Shortened Life Span: Light Bulb Conspiracy

Have you ever wondered that the things that you buy do not last long? Is it just us as consumers who use it recklessly?
Have you ever thought that it is actually the producers that make it that way?
To illuminate this, there is a documentary about light bulb conspiracy.

Before, light bulb is created to last more than 2000 hours. Now, it is only for 1000 hours. What happened? Isn't it supposed to be longer since the advancement of technology? Not only light bulb, the other products such as printers and stockings are designed not to last long so the consumers keep buying the products. Do you think this is ethical?

The Rich and The So-so in the Music Industry

When we hear the famous names in the music industry such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, it really makes us wonder how much do they actually make? With the raising concern of free downloading and streaming, the selling of the actual album is declining from year to year. People prefer to download it free from internet or streaming rather than buying the actual albums, yet the income they make from streaming may not be that satisfying.

http://www.kpoplyrics.net

According to The Root, the actual singers make only a small portion out of their effort. It is the 13% out of the overall income makes. Still, from the 13%, it is still shared with the personals within the band. According to Nielsen research, only $1 to $2 is made for an album sold for the singer, except for indie album that can reach $9. However, it varies between the contract. For example, TLC that hit 9 million selling album, was declared bankrupt because of the poor contract.The income made from YouTube, iTunes Match or Spotify may not be as much as our expectations. Josh Davison from Parks and Gardens stated that he only gets 1 cent for every 3 songs played in iTunes Match. Even from YouTube as well, the Dead Kennedys video by East Bay Ray that has been watched for 14 million times, yet he only got few hundred dollars from YouTube.

http://www.theroot.com/

Thus, we can see now, how low the distributors and the record label pay the singers, it makes it very hard for the newbie to actually earn some money and survive the music industry.  However, some of the successful example in the music industry such as PSY has proved that uniqueness and creativity in the music industry is crucial. The just-famous artist has made $13.5 million for 3 months (For more info please click here. The question is whether all those money is made from YouTube which has hit nearly 590 million views today, or from any other source. Psy will earn $2.5-$5.0 for 1000 views, $0.05 per subscriber view and $0.01 per channel view which approximately about $600,000 to $1,000,000 (according to KGB Answers). That number is even not 10% from its income for Gangnam Style. So where does the income come from?

Dealing with low-payment streaming and free downloading, artists have to be smart to be rich; concert is the answer. So far, the experience of going to concert still cannot be replaced with anything else. Seeing the real artists singing their songs, the vibe during the concert are still appreciated by the music lovers. The amount of money made from concerts is a big deal too. As we can guess from PSY case, the money he made outside YouTube will probably mostly come from his concerts. 

Microsoft Surface: Good Enough?

As I read the news about Microsoft Surface this morning, it makes me wondering whether the time is right for Microsoft the launch the tablet with almost the same time with Apple iPad. Even though it still blurs me when it actually came out. I found a video about Windows 8 where Surface already existed in that video and it was on January 2012. On that time, I did not even notice about Windows 8.

So, in that video, one of Microsoft's marketing officer was giving a presentation about how to use Windows 8. Windows 8 allowed users to use keyboard, mouse and touch screen in the same time. It also presents all the apps on the main screen. It says that it is special because the users can flick the programs easily and can show 2 programs at the same time. The apps are also accessible through Windows Store which is similar to iTunes.

After watching this video, there is a mindset that Microsoft is trying so hard to compete with Apple. Even with the design, it comes with the same idea with iPad where you can click the apps from the main screen. Probably, it is greater in a way that it can run 2 programs at the same time and showed in the main screen while iPad cannot do it. The smart cover which embed a keyboard with only 3 mm is quite appealing as well.

