(Reuters) - Research In Motion's appointment of bankers to advise on drastic options, including an outright sale of the BlackBerry maker, may only hasten moves by major customers to offer their employees smartphones produced by rivals.
An increasing number of top companies and government departments that were once devoted to the Blackberry are instead now giving some staff the option of using Apple Inc's iPhone or smartphones running off of Google Inc's Android-operating system.
There is now a real danger for RIM that such switching will gather pace and turn into a much bigger exodus of customers, mobile phone industry consultants and experts warned.
The uncertainty surrounding RIM's future, and the possibility of a sale, is 'scary to an end user,' said John Hering, chief executive of Lookout, one of the world's biggest providers of mobile security products.
Within 12 hours of RIM's announcement, Hering said, he heard from several corporate technology executives troubled by the news.
'RIM is looking at it as 'How can we maximize the value of an asset' as opposed to 'How can we solve problems for the customer?' That is making customers nervous,' he said.
RIM told Reuters in a statement it had not noticed an increase in inquiries from customers after it disclosed the review.
'RIM is in regular communication with our corporate customers to share updates and to keep them apprised of our ongoing efforts to refocus the company and to continue meeting their needs,' the statement said. 'As such, we have noticed no measurable increase in the number of questions or concerns following (the) update.'
On Tuesday, RIM said it had hired deal-making bankers from JPMorgan Chase and Royal Bank of Canada to help it do a far-reaching review of its business. The Canadian company also shocked investors by reporting it expected a fiscal first-quarter loss, and said it was looking at a significant number of job cuts. Sources have indicated it may cut as many as 6,500 of its 16,500 jobs.
The company's share price has collapsed in the past year, and it is now only valued at about $5.4 billion, down from $84 billion at its peak in 2008. Excluding its cash and the estimated value of its patents, RIM's device business and its 78 million subscribers around the world are in aggregate worth less than $1 billion to investors.
LOST CONFIDENCE
Retaining its customers' loyalty is a huge challenge.
'The organizations using multiple devices have lost confidence in BlackBerry as a platform for the long term,' said Alex Bratton, CEO of Lextech Global Services, a company that creates mobile applications for companies.
He added that as 'people are doing hardware refreshes they are going in another direction.'
Fernando Alvarez, head of mobile solutions for IT services company Cap Gemini, said the company is rarely asked to do projects using the BlackBerry platform anymore.
The BlackBerry dominated the market for mobile email until the iPhone was introduced in 2007 but is now third in market share.
General Electric Co now says about one-third of the mobile devices it issues to employees are iPhones. Other big companies that have started to use a range of different devices include Amgen Inc, FedEx Corp, Caterpillar Inc and Cisco Systems Inc.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, one of RIM's biggest customers, declined to comment on RIM's strategic review or discuss any contingency plans if the company gets into further trouble.
Earlier this month, RIM announced that the Pentagon had cleared six new BlackBerry models for use on its networks, extending their long relationship.
The Pentagon has begun small pilot programs using other devices, according to Federal Computer Weekly, a publication that tracks U.S. government spending on technology. It estimates the U.S. military has 250,000 BlackBerrys, 5,000 iOS devices and 3,000 Android-run devices.
EMPLOYEE DEMAND
The trend away from RIM has been fueled partly by demand from workers who crave the usability of devices running Apple's iOS and Google's Android, and do not want to carry several smartphones. A massive network outage last October that meant millions of BlackBerry users lost use of email for many hours also pushed technology buyers to look at alternatives.
'If it were up to IT managers, BlackBerry would still be the device of choice, but with employees bringing their own devices there is no going back,' said Dan Croft, CEO of Mission Critical Wireless.
RIM's advantages include what industry experts widely describe as superior security and device-management features that have made the BlackBerry appealing to corporate IT managers and a crucial tool for police, government and military use.
Apple and Google are adding new features in these areas with each new release of their software but have yet to catch up with RIM, said Dino Dai Zovi, a leading expert on mobile device security who is chief technology officer of consulting firm Trail of Bits.
Still, with companies such as Symantec Corp and SAP's Sybase division offering mobile device management software that secures, monitors and controls mobile devices, companies are no longer tethered to the BlackBerry for security reasons.
While those technologies are not yet as advanced as RIM's offerings, they are sufficient for securing and managing email for many corporate workers, security experts said.
Apple's iOS and Android are 'ready for prime time' for all but the highest-risk users, Lookout's Hering said.
