard bearer IBM, mega corporation Oracle plus virtualization software pioneer VMware are reaping rich dividends
thanks to the gadget driven consumer spending. As an example, Thomson financial has stated that Technology companies which grace the S&P 500 are predicted to outperform
all the other sectors in the 4th quarter of the year. Pretty impressive and also a godsend for an otherwise embattled economy. of course, each company is affected by
slightly different factors at work here. The Apple Corporation, for example, is benefiting greatly from 2 sweeping items in particular: strong notebook sales plus a thriving wireless market,
courtesy of the iPhone.
 In fact sales are anticipated to grow by just under a third in Apple’s current year to over thirty-one billion! Likewise,
Hewlett-Packard has capitalized on the strong laptop computer demand. In fact their 4th quarter notebook sales have leaped by nearly fifty percent!
 And Personal Computer sales in China, which is currently theor third largest market overall, doubled in the fourth quarter.
 Furthermore, the Microchip leader, the Intel corporation, produces over eighty percent of the processors which power these machines.
There has been good reason for investors to be optimistic, as everything seems to be falling into place for these particular companies.
For instance, the BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, which many finacial and stock market experts had predicted could be victimized by the iPhone,
 is nonetheless up by around a staggering one hundred and seventy percent thus far this year. It has risen by eighty percent in the last 2 months alone, when it mapped out it’s plans
to start selling product in China. This month, the company has yet again issued earnings guidance which has substantially topped the experts’ estimates. It has just been
an incredible run to be sure. So what will the future hold? Can the good time continue forever? You know the answer to that but
the investment bank predicts twenty percent growth for notebooks verses a mere three percent growth for desktop Personal computers.