Surface though, is heavier than iPad and has bigger screen than iPad (It has 10.8' screen). The screen probably is bigger than some of the small laptops. It really makes you wonder whether it will hit the aim of tablet where you can easily carry around. In the demo as well, at some points, it looks very hard to select a point on the screen using Surface. Even in Microsoft Surface Launch in Japan, one of the customers said that the touch screen is not working properly, yet (for more info about Microsoft Surface Launch in Japan please go to this link). Also, the development in apps is far away from iTunes. Windows Store was just commenced in February 2012. Compare it with iTunes which has been existed for quite a while, that is a big challenge for Microsoft.

Saying so, is it worth it to install new Windows 8 to your PC? Frankly speaking, I think the 'conventional' design for Windows 7 is better than Windows 8. It is more simple and more appropriate for desktop. Or I may be wrong because I am just not used to it.

Overall, I think Microsoft has to elaborate more if they want to jump in tablet market. Competing with Apple and Samsung that uses Android, it will be hard for Microsoft to survive without any competitive edge in their product as the other tablets are affordable with maybe, more worth buying.

Behind the Scenes of Apple

Apple has just introduced the new iPad mini today. Bigger than iPhone and smaller than the normal iPad. What is so special about it? I do not know. It performs the same function, just different size. Probably a bit boring for the public, after the release of iPhone 5 which is quite controversial at the moment, whether it really offers more features than iPhone 4S.

http://www.vanguardngr.com

But still, the orders for iPhone 5 explodes. You order today, it will be shipped in 3-4 weeks because of the overflow demand. Is it overrated? Probably. But the products they deliver is undeniably amazing. Do not talk about the advancement they made from iPhone 4S to iPhone 5. Just imagine someone does not know about iPhone, and suddenly he or she was given an iPhone 5, it will be pretty amazing. Not only the products itself, the iTunes is amazing as well. It is apparently the biggest app store in the world.

The thing is, Apple is very good at their marketing especially in brand loyalty. It is very easy to get hooked with Apple products. Typical Apple user, using MacBook, iPad, iPod and iPhone. If they are asked to shift to another brand, it will be quite hard for them to shift. Looking at their competitors at the moment, especially Samsung, it really is there are not many significant differences offered by their products. The reason people choose the one of the another is just the brand preference. The recipes for Apple are continuous innovation without leaving the originality of their products, affordable in a way that it is worth the money and it creates an atmosphere of being sophisticated by using their products.

Imagining the wake up of Apple when it was close to bankruptcy around 13 years ago, now the stock price hits around $610. Thank to Steve Jobs that has contributed so much to Apple through his innovation in Apple's product that hit the market at the moment. For more story of the crawling from bankruptcy please go here.

http://modmyi.com

Besides of its success, Apple also has a dark side. There were a lot of suicide case in Foxconn, a factory in China where Apple products are made. The workers are frustrated because they are forced to work in a boring assembly line, trying to hit a very high, almost impossible target. Child labour is also used in the factory. The turnover of the employees are very high because the employees cannot hold on the company's culture anymore. Now the factory is struggling the recruit people that actually want to work there. To watch the video please go to here.

Thus, it is very hard to decide. Even though we know, that for producing the Apple products, there are suicides, issues with child labours, but still, market is still demanding for the Apple products. Probably the market just does not care anymore about company's reputation regarding to workers and only care about what they get from the company.

Facebook Under the Business Magnifier

Facebook has coloured our days almost for the whole time. Everytime we go online either using our desktop, laptop or mobile, most of use will open Facebook. According to Facebook Inc, it has had 1 billion users at the end of 2012, yet it is not allowed in China, where the highest internet users are. At university, every time I have group work, everyone will say, 'Hey, we should create a Facebook group.' Not wikispace, but Facebook group. Everyone expects everyone to have Facebook and we are seemed to have it more than social network.

Either we realise it or not, Facebook is not only used for maintaining relationships by posting to someone's timelines. More than that, Facebook is used as a marketing tool, wiki, blog, events, reminders and so forth. Despite of its popularity, Facebook itself has its own dark side.