A company's ability to shift to other devices can sometimes depend on how much mobile equipment it has on its books. Throwing out those devices before they have depreciated in value could have big financial implications, according to Gary Curtis, who works with financial services companies in his role as chief technology strategist at outsourcing company Accenture.
But others say it would not be that difficult.
Lynden Tennison, the chief information officer of U.S. railroad Union Pacific Corp - which is still mainly a BlackBerry customer - said that he had a plan for a worst-case scenario:
'If RIM went away, was bought or went bankrupt what would we do? We could very easily transition to another provider,' he said. If it happened overnight 'we would be busy for a week or two provisioning phones, but it's not like it would put us in a serious world of hurt.'
(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew, Lynn Adler, Phil Wahba in New York, Jim Wolf in Washington, Scott Malone in Boston and Alastair Sharp in Toronto.; Editing by Peter Lauria, Martin Howell)
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
Court clears RIM to use BBM moniker
TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion is free to use the BBM moniker for its popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service after a court ruled the use did not infringe on the trademark of a company that measures Canadian television and radio audiences.
'We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM's use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged,' the company said in a statement on Thursday.
BBM Canada sought to stop RIM from advertising the service using the shortened name. The term BBM is used informally by millions of BlackBerry customers to refer to the service that allows them to send each other text and multimedia files and see when they are delivered and read.
BBM Canada had said it would consider changing its name for a price.
The company, which was established in 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement before changing its name to BBM in the 1960s and to BBM Canada in the early 1990s, could not be immediately reached for comment outside of business hours.
The trademark fight was a minor headache for the BlackBerry maker which this week said it had hired investment bankers to assess its strategic direction and would post an operating loss as its global sales sink.
BBM Canada is owned by a collection of broadcasters and advertisers and has annual revenue of around $50 million. RIM had sales of about $4.2 billion for the last quarter.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; editing by Carol Bishopric)
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'We are pleased that the Federal Court of Canada sided with RIM and confirmed that RIM's use of BBM does not infringe the trademark rights of BBM Canada as they had alleged,' the company said in a statement on Thursday.
BBM Canada sought to stop RIM from advertising the service using the shortened name. The term BBM is used informally by millions of BlackBerry customers to refer to the service that allows them to send each other text and multimedia files and see when they are delivered and read.
BBM Canada had said it would consider changing its name for a price.
The company, which was established in 1944 as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement before changing its name to BBM in the 1960s and to BBM Canada in the early 1990s, could not be immediately reached for comment outside of business hours.
The trademark fight was a minor headache for the BlackBerry maker which this week said it had hired investment bankers to assess its strategic direction and would post an operating loss as its global sales sink.
BBM Canada is owned by a collection of broadcasters and advertisers and has annual revenue of around $50 million. RIM had sales of about $4.2 billion for the last quarter.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; editing by Carol Bishopric)
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Microsoft appears on track for autumn Windows 8
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp appears to be on track to release its new Windows 8 operating system in time for the crucial U.S. holiday shopping season after making a 'release preview' of the new code available for download on Thursday.
Windows 8 is the latest version of the flagship product, which still provides almost half of the world's largest software company's profit. It is the first version that will run on tablet computers as well as PCs, providing Microsoft's first real challenge to Apple Inc's iPad.
'The progress Microsoft is making leads me to believe that Windows 8 will be available in time for the holiday season this year,' said David Johnson, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. 'I've been using the consumer preview for several weeks, and while it's obvious more finishing work is needed, it has been stable and reliable.'
Microsoft's latest release preview is similar to what the software company used to call a 'release candidate,' meaning the product is all but finished. The next stage is 'release to manufacturing' (RTM), when Microsoft hands the code to PC makers such as H-P, Dell and Lenovo to install on new PCs, laptops and tablets.
Based on the timeline for Windows 7 three years ago, Microsoft is on track for full release by October or November, when machines running it will be available in stores. The company has never put a firm date on the release of Windows 8, but says it aims to have a new system every three years. Windows 7 debuted in October 2009.
'Ultimately, our partners will determine when their PCs are available in market,' said Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows unit, in a blog post on the company's site.
'If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 8 and Windows RT (the tablet-compatible version) match our expectations, then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about two months. If we are successful in that, then we are tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 8 and Windows RT available for the holidays.'
