Great results at Amazon

Was surprising to finally hear about a company which actually posted great results. And no, it was not Nintendo, which doesnt seem recession proof but Amazon which had their best holiday season.
That is saying something in the current environment

Nvidia Ion and Apple partnering

I saw a very interesting article today about Apple planning to use the superhot Nvidio ion platform. Rumours are afloat on what this will be used for with some stating that this will be used for Apple's mini line of notebooks to compete with Netbooks. Others state that this will be used in Apple TV. If it is for the former, then it will be welcome news for Apple fans, as the share of Apple is going down in the notebooks market

Another bad day at Wall street

Today, was amazed to see stock prices for State Street drop by 52%. that's right 52% in a day of trading.
This was after they announced slightly better than expected earnings for the recent quarter but mentioned that they faced 5.5 bn in unrealized losses.
This kind of had a ripple effect and the now familiar dip in Dow Jones went into overdrive. Am wishing for some days without of these dips.

Circuit City liquidating

Its finally official. What we have been expecting for the past 6-8 months. Circuit city has announced that it will be liquidating all of its US stores. Well, i guess this is another major blow for shoppers who still like to look and see things in reality before buying. I guess Best Buy literally has no competitors now.
Some terrible decisions taken over the past few years at Circuit city are now coming back to haunt them. Interstingly, this may be a good time to get some cool stuff at great prices(as long as you dont have return them for whatever reason).

Steve Jobs- Why is he so important

I was reading today the news about Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence because of his health issues being more serious than initially thought. Subsequently Apple stock prices were driven down and closed substantially lower at the end of the day. This led me to think as to why Steve Jobs is so important for Apple. In quite a few cases, the stepping down of the founder of a company actually helps the stock improve. This is because analysts frequently believe that a founder is good during the formative cycle of a company but his/her value deteriorates as the company becomes bigger and more comples. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have bucked this trend famously, Jobs probably even more so than Gates. Few reasons why i think he is so important to Apple
- he has been famously be able to use new technology to create devices which are usable to the normal consumer segment - Macintosh, Ipod, Itunes etc
- he has been associated with not one but two famous comings for Apple. I firmly believe that his return and turn around of Apple in the early part of the century was what built his legend. Its always easier for thought leaders to come up with a new idea once and build an empire around it but to demonstrate it multiple times has what has caught the imagination of the world
- Finally, i also think that Jobs has for various reasons, never really built up a replacement. Bill Gates had a very well known Ballmer to replace him without the market feeling the difference. Jobs has never built anyone up, so much so that his replacement for the keynote address in Macworld got people wondering "Phil Who

Citigroup troubles

An article today on forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/home/2009/01/11/banking-citigroup-pandit-biz-wall-cx_lm_0112citi.html) regarding how the era of this superbank could possibly be coming to an end. With losses close to 20 Bn and expected losses of 4 Bn this quarter, the bank is at a financial low. Additionally, the investment banking division which drove most of the profits earlier has all but disappeared. Now citi is reportedly considering selling off some of its divisions like Smith Barney, its retail brokerage operation and one of the divisions that was actually making money over the past few quarters

Hope Citi survives. We dont want another piece of bad news in this economic condition

Detroit Auto Show

The auto mapanies continued to blitz the market with new models at the Detroit auto show but the show doesnt seem to be attracting the same consumer attention. GM led the way announcing 2 cdross over vehicles and a sedan but there is hardly any enthusiasm drummed up for any automaker.
Seems like the tough road ahead grows even more daunting for the auto companies

New LG Watchphone!

LG unveiled a new watch today at CES today. So whats different? Its also a fully loaded cellphone. The clarity on the phone seems astonishing and supports touch screen. the impressive thing is that it is not necessary to use a stylus to key in numbers and stuff. Its also loaded with all major features like bluetooth connectivity, voice recognition, voice to text etc etc.

One of the most impressive things to come out so far in CES for sure

Macworld 2009 lacklustre

Macworld 2009 seems to have been a lacklustre affair. After having Phil Schiller deliver the keynote address instead of Steve Jobs, Apple hasnt created the kind of waves it normally does in this event. The only exciting thing for me to come out of it seems to be the Ilife suite. The face recognition technology to assist in order photos seems like a pretty cool feature
With Apple pulling out of the event from next year, wonder what kind of interest the event will generate going forward. I am looking forward to CES 2009 from tomorrow

Bleak day at Wall Street Again!

Pretty bad day again on Wall Street today with the index falling on news of bleak forecasts from Alcoa, Intel and Time Warner. Add to that the evidence on rising unemployment and the news on Satyam.

Seems like all the Wall Street gains in the new year have been wiped out in a day again.

Blue Ray Future

An article on new york times today discussing the fuzzy future of Blue ray format. This time last year, it seemed like the format wars had been finally settled with HD-DVD dropping out, but the increase of high definition content online and the upcoming release of internet ready television by LG point to the fact that the blue ray revolution window may not be very long.
Doesnt matter for people like me though. I cant get enough of watching the new blue ray releases on my Sony BDP. The internet revolution for HD can take its time coming.

Graying of the presidents

A very amusing read on why presidents seem to age much faster during their time in office on Yahoo. I must say that i agree with the article, particularly after seeing their photos from the first to last year in office, also included in the article. After the last prolonged election cycle, i think one should also add the election cycle to the actual term as an accelerant to the aging process.

What companies need to do in 2009

Dr Saj-nicole Joni , Chief Executive of Cambridge International group writes in Forbes that the approach to hunker down and just weather the economic storm is not a tactic that may work for most companies. An interesting laydown of a few things which companies must do to be prepared as well as provide the impetus for the upturn when it comes. An interesting side comment in the article about how the internet is also shaping and extending memory of all stakeholders.

Four Technologies of the future auto industry

Saw this Op-ed on NY times on four technologies that could lead to the next way of auto innovation to lift the auto industry

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/03/opinion/20090103_opedthrun.ready.html?hp

Interesting read
Vijay

What Billionaires think will happen in 2009

Saw this interesting post (http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/12/24/billionaires-wealth-economy-biz-billies-cx_co_1226billieoutlook.html) last week at forbes regarding what the some of the top billionaires in the world think of the economy reviving in 2009. Most of them seem to to agree that late 2009 should see the economy return to positive growth.
Billionaires who made their fortunes in finance and real estate were far more pessimistic than those who derived their riches from other sectors.