By going public since 31 May of 2012, with $38 as the opening, Facebook share price has been declining, until now, $19 per share. Its current price is only half of the beginning price. Why is this happening? Is it probably because of public does not trust Facebook? Probably. In what?

http://blog.compete.com

Facebook does have a lot of security issues. Everyone can create a Facebook account, no formal identity verification when establishing a new account. Even though there is a security setting, the users do not seem to be educated enough not to show their profile for public. A lot of criminal offences came with Facebook as its source when someone can stalk and pretend to be someone else and finally rape and murder cases occur. Even with the security setting as well, there are some deficiencies which may not seem to be significant but affect our security. For example, the photo of you and your friend published in your friend's album. You cannot really prevent them not to show your face to your friend's friends in Facebook. Even though security setting seems to be promising, it is still not a perfect system. Also, the issues of cyberbullying and cyberstalking through Facebook are not new topics. A lot of people have become the victims and they cannot simply get out from that position because when it goes cyber, then everyone sees it and there is no place or time boundaries. It will bombard them anytime and anywhere.

Seeing the implication of the price of the share that keeps declining, it might be possible that public does not trust that Facebook will exist in a future. There is an indication of a short-term trend, such as Friendster which has disappeared by now, was popular in the early 2000. The regulation about social network, including Facebook is still unclear as well. Even though there are actually a lot of offences (physical or non-physical) have occurred in social network, there is still no law regulating the operation. There are still blurs around the issue. There is possibility that Facebook will no more exist in years ahead.

However, with the number of active users that keeps increasing and how people use it everyday, Facebook has become needs for some. The advertising that appears on the website everyday has appeared to a promising income and people might be just too skeptical about this new type of business.

Accountant's Credibility

A lot of people still suffer from the effects of Global Financial Crisis in 2009. After 3 years on, the effect is still spread through out the world. Accountants are one to be blamed. Falsified financial statement, creative accounting, cooking the book; those are the words describing the accountants at that moment. The implication of misleading financial statements has lead to wrong investment made by the shareholders and the extreme case, the crash of the share market during the crisis. Like what happened with Enron even before the GFC, the company is shut down, investors lost their investment and employees lost their jobs and of course the directors were jailed. This was because of accounting. Arthur and Andersen, as Enron's accountant who agreed to falsified the documents before, destroyed all the evidence they made for Enron and was pleaded guilty at the end, for loosing their independence.

Independence

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It is one of the top as well as the most difficult requirement can be achieved by an accounting firm. Without independence, all the trust will collapse. In theory, independence is needed to limit the accountants, not to follow the client's order but to fairly reviewing and auditing them so that the financial statement is not misleading. In practice, it is kind of the same with say to your boss that he or she is doing something wrong. It is not that easy to do it in practice. When accountants say that the clients have the misleading statement, then there is possibility that the client will leave them and move to another accountant. Of course, it will be less income to the accountant. That is why even after Enron and GFC, there are still so many cases about the credibility that crack the public interest.

The question is, can we trust accountants, more importantly the financial statements that they made? Well, so far, there is no other system of auditing that has been put in place other than the other parties (accountants) will audit the company's statements. However, in China though, this is partly done by the government. But, in the case of the very big power of government in China, actually the government can also manipulate a particular company's statements. It is back to the idea of independence again, where it is broke down in this case.

The automation of accounting system in book keeping and information generation nowadays has made the public asked whether we actually need accountants in the future. Probably the machine is more honest than the human. 

In order to earn the trust back, the current and future accountants have to realise that the business will go to the edge if these issues are not addressed and the integrity is loosen. It really is that this industry still going on because of the regulations created for the company's to be audited. When the trust is gone and the regulations are removed, probably there will be no more accountants as profession. 

Cloud Computing for Businesses

Cloud computing has been a revolutionary step in IT. Cloud computing is where the data storage is not undertaken in the hard drives of the devices, but somewhere up in the sky. If you are using email attachment, then you are using the cloud computing because you are storing data, not in your drives. The enhanced accesibility of internet also make more people relies on this facility. The implication of cloud computing has been developed for the past years where Microsoft has its SkyDrive and Apple has its iCloud. Some people are using DropBox as well as the substitute of their USB drives. Not only in the personal level, cloud computing affects businesses and society as a whole.