In the meantime, in order to prevent a drop-off in PC sales, Microsoft said on Thursday that customers who buy Windows 7 PCs between now and January 31 can get an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99.
(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)
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Windows 8 is the latest version of the flagship product, which still provides almost half of the world's largest software company's profit. It is the first version that will run on tablet computers as well as PCs, providing Microsoft's first real challenge to Apple Inc's iPad.
'The progress Microsoft is making leads me to believe that Windows 8 will be available in time for the holiday season this year,' said David Johnson, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. 'I've been using the consumer preview for several weeks, and while it's obvious more finishing work is needed, it has been stable and reliable.'
Microsoft's latest release preview is similar to what the software company used to call a 'release candidate,' meaning the product is all but finished. The next stage is 'release to manufacturing' (RTM), when Microsoft hands the code to PC makers such as H-P, Dell and Lenovo to install on new PCs, laptops and tablets.
Based on the timeline for Windows 7 three years ago, Microsoft is on track for full release by October or November, when machines running it will be available in stores. The company has never put a firm date on the release of Windows 8, but says it aims to have a new system every three years. Windows 7 debuted in October 2009.
'Ultimately, our partners will determine when their PCs are available in market,' said Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows unit, in a blog post on the company's site.
'If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 8 and Windows RT (the tablet-compatible version) match our expectations, then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about two months. If we are successful in that, then we are tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 8 and Windows RT available for the holidays.'
In the meantime, in order to prevent a drop-off in PC sales, Microsoft said on Thursday that customers who buy Windows 7 PCs between now and January 31 can get an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99.
(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)
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Canada minister unaware of any foreign bid for RIM
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday he did not know of any request to the federal government to review a possible foreign takeover bid of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd.
Ottawa would have to clear any foreign bid for RIM under its Investment Canada Act, deciding whether it would be of net benefit to Canada.
The company, which has hired bankers for a strategic review and to look for partnerships, warned on Tuesday it would likely report a shock fiscal first-quarter operating loss. It also said it plans to slash its workforce.
'I'm not going to speculate about it ... As far as I know, we haven't been asked to review any proposal for RIM under the Investment Canada Act,' Flaherty told reporters in New Brunswick.
He also said RIM would have to reorganize without any help from the Canadian government.
'It's an important company for Canada. It has been a leading company for Canada in terms of research, development and innovation but it does need to reorganize itself. And that is something that we expect the leaders in that company to do on their own,' he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Ottawa would have to clear any foreign bid for RIM under its Investment Canada Act, deciding whether it would be of net benefit to Canada.
The company, which has hired bankers for a strategic review and to look for partnerships, warned on Tuesday it would likely report a shock fiscal first-quarter operating loss. It also said it plans to slash its workforce.
'I'm not going to speculate about it ... As far as I know, we haven't been asked to review any proposal for RIM under the Investment Canada Act,' Flaherty told reporters in New Brunswick.
He also said RIM would have to reorganize without any help from the Canadian government.
'It's an important company for Canada. It has been a leading company for Canada in terms of research, development and innovation but it does need to reorganize itself. And that is something that we expect the leaders in that company to do on their own,' he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Apple assembly plant conditions still harsh in China-activists
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Working conditions at Foxconn's gargantuan Chinese factories that assemble Apple Inc's slick gadgets have barely improved despite pledges this year to halt labor violations, workers' rights activists and employees said on Thursday.
Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive 'sweatshops' to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.
Last month, Gou defended his firm's industrial workshops that have helped outmuscle rivals through vast economies of scale and cost savings that have made it the world's largest contract manufacturer.
'What's wrong with sweatshops?' Gou told Chinese workers visiting Taiwan in late April. 'We toil hard with blood and sweat, so long as we don't break any laws. I believe in reaping what you sow,' he added in videoclip posted on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyjJrJTR-qE)
Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.
The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.
A fresh report released on Thursday by labor watchdog Student & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), based on visits to several Foxconn factories and 170 worker interviews, found rights violations 'remain the norm' including high production targets, inhumane treatment and signs of overall salary cuts.
'The frontline management continue to impose humiliating disciplinary measures on workers,' it said.
'The above findings demonstrate that Apple and Foxconn have not turned over a new leaf,' the report added.
Like other China-focused labor advocacy groups, Hong Kong-based SACOM has released a number of hard-hitting and prominent reports on Foxconn in recent years.
