14.Dell notebook strategy

Hi, team members
We've done almost. Good luck for your final exams.
Dell has done successful job of controlling their sales.Here is about Dell's notebook sales. The company has taken back the number two spot in global laptop PC sales from Taiwan's Acer by growing its marketshare for such products to 15.1% of all global laptop PC sales as of its last quarter. In addition, that figures includes a whopping 45% growth in its year-over-year laptop PC shipments. It's amazing what a few quarters and retail availability can do to one's laptop PC sales, yes?Dell is making steady process to see if it can inch back into leading quarterly PC sales on a global basis with HP, but it won't be easy. The Palo-Alto competitor just announced more than 50 new products this week (its biggest launch ever within that segment), and many of the newly-announced products are new consumer laptop PC designs. HP, the current king of the laptop PC hill with over 35% of the market, won't give up that spot -- or even a single marketshare point -- easily. But then again, Dell's efforts so far have shown great results, the race to the top of the laptop sales world is on.
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/06/12/dells-notebook-strategy-paying-off-after-45-annual-growth/
Posted by -20600790 -14

14. My thought about World Food Crisis

Posted by Leo 20600788

Food crisis is here and it seems it is going to stay for long time.

I do not know all the reasons for this big problem, I do not know if China and India growth are some of those reasons, or if it is something else behind it, such as a black hand, trying to gain more profits from food scarcity.

At least, it seems that world leaders are doing something to relief the hunger of million of people. They know about the need to double food production in the next 30 years, therefore they are having meetings to discuss soaring food prices and how the problem could be resolved.

U.N. is about to implement a Food Plan that will cost $30 Billion a year. That is great but I think they should do those kinds of meeting long time ago, there is a problem of lack of planning and prevention.

Now there is hurry to attend those people in need, leaders have to immediately deliver more food aid to the world’s hungry and provide small farmers with seeds and fertilizer. Other decisions to relief the problem includes, scraping export bans and restrictions, and increase agriculture research and outreach programs to improve crop production.
I hope this can be done as quickly as possible, because 10 more million poor hungry people are added today because of the world food crisis.

14. $199 for a NEW 3G IPhone!

Can you believe it? You have to spend only 199 dollars for a new 3G IPhone!

Finally they did it. Apple, which were trying to get a dominant market share in the personal telecommunication market, announced the fully new technology equipped and cheaper IPhone.

In July 9th on the WWDC in San Francisco, Steve Jobs had made such announcement about their new IPhone, and it brought a quite shock to the market.

IPhone was thought to be very expensive device even to the Apple mania. But this time they lowered the price dramatically and also put on some new features. And the new IPhone supports the SW made from other companies. Using MS Exchange for mail service is a good example. Now by the flexibility Apple could also gather the business related users to IPhone.

Of course, their competitors in the market are very tough. RIM, which produces Blackberry are now the most well known company for handheld devices. Also famous cell phone companies such as Nokia or Samsung are putting more effort to the market.

I think Apple needs more than their reputation and the technology itself to become the leader of handheld device industry. Because it is more targeting on Business persons, they should launch an effective marketing strategy to get customers attention. It will be a nice strategy, too, to let university students to try on the IPhones first, before they jump into the real world.

As you can see everytime Apple makes a big news for the world. I am looking foward to hear another wonderful magic that Apple and Jobs will make.

20300343

13. Apple in 2013?

There was a interesting article about what will happen to Apple after 5 years from now on.

In the report of the American research company Forrester Research announced that in the year 2013, Apple will put more on the home computing business and they will try to dominate normal house living rooms with their products.

The main concern of Apple is how to connect the relations between the Mac, MacStore, and the customers by home AVI products.

The strategy that Apple will produce after 5 years were predicted like the following

1. home use servers will be sold without acknowlodging customers that it is a server.