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu

The trend of cloud computing works favourably to the businesses. Imagine that the business is growing from years to years; and is getting big. Then, businesses need more storage to store their data. It will need lots of hard drives to be purchased. With cloud computing, there is unlimited space available for the business to store their data. Businesses do not have to worry about running out of memory.

However, there are still a lot of issues with cloud computing. Even though it seems that cloud computing offers great advantages to the businesses, it comes with security issues. With the nature of business data where it is normally confidential, it will not be great if the data leaks. The problem is with cloud computing, the only security tool that protects the data is only the username and password which nowadays, is very possible to be hacked; different with the physical storage where you can put it in the locked premises. Just imagine when an organisation store all its customers' data online and the data leaks. The implications of data leakage can lead to identity theft even to physical harm. Not only may it be a lot of disputes arisen from it, but also the reputation of the organisation is on the risk. The data back up is also questioned. If businesses store their data online, what will happen if the system crashes and the data is gone.

Saying so, many businesses found that the emergence of cloud computing is very beneficial. Apparently, a lot of companies are waiting for the cloud computing providers to create the program for enterprise level. However, it will be hard to assign the responsibilities. Say if the data leaks, who will be responsible for that, is it the business, or the cloud computing provider. Will the cloud computing provider take that risk, seeing even the US government and CIA sites ever got hacked.

Thus, in spite of the increasing demand for cloud computing, there are still a lot of issues regarding to cloud computing. The cloud computing provider should increase the security of its facility. For example, lately DropBox has doubled its authorisation process before logging in to the website. Law and regulation have to be developed as well as there will be parties that are benefited and disadvantaged when the unfavourable events happen.

Hidden Cigarette Bitterness

http://ariefabian.blogspot.com.au

Cigarette is not a new products traded across the world. This product has been sold since the early 1900's. Even though it has been traded for quite a long time, the existence of cigarette never seems to be faded, or does it? In the US, for example, the cigarettes shops are closing. We see a lot of health revolution in the past decades around the developed countries such as the US and Australia where cigarette advertising is banned and smoking publicly is prohibited in most of the places. However, how does the big tobacco industry still making money? The answer is they move the market.

Indonesia is one of the targeted area where the this industry is free to grow in a rapid pace. Cigarettes advertising are everywhere, on the streets and sponsors for the big events. Smoking is considered being cool and attractive. Not only the legal people, the underage also consumed cigarettes, mostly the teenagers. One of the ex-marketer from Indonesian cigarette producers spoke up about this. The biggest lies are cigarettes do not cause diseases and it does not market the children. So, when we saw the Indonesian 4-year old kids smoked, that what the industry has brought the country into.

Seeing it from the marketing side, how great it is for the tobacco company to create such a huge influence using their notorious products. Even though people know that it is dangerous, people are still buying it. It is notorious yet loved in Indonesia, especially by the government. Tobacco industries pay over USD 8 billion for the taxation only, annually which is the 10% of the government's revenue. Millions of jobs are created from this industry as well. This implies that probably, the tobacco industry will still earn the glory at least in the near future.

Saying so, public health is at risk. There are a lot of costs involved to recover the health of the people. As well as people are becoming poorer because of addicted by smoking and spend money to buy cigarettes. Education of the danger of cigarettes is lacking.

There are a lot of pros and cons about tobacco, especially when there is a question of will the benefits outweigh the costs for the whole society. Will money outweigh the health of people? I guess the option is on the hand of the consumers, us.

-thanks for Vanguard for the video of Sex, Lies and Cigarettes, to see more of this video please click here-

Is It Over for China?

