THE FOCUSED MIND » ifblogadmin

Fact or Fiction?

ifblogadmin — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:00:30 +0000

Thor/Forge Books, Macmillian’s science-fiction division, will soon be the first mainstream publisher to open an e-book store. It will also become the first major house to strip its e-books of anti-piracy software (DRM), allowing books to be read on any e-reading device and shared with friends. Thor’s move comes on the heels of the March release of the e-editions of the Harry Potter novels, which are also DRM-free, and available exclusively at J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore site. Additionally, Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster are investing in Bookish, a marketing site for the publishing industry that will include an e-book store.

We’ve written about the ways in which producers of other goods are attempting to eliminate the middle man and sell directly to consumers and now some book publishers are following suit. It appears that the publishers are more afraid of Amazon’s power (60 percent of the e-book market) than they are of piracy. Can these publishers effectively dent Amazon’s profits, or is it too little, too late?

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Investors Push for the New Japan

ifblogadmin — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:00:13 +0000

A frustrated shareholder of Nomura Holdings suggested that the company, embroiled in an insider trading inquiry, should show its shame by changing its name to Vegetable Holdings. Beyond amusing, it is an indication of the frustration coming out of many Japanese stockholders. In a recent survery of 1,000 institutional investors and their plans for shareholder meetings this year, a record 14.5 percent said they intended to vote against the appointment of directors and auditors chosen by the company.

Additionally, Dai-ichi Lide Insurance, Japan’s third-largest life insurer said in April that it was tightening guidelines on exercising voting rights, and would start pushing back against companies that insisted on introducing poison pills or holding back dividends despite ample cash holdings.

We have written about the fundamental shift taking place among Japan’s decades-long business practices. While this will be a very slow change (as cultural ones usually are), if investors continue to become more active and vocal in Japan, the transition could come more quickly.

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Profits, Not Patriotism

ifblogadmin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:03:28 +0000

Google’s new wireless Nexus Q media player was designed and manufactured in America. In recent interviews, Google’s engineers repeatedly stressed the fact that it was a significant advantage to have design close to manufacturing, especially as they closely integrate their software and hardware. Google engineer Matt Hershenson claimed, “For us it’s really great that we can be at our desk in the morning, have meetings with hardware and software people, and then a subset of that team can be in the factory in the afternoon. The time it takes from being in the assembly process to being in the living room of a product tester we can measure in hours and not days.”

For the past year we have written about the move of manufacturing back to the United States. For technology companies, one of the roadblocks to such a move has been finding enough component suppliers nearby. However, if enough technology companies such as Google begin experimenting with U.S. manufacturing, the component suppliers will soon follow, creating the potential for a virtuous circle.

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Knockoffs are fun.

ifblogadmin — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 18:37:34 +0000

The musical group “fun.” enjoyed watching its hit “We Are Young” sit atop Billboard’s Top 100 for six weeks. When the group decided to release the single in the U.K., it learned that 18 different knockoff versions of the song were already selling their and being downloaded off iTunes. It had to rush the song into release ahead of schedule for fear of losing the market completely.

These are not knockoffs like those the software and hardware businesses face; rather these are knockoffs of the original content but by people who make no pretense of being the original musicians. The fashion industry has faced this issue, as lower-priced stores create their own versions of runway fashion, putting the products in stores before the original designers get theirs to market. The idea of “rolling out” any product slowly around the world is anachronistic.

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A Housing and Employment Hope

ifblogadmin — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:27:34 +0000

The percentage of Americans who changed residences between 2010 and 2011 fell to a record low 11.6 percent. That compares with 17 percent in the recession of 1990-1991.

Could we soon see an increase?

The number of homes for sale in the U.S. stood at 2.5 million in April, the lowest number in 6 years. Meanwhile, the number of completed new single-family homes available in April was 46,000, the lowest level since record keeping began in 1973. In California, the number of days a home sits on the market fell to 33 in April from 43 a year earlier.

The extreme pullback of new home construction, coupled with the declining volume of existing homes on the market (due in part to homeowners not putting their homes on the market because prices are “too low”) is helping to create some traction in the housing market, and pricing of both new and existing homes is climbing.