Foxconn workers staged strikes in April at separate plants in northern and central China, including a group that threatened to collectively jump from a roof over pay and work conditions.
In response to SACOM's report, Foxconn Technology Group and Apple said they would work to improve the working environment of workers and ensure that they are treated with respect.
'The welfare of our employees is without a doubt our top priority and we are working hard to give our more than one million employees in China a safe and positive working environment,' Foxconn Technology Group said.
Carolyn Wu, Apple's spokeswoman in China, said that the U.S. technology giant insisted its suppliers provided safe working conditions and used environmentally responsible manufacturing processes when making Apple's products.
'Our suppliers must live up to these requirements if they want to keep doing business with Apple,' Wu said.
TOO BIG, TOO COMPLICATED
Some labor activists said more needed to be done.
'I haven't seen any real evidence of any significant changes,' said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, another group which monitors Foxconn.
'At the moment they're just tinkering around the edges and doing PR stunts ... I don't think there's a short term fix to the situation at Foxconn. It's too big, it's too complicated.'
Crothall added that Foxconn needed to move towards greater dialogue with the workers through more representative unions.
'If they can move towards a more democratic system where the workers have a voice in their pay and conditions ... you'll find a much more content workforce.'
Some of the hundreds of thousands of workers now employed in Foxconn's major industrial plants in southern China's dusty Pearl River Delta near Shenzhen, corroborated SACOM's findings.
'The work pressure is still great,' said a worker surnamed Wang who has worked at Foxconn's complex in Guanlan making iPhones and other products over the past two years.
'There hasn't been much change. We are still being pushed very hard,' he told Reuters by telephone.
Another employee made similar remarks.
The overall salaries of Foxconn workers dropped even though basic pay has increased, as overtime work has been cut, SACOM found. Some workers also had higher production targets and had to work unpaid overtime after pay hikes.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim in Taipei; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Mark Potter)
This news article is brought to you by ANIMALS AND PETS - where latest news are our top priority.
Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive 'sweatshops' to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.
Last month, Gou defended his firm's industrial workshops that have helped outmuscle rivals through vast economies of scale and cost savings that have made it the world's largest contract manufacturer.
'What's wrong with sweatshops?' Gou told Chinese workers visiting Taiwan in late April. 'We toil hard with blood and sweat, so long as we don't break any laws. I believe in reaping what you sow,' he added in videoclip posted on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyjJrJTR-qE)
Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.
The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.
A fresh report released on Thursday by labor watchdog Student & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), based on visits to several Foxconn factories and 170 worker interviews, found rights violations 'remain the norm' including high production targets, inhumane treatment and signs of overall salary cuts.
'The frontline management continue to impose humiliating disciplinary measures on workers,' it said.
'The above findings demonstrate that Apple and Foxconn have not turned over a new leaf,' the report added.
Like other China-focused labor advocacy groups, Hong Kong-based SACOM has released a number of hard-hitting and prominent reports on Foxconn in recent years.
Foxconn workers staged strikes in April at separate plants in northern and central China, including a group that threatened to collectively jump from a roof over pay and work conditions.
In response to SACOM's report, Foxconn Technology Group and Apple said they would work to improve the working environment of workers and ensure that they are treated with respect.
'The welfare of our employees is without a doubt our top priority and we are working hard to give our more than one million employees in China a safe and positive working environment,' Foxconn Technology Group said.
Carolyn Wu, Apple's spokeswoman in China, said that the U.S. technology giant insisted its suppliers provided safe working conditions and used environmentally responsible manufacturing processes when making Apple's products.
'Our suppliers must live up to these requirements if they want to keep doing business with Apple,' Wu said.
TOO BIG, TOO COMPLICATED
Some labor activists said more needed to be done.
'I haven't seen any real evidence of any significant changes,' said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, another group which monitors Foxconn.
'At the moment they're just tinkering around the edges and doing PR stunts ... I don't think there's a short term fix to the situation at Foxconn. It's too big, it's too complicated.'
Crothall added that Foxconn needed to move towards greater dialogue with the workers through more representative unions.
'If they can move towards a more democratic system where the workers have a voice in their pay and conditions ... you'll find a much more content workforce.'
Some of the hundreds of thousands of workers now employed in Foxconn's major industrial plants in southern China's dusty Pearl River Delta near Shenzhen, corroborated SACOM's findings.
'The work pressure is still great,' said a worker surnamed Wang who has worked at Foxconn's complex in Guanlan making iPhones and other products over the past two years.