The fast-growing economy in China has served the needs of almost everyone in the world. When we go inside stores and look at the products, it will be quite hard not to find a product not made in China, unless the stores are selling the products from particular country. Chinese production has spread around the world because of the cheaper price comparing to the rest of the world. However, according to some analysts, this will not last long. This is proven by the trade deficits of China. In March 2012, Wei Gu wrote in the article that China has earned trade deficits for the new years, which was normally the time when the economy goes up. This might indicate that Chinese economy is slowing down.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

With the improvement of productivity in other countries such as India and Indonesia, China should maintain a lot of things to be competitive, including keeping the currency low. Chinese currency (yuan) is speculated to be appreciated; however, the government keeps it very low to boost the country's export. The outcome is everything inside China becomes very expensive for the locals to afford. Another problem for China is the inflation. With the increasing economy, inflation is undeniable, overheating is happening all around the country. Without depressing the effect the inflation, maintaining the currency in a low level is unlikely to be always possible.

Also, with the one-child policy, it will be very hard for China to support the elderly people. Even though the government will cover the costs, still, 1 child will support 2 parents. It will be very hard for the government to raise the budgets. With this policy also, there is a mentality of the only-child being spoiled. Even though it seems simple, from the psychology point of view, it might not be the best thing to have. The habits of being spoiled can create the mentality of laziness and the feeling that the parents will inherit all the parents' wealth.

However, even though there are a lot of controversies about the future of China, in fact, we now still see a lot of products from China. There are still a lot of international investors that invest their businesses in China. A lot of outsourcing as well are happening in the country. Another proof that China is still doing well is the coals they import from Australia. Australia is now in its mining booms, with China as the main customer (although a lot of people are predicting it to end soon). So, is it over for China? May be. Or probably it will not come in the near future.

Europe's Giant Ravine

When we are talking about Europe slumps, there is always a question about when it will end. Comparing it to the US depression, which has been recovering now in about 3 years; it takes so much longer. US has hit its lowest unemployment rate in 4 years, indicating recovered economic growth. So what makes Europe very hard to go back from the crisis?

http://www.etftrends.com

It is probably the mistakes made from the beginning. With the first country ever having the crisis, Greece, the other more wealthy countries offered monetary help. It creates a huge issue of moral hazard. There is a saying do not give the fish but the baits. This is absolutely not applied here. Then, the problems spread to other countries such as Spain, Italy and Portugal. It is such a shame for the citizens of German or France that they have to pay higher tax to cover the losses happening in the poorer countries. The effect is the economy in those rich countries is also slowing down because of higher taxes. Then, it is not sure as well, where the money goes, how it is contributed, will it reach the people who really needs it and so forth.  Now the problem is getting so deep that it has Europe has jumped itself to a huge ravine.

The using of the same currency, Euro, even makes it hard to recover. With the US, it is easier to regulate its own country. During the financial crisis, every parts of the country were facing the same problems. The government then apply the same solution for the whole country. US can do everything it wants with US dollar basically. Imagine Euro. There are about 27 countries using Euro and 17 in them are regulated within the European Union. It will be hard for the European Union to launch a regulation that benefit all the members as each member will have different economic condition in their own countries. It will be hard to decide as well, whether Euro should appreciate or depreciate because all the countries will have different stages of economic growth.

Investors have also been very pessimistic about the situation in Europe. Only the high risk taker will invest in Europe at the moment. Just look at the 10 years bond rate of Greece at the moment, it is around 18%, comparing to only 3% at UK. It reflects the extremely high risk investing in Greece. The market share also has been decreasing for the past years. Even though the market has slightly been increasing for the past few weeks, still, if there is a speculation of economic doubt in Europe, it will slump again.

Thus, when it comes to the question when Europe will get out from the recession, no one can answer, absolutely not in the closer future. European Union should address the fundamental problems first rather than only giving money to the countries. That means creating jobs, improving education and reducing the inequality.

Online VS Real (Physical) Shopping

Who between you guys that never shop online before? Well, if you can access this blog post and you never shop online....At least you should have bought your printer ink online right?