Housing has been affecting job searches. It is unlikely we will see a large reduction in the unemployment numbers until unemployed individuals can more easily sell their houses (and not lose a lot of money) and move to where jobs are available.

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Lightweight Entertainment

ifblogadmin — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 18:25:13 +0000

Coach travelers on Singapore-based carrier Scoot Airlines can rent iPads for their flights. Scoot has removed its previous seatback entertainment system, reducing the weight of its four Boeing 777s by 7 percent. The reduced weight has meant reduced fuel usage and has saved the airline money.

This is yet another example of airlines doing whatever they can to save on fuel prices. We expect to see more moves in the transportation market to mitigate one of their biggest expenses. Meanwhile, the market for tablets and the reasons for corporations to purchase them continue to grow.

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Rethinking Lifestyles

ifblogadmin — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:22:52 +0000

Results are in from this year’s Kinder Houston Area Survey, a 30-year old survey of Houston area residents conducted by Rice University. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they would choose a smaller home within walking distance of workplaces and shops, rather than a single-family home with a big yard that would require driving almost everywhere. That figure was up from 39 percent in the 2010 survey, the last year the question was asked. Meanwhile, a majority of respondents said they would prefer that transit taxes, which are currently being diverted to street, drainage, and landscaping projects, be spent on transit projects instead.

Some might assume that the rising expression of desire for transit-oriented communities is coming only from liberal bastions and hipster havens like San Francisco,Boston andPortland, but here we see those desires being expressed by majorities in a metropolitan region as politically and economically diverse as metroHouston. Perhaps,Houston is turning into a land of peace-flag-waving, soy-latte sippers? We doubt it.

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Democracy No More?

ifblogadmin — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:17:15 +0000

In a recent poll of Australians conducted by the Lowy Institute, 39 percent of Australians aged 18 to 29 say democracy is better than other forms of government. While 23 percent believed that “for someone like me, it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have”; another 37 percent said that non-democratic rule can be best.

Are these strange results for a highly developed, Western democracy such as Australia? Or, even in the most-developed nations, is democracy’s supremacy no longer a foregone conclusion, at least among younger adults? Global economic turmoil in developed countries in recent years, while China maintained brisk growth, is leading some to question old assumptions and the next generation to alter expectations. How would similar polls fair in Europe, Canada, or the United States?

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Making a Move in Distribution

ifblogadmin — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:12:10 +0000

New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie announced that Amazon will build two large distribution centers, each about one million square feet, in New Jersey. The crux of Christie’s announcement was that the state will now be able to collect sales tax from Amazon on all goods sold in the state.

While the focus of the announcement is on the sales tax, we see an even more intriguing possibility as Amazon builds these distribution centers. Amazon has previously announced the desire to offer same-day shipping, which in part explains the company’s recent purchase of robotics-firm Kiva Systems. Could Amazon be gearing up to launch same-day shipping in the densely settledNew York City metropolitan region? With transportation costs high, we see an increased desire among consumers to avoid driving from big-box store to big-box store to find an item. Amazon appears to be getting ready to service these convenience-oriented customers.

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Diabetes: India and the U.S.

ifblogadmin — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:36:43 +0000

According to Nikhil Tandon, an endocrinologist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, pound for pound, Indians have less lean mass, more body fat and more central fat than white Caucasians. In 2011, India had 62.4 million people with type-2 diabetes. In 2010, the number was 50.8 million.

With more than a twenty percent increase in diabetes in just one year and with a genetic predisposition towards diabetes, the Indian healthcare system will soon be severely impacted by the effects of diabetes. And since 80 percent of Indian health care is paid for privately today, the effects of no treatment should be expected to explode over the next several years.

The U.S. has been facing an obesity crisis for years (and the diabetes issues that can come with it), but could attitudes towards healthier eating now be changing? In U.S. restaurants, servings of kids’ meals with toys were down 6 percent for the year ended December 2011, from about 1.3 billion servings to 1.2 billion servings – the fourth straight year of such declines.

Is this an ongoing signal that parents are changing their buying pattern to decrease the amount of fast food their children eat, or is this trend capturing the desire of parents to save money by ordering off the dollar menu?

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