'There hasn't been much change. We are still being pushed very hard,' he told Reuters by telephone.
Another employee made similar remarks.
The overall salaries of Foxconn workers dropped even though basic pay has increased, as overtime work has been cut, SACOM found. Some workers also had higher production targets and had to work unpaid overtime after pay hikes.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim in Taipei; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Mark Potter)
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Apple moves closer to iPad 3 sales in China
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese regulators have approved Apple's iPad 3, possibly moving the company closer to launching the latest version of its tablet in the fast-growing Chinese market.
The Chinese government's telecommunications equipment certification agency identified the product as A1430 in an announcement dated Monday. That is the model number of the third generation version of the iPad sold in the United States.
An Apple Inc. spokeswoman in Beijing said the company had no comment.
China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States and the source of much of its global sales growth. But the company has released popular products in China behind other markets.
Apple is in the midst of a legal battle with a local company over ownership of the iPad name in China.
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The Chinese government's telecommunications equipment certification agency identified the product as A1430 in an announcement dated Monday. That is the model number of the third generation version of the iPad sold in the United States.
An Apple Inc. spokeswoman in Beijing said the company had no comment.
China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States and the source of much of its global sales growth. But the company has released popular products in China behind other markets.
Apple is in the midst of a legal battle with a local company over ownership of the iPad name in China.
This article is brought to you by BUY A COMPUTER.
Apple assembly plant conditions still harsh in China: activists
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Working conditions at Foxconn's gargantuan Chinese factories that assemble Apple Inc's slick gadgets have barely improved despite pledges this year to halt labor violations, workers' rights activists and employees said on Thursday.
Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive 'sweatshops' to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.
Last month, Gou defended his firm's industrial workshops that have helped outmuscle rivals through vast economies of scale and cost savings that have made it the world's largest contract manufacturer.
'What's wrong with sweatshops?' Gou told Chinese workers visiting Taiwan in late April. 'We toil hard with blood and sweat, so long as we don't break any laws. I believe in reaping what you sow,' he added in videoclip posted on YouTube.
Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.
The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.
A fresh report released on Thursday by labor watchdog Student & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), based on visits to several Foxconn factories and 170 worker interviews, found rights violations 'remain the norm' including high production targets, inhumane treatment and signs of overall salary cuts.
'The frontline management continue to impose humiliating disciplinary measures on workers,' it said.
'The above findings demonstrate that Apple and Foxconn have not turned over a new leaf,' the report added.
Like other China-focused labor advocacy groups, Hong Kong-based SACOM has released a number of hard-hitting and prominent reports on Foxconn in recent years.
Foxconn workers staged strikes in April at separate plants in northern and central China, including a group that threatened to collectively jump from a roof over pay and work conditions.
TOO BIG, TOO COMPLICATED
'I haven't seen any real evidence of any significant changes,' said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, another group which monitors Foxconn.
'At the moment they're just tinkering around the edges and doing PR stunts ... I don't think there's a short term fix to the situation at Foxconn. It's too big, it's too complicated.'
Crothall added that Foxconn needed to move towards greater dialogue with the workers through more representative unions.
'If they can move towards a more democratic system where the workers have a voice in their pay and conditions ... you'll find a much more content workforce.'
Some of the hundreds of thousands of workers now employed in Foxconn's major industrial plants in southern China's dusty Pearl River Delta near Shenzhen, corroborated SACOM's findings.
'The work pressure is still great,' said a worker surnamed Wang who has worked at Foxconn's complex in Guanlan making iPhones and other products over the past two years.
'There hasn't been much change. We are still being pushed very hard,' he told Reuters by telephone.
Another employee made similar remarks.
The overall salaries of Foxconn workers dropped even though basic pay has increased, as overtime work has been cut, SACOM found.
Some workers also had higher production targets and had to work unpaid overtime after pay hikes.
Foxconn Technology Group said they would work closely with the FLA to improve the working environment of its workers and ensure that they are treated with respect.
'The welfare of our employees is without a doubt our top priority and we are working hard to give our more than one million employees in China a safe and positive working environment,' Foxconn Technology Group said in an emailed statement after Reuters forwarded them the SACOM report.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim in Taipei; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
This news article is brought to you by EVERYTHING ABOUT COFFEE - where latest news are our top priority.
Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive 'sweatshops' to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.