Online shopping has been an exploding trends. See your facebook, LinkedIn, or any social networks, even emails, a lot of advertisements about online shopping. Why people shop online?

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1. Easier to access
2. Not wasting so much time
3. Free Delivery
4. Cheaper
5. Saving your transport time
And many other reasons.
Like me, I do not really shop these days, I go online. I can find a lot of discounts online, compare prices, and I do not have to walk 20 minutes to bus stops and 40 minutes bus trip to city just to buy a pair of shoes. It is a convenience.

But if we see it in a broader sense, what happen with the real stores? A lot of cases of closing stores happen these days. The most recent one, Darrel Lea Chocolate. It closed almost all the stores in Sydney! Previous case, Borders were closing because of the emergence of e-book. Well, now, the retailers such as David Jones and Myer are facing the problems as more and more people buy clothes online. The sales are keep going down year to year. Sometimes I am afraid though, that I cannot enjoy anymore, walking inside the shops and have the experience of 'window shopping' as everything will be online. Not only that, in the university, it happens too. I was at the 5.28 PM bus this afternoon. Two years ago, when I was in the same bus, I had to stand up because there was no more seat. Now, there are a lot of empty seats. Students not going to uni anymore? Probably, since the introduction of the more advanced ilecture (lecture recording that is published online). Well, maybe in the next decades, university will sell some of their physical buildings and go online which has happening in some universities at the moment.

The most benefited business? Of course, the courier service. Australian Post has increased 21% of its revenue since it has contracts with a couple of online shopping hosts, such as Asos.

For the business (or students that would like to open a business in the future) think online! As we learnt about the existence of shifting the trend from conventional to online shopping, you might want the customers to be able to access you through internet. So you have to think about websites, online transaction process, the security of your network, human resources and most importantly, the costs of implementing those. Even though it is not cheap, it will prevent your business to be redundant, and advance it to a higher level.

Probably in the future, it will be the other way around. I used to remember when people use websites as the place to show their products, market their products and still processing the transactions in the stores, but now it is the opposite. They will only have 1 store to display their products and transactions are mostly done online. Welcome to web 2.0 era people!

Off-shoring Jobs - Productivity

I found an article from www.smh.com.au, created by Chris Zappone, with the title 'Service sector crunched as jobs go overseas'. First thing in mind seeing this, less jobs opportunity. However, if we look more closely on the reasons why employers prefer to move overseas, it is actually quite plausible.

www.businesspundit.com

Cheaper
This is the most ultimate reason why companies prefer to offshore their jobs. For example, if you are using Vodafone in Australia as your phone operator, when you have problems and call the customer service, then you will be connected with someone in India. The implication for customers is that it is probably harder to speak and listen to Indians rather than with Australian. However, from company's perspectives  off shoring to India, will off course make it cheaper. Just imagine the salary in India will be measured using monthly basis while in Australia, it is hourly basis. There is a big difference there.

Implication to us
It might cause the dampening of customer service in Australia. Sometimes they don't understand us, and we don't understand them. Implication for business? Probably, even though it is cheaper, it will be very hard to adapt to rapid changing business environment nowadays. Imagine if you have to make a business decision and you have to contact someone from India.... well..

Also, less job for us!!! We have seen a lot of cases of banks cutting off their staff and outsourcing it to other developing countries. The more extreme case, Gina Rinehart imported those international staff to Australia! Ethical or not? Just judge it yourself.

However, it comes to the basic of why people want to shift their workforce, it is basically competition of productivity comparing to the price of workers. To make it more understandable, say A is paid for $5 per hour and you are paid $10 per hour. If you can produce twice or more works than A, then the employers will not have any reason not to hire you. So for us, even though we know that there is less job opportunities out there, if we can exploit our strengths and be diligent enough to find the job, hopefully we still can get it. Like in my microeconomic subject of my first year says, it is not the salary, but the productivity.