2. Audio systems, IPod, ITunes will be the remote control to access and control entire home devices.

3. Online video setupbox "MacTV" will support Blue-Ray and HD

4. Renewal of Apple Store into a digital living shop

5. Support all hardware/software setup through GeniusBar

Also the research company predicted that Apple will jump in to the enterprise IT market and acquire the telecommunication comapny to sell IPhones. Apple is trying to be the dominant player in the whole IT market. They are trying to "applize" the entire IT field. And if they are thinking like that, it won't be just a dream.

20300343

14. Such a humiliating failure of McDonald in Korea

One of global American-owned multinationals, McDonald has faced the most tremendous crisis with a difficulty managing its business in Korea for years as well as American beef sensation. By last year end, McDonald recorded minus 151.2 billion won in Korean market.



Loaded debts plus a huge loss in sales, the worst situation ever

Global McDonald, which is headquartered in the U.S., they acquired the Shinmac co. operating McDonald stores in the metropolitan area, the middle and eastern part of Korea and established McDonald Korea. The acquired company had minus 140.7 billions losses in sales and bank debt amounted 138.4 billions at that time. Another Korean domestic corporate, which is running McDonald in the Southern and East-southern part of Korea and Jeju, McKim Co. was not the objective for the acquisition. However, the headquarter in America took its loss instead of it. This firm also announced that they are in serious financial crisis that represents 151.2 billion capital inroad and 237.4 billion debts last year.

These two companies were established in order to take McDonald into Korean market back in 1988. However, they have not been able to record positive growth from the beginning.

Korea, Against American beef

McDonald is far behind the Korean native fast food company, Lotteria at the moment. They used to have more than 350 stores across Korea, but it was reduced to 231 in current situation. McKim lost 7.9 million won, while its sales were 77.8 billion won in 2007. McDonald Korea have never disclosed its financial results. In the meantime, there has been a boom against American beef related to FTA with the U.S. lately. As people got to know that McDonald is using a problematic beef which is in debate, this even worsened the situation. It directly affected the sales of McDonald Korea. Many Koreans are boycotting McDonald right now.

The original article is available: http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20080612018002

Why McDonald takes a vast risk in Korean market?

Even though McDonald has been poorly performing in Korea market, they do not want to have a disgraceful reputation as a worldwide mega brand. For that reason, it has not been able to withdraw its business. However, this ongoing boycott and protest against McDonald is such a devastating crisis that is hard to withstand. In spite of its effort to expand stores more, no body comes to McDonald for a store. McDonald case would be interpreted to such a humiliating failure that forfeits the reputation and undergoes a huge loss in an entire business in one market.

McDonald is standing at the point to make a substantial decision whether stay as taking risks that appears very serious to recover or withdraw business not to hurt itself any longer. The amount of loss is not negligible but significant to consider seriously. I wonder how McDonald counteracts to such a ruinous crisis onwards. Withdraw the dog? Or Keep hurting itself to look forward one day to beat Lotteria and penetrate Korean fast food market as they do in other countries?

posted by 20500238

14. Samsung Electronics

Hello! Manitou! We are facing our last stage. I think we have been doing well. Let’s keep working hard. In the last class, we were talking about Samsung Electronics, which has been the highest position in the industry for more than 10 years. Because I think that the company has innovated on their business steadily, I would like to write in Samsung.

We already know some general information about Samsung, which are their status in that industry, their competitors, the market environment, and so on. Therefore, I will focus on their strategies which led the company to the top of the industry. I read an article about Samsung which is one of first movers in the industry on the web site, and I think the article appropriately figure out Samsung’s strategies.

First, it is Aggressive and timely investments in R&D and facilities. Because of the character of this industry, huge amount of money is required for R&D, and Samsung did not hesitate to put a lot of money for the R&D. That is a reason that Samsung have its own technology of semiconductor.

Second, it is speedy ramping-up and development. They keep developing their product very fast. Even there is a term, “law of Hwang”, which means that a better semiconductor is emerged in every 12 months. Also, it means that the company can take first-mover advantage from it. Then, this advantage helps the company keep the position.

Third, it is process innovations for reducing production costs. The company also consider about process innovation because the innovation leads more products in one process, and this higher productivity is related with cost saving. In a few time of downturns of the industry, the reason Samsung could keep their position and make some profit from it is this low cost advantage.