Last month, Gou defended his firm's industrial workshops that have helped outmuscle rivals through vast economies of scale and cost savings that have made it the world's largest contract manufacturer.
'What's wrong with sweatshops?' Gou told Chinese workers visiting Taiwan in late April. 'We toil hard with blood and sweat, so long as we don't break any laws. I believe in reaping what you sow,' he added in videoclip posted on YouTube.
Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.
The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.
A fresh report released on Thursday by labor watchdog Student & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), based on visits to several Foxconn factories and 170 worker interviews, found rights violations 'remain the norm' including high production targets, inhumane treatment and signs of overall salary cuts.
'The frontline management continue to impose humiliating disciplinary measures on workers,' it said.
'The above findings demonstrate that Apple and Foxconn have not turned over a new leaf,' the report added.
Like other China-focused labor advocacy groups, Hong Kong-based SACOM has released a number of hard-hitting and prominent reports on Foxconn in recent years.
Foxconn workers staged strikes in April at separate plants in northern and central China, including a group that threatened to collectively jump from a roof over pay and work conditions.
TOO BIG, TOO COMPLICATED
'I haven't seen any real evidence of any significant changes,' said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin, another group which monitors Foxconn.
'At the moment they're just tinkering around the edges and doing PR stunts ... I don't think there's a short term fix to the situation at Foxconn. It's too big, it's too complicated.'
Crothall added that Foxconn needed to move towards greater dialogue with the workers through more representative unions.
'If they can move towards a more democratic system where the workers have a voice in their pay and conditions ... you'll find a much more content workforce.'
Some of the hundreds of thousands of workers now employed in Foxconn's major industrial plants in southern China's dusty Pearl River Delta near Shenzhen, corroborated SACOM's findings.
'The work pressure is still great,' said a worker surnamed Wang who has worked at Foxconn's complex in Guanlan making iPhones and other products over the past two years.
'There hasn't been much change. We are still being pushed very hard,' he told Reuters by telephone.
Another employee made similar remarks.
The overall salaries of Foxconn workers dropped even though basic pay has increased, as overtime work has been cut, SACOM found.
Some workers also had higher production targets and had to work unpaid overtime after pay hikes.
Foxconn Technology Group said they would work closely with the FLA to improve the working environment of its workers and ensure that they are treated with respect.
'The welfare of our employees is without a doubt our top priority and we are working hard to give our more than one million employees in China a safe and positive working environment,' Foxconn Technology Group said in an emailed statement after Reuters forwarded them the SACOM report.
(Additional reporting by Clare Jim in Taipei; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
This news article is brought to you by EVERYTHING ABOUT COFFEE - where latest news are our top priority.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
China approves new Apple wireless device
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese regulators have approved a new Apple wireless device, possibly moving the company closer to the launch of its latest iPad in the fast-growing Chinese market.
The Chinese government's telecommunications equipment certification agency identified the product as A1430 in an announcement dated Monday. That is the model number of the third generation version of the iPad sold in the United States.
An Apple spokeswoman in Beijing said the company had no comment.
China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States and the source of much of its global sales growth. But the company has released popular products in China behind other markets.
Apple is in the midst of a legal battle with a local company over ownership of the iPad name in the Chinese market.
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The Chinese government's telecommunications equipment certification agency identified the product as A1430 in an announcement dated Monday. That is the model number of the third generation version of the iPad sold in the United States.
An Apple spokeswoman in Beijing said the company had no comment.
China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States and the source of much of its global sales growth. But the company has released popular products in China behind other markets.
Apple is in the midst of a legal battle with a local company over ownership of the iPad name in the Chinese market.
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News Summary: RIM patents, network have value
THE TROUBLES: Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, expects to post an operating loss for the current quarter, a sign that BlackBerry sales are falling even faster than analysts expected.
WHAT CAN RIM DO?: One way is to sell itself to a competitor or financial firm. But who would step up to buy RIM -and why?
COMPANY'S VALUE: The company gets monthly fees from phone companies in exchange for running the systems that deliver email and Web pages to BlackBerrys. The other major component of RIM's value is its patent portfolio.
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WHAT CAN RIM DO?: One way is to sell itself to a competitor or financial firm. But who would step up to buy RIM -and why?
COMPANY'S VALUE: The company gets monthly fees from phone companies in exchange for running the systems that deliver email and Web pages to BlackBerrys. The other major component of RIM's value is its patent portfolio.
This article is brought to you by AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
RIM sinks, but patents, network have value
WATERLOO, Ontario (AP) - Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, is in steep decline. The company, once the crown jewel of the Canadian technology industry, is now worth 1 percent of Apple's market capitalization. One way for RIM to stop the downward tailspin: It could sell itself to a competitor or financial firm. But who would step up to buy RIM -and why?
Late Tuesday, the company said it expects to post an operating loss for the current quarter, a sign that BlackBerry sales are falling even faster than analysts expected. On Wednesday, the company's stock hit its lowest level since 2003, the year RIM went from making two-way e-mail pagers to smartphones.
The stock has fallen 93 percent since their peak in 2008. Since then, the BlackBerry's dominance as the smartphone for on-the-go business people has been eviscerated by Apple Inc.'s iPhone, and more recently, by phones running Google Inc.'s Android software. Research firm IDC says BlackBerrys now account for 6.4 percent of the global smartphone market, a third of what they had two years ago.
In that time, the company's financial performance has suffered. RIM reported a 25 percent revenue decline in the latest fiscal quarter, to $4.2 billion from $5.6 billion. For the full fiscal year that ended on March 3, it earned $1.2 billion, or $2.22 per share, on revenue of $18.4 billion. That's down from net income of $3.4 billion, or $6.34 a share, on revenue of $19.9 billion in fiscal 2011.
RIM issued the dire warning about its business Tuesday, adding that it will lay off a 'significant' number of employees.
Still, the company is defiant. Chief executive, Thorsten Heins, says he can turn things around with the help of fresh smartphone software. Heins joined RIM four years ago and was most recently its chief operating officer. He replaced co-CEOs Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value.
'My charter from the board of directors is very clear: long-term value creation with RIM,' Heins told The Associated Press in an interview at the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, earlier this month.
Analysts give the company only a slight chance of coming out of the crisis and back into the high-stakes smartphone game. To hedge its bets, the company has hired bankers to look at its options. It's not actively looking to sell itself, Heins said, but it wants to be prepared.
'We are prudent because we know the situation is somewhat challenging,' Heins said. 'So we are just looking at everything that could be an option. That doesn't mean we are pulling on those options. But we need to understand ... what is our field of action that we could take in case we need to?'
Last year marked a turning point in the way analysts assess RIMs value. Instead of treating it like a company with a future, they started looking at it as a collection of parts that could be split up and sold separately to the highest bidder.
Michael Walkley at Canaccord Genuity believes most of the company's value lies in the monthly fees it gets from phone companies in exchange for running the systems that deliver email and Web pages to BlackBerrys.
RIM has 78 million users connected to this system, but Walkley estimates that only 20 million are corporate and government users who are likely to stick around because of the communications security RIM provides. The rest are consumers who will jump to competing phones, he believes. That business is worth about $2.75 billion to a competitor, Walkley wrote in a research report Wednesday.
The other major component of RIM's value is its patent portfolio. The company had an early scare in U.S. patent courts in 2006, when it was forced to pay $612.5 million to a small company founded by an inventor who had patents on wireless e-mail delivery. Since then, it's filed for thousands of patents to use as a defense against future suits.
Patents on wireless technologies exploded in value last year, as Apple and Microsoft Corp. started suing makers of Android phones, and they countersued. A consortium that included Apple and RIM bought the patents of a defunct Canadian maker of telecommunications gear, Nortel, for $4.5 billion last year. That compares with the $1.13 billion Nortel's once-prominent wireless networks business fetched in 2009.
As a counter-move, Google bolstered its own patent portfolio by buying Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., a U.S. phone maker with only slightly better prospects than RIM, for $12.5 billion.
Where does that leave RIM? Christopher Marlett, the CEO of MDB Capital, said RIM's patents are worth more than $1 billion, and could be worth as much as $4 billion if a bidding war develops between Apple, Google, Microsoft Corp. and perhaps Samsung Electronics Co.
'It's a question of how aggressive they get,' Marlett said. His firm is an investment bank that focuses on intellectual property, including patents.
Walkley puts the value of RIM's portfolio at $2.5 billion, excluding the patents RIM bought from Nortel and shares with Apple, Microsoft and other buyers.
RIM has $2.1 billion in cash, but Walkley discounts this completely, since the phone business will likely start using up cash soon, and downsizing will require severance payments. That means the email network and the patents comprise RIM's entire value at $5.25 billion, by his estimate