Fourth, it is technological choice, deepening, and diversification. As we saw in the case, the president’s choice which was to select between “stack method” and “trench method” was brilliant. The choice helped the company to join the forerunner’s group in the industry.

Fifth, it is governance and organization. It is definitely true that the president of Samsung, Lee gun hee, has affected a lot of things to his company in various ways. His leadership was innovative, fresh, and powerful. Also, he modified the organization, and the modification made his employee to do their job more efficiently.

There were some concerns about their future because of their competitors, especially Chinese competitors. However, even though the Chinese companies can imitate Samsung’s technology, the technology is not the only one to keep their position. The company’s culture and their custom also reinforce the company’s cutting-edge, so the concerns were not serious that much. However, it would need to aware of that the Chinese competitors have huge potential to grow in the industry, and Samsung might need a new strategy against for its competitors.

reference: http://ideas.repec.org/p/sca/scaewp/0513.html

Posted by 20300121(Kim, Jae-Yoon)

14. Firefox is attacking Internet Explorer.

3 or 4 years ago, I used Firefox for a short time, but changed it to IE(Internet Explorer of MS) because of its weakness in web infra. However, the its present situation seems different from the past.

'Firefox has more than 18% of the global market. Firefox 3 is scheduled to be released this month and may well push that share above 20% by the time Microsoft releases its next version of Internet Explorer late this year...'

I'd like to explain web browser history briefly. You might remember (if you are older than me) that there were two well-known web browsers, Netscape and Navigator which make populazation of web browser. I don't remember whether there was IE when I first met used, but I remember those two. Anyway, after MS realized that there would be internet era through the popularity of Netscape, it decided to jump into the web browser business. To make it effective, it tied IE into Window 98, and although Netscape accused them continuously, MS did not step back and attacked Netscape more. As the result, IE could made almost 90% of market share. However, In recent two years, the market share of IE decreased from 87.7% in 2005 to 75 in 2008. On the other hand, FF(Firefox) which is a open-source software Mozila group makes. increased its market share from 7.88% to 17%. FF is successfully evaluated as a competitive web browser against IE.

Most people do not care about what kind of web browser they use, and even though knowing it , they might think 'what's the big deal?'. Well, imagine when IE seized almost 90% of window OS and Internet, MS will exercise its power over users and there will be no choise left to us because many things will be standardized by MS at that time. I am not saying that the people who use IE are stupid or selfish because using IE is just natural because it is familiar to us, andit is majority. I just want to recommend Firefox to you because if you know some attractive advantages there, you also want to try it.

1. additive functions for extentionThis advantage seems similar with the things in Google.(I introduced it to you at the first blog)
If you visit this web site below, you can add any function you need to Firefox. http://update.mozilla.or.kr/addons/index.php?addonType=extension
Through this, you can customize your web browser. After visiting that web site, I was impressed to the fact that there were many specific needs in using web browser. Because it is a open-source software, whoever want to make other useful function on it, he can make and share it with others.

2. power of open-source software
Most softwares we use are closed, which means that a certain company takes responsibility in developing and improving its software.

In case of Firefox, communication between developers and users is very easy, so after users reveal some opinions, any web developers who are interested in Firefox all around world try to develop and improve it. That is why it can fulfill user's needs effectively, and can grow its market share fast. Moreoever, MS actually contributed Firefox's market share indirectly. MS stopped to develop IE for Apple after IE ver.5, so Apple users have to choose other web browsers like Apple's Safari, Firefox, and Ophera. A more funny thing is that you can noice that MS imitate many functions in Firefox if you see IE ver.7.

In spite of its attractive traits, I cannot persuade you to use Firefox because I don't want to give you such a huge stress. Most Korean websites are based on IE web standards, but those are not for Firefox or any other web browsers. Therefore, you will experienced some unconvenient situation with Firefox in Korean websites if you use it. However, I want to cheer it up with the same reason that I expect some benefit for users from the battle between Google and MS./posted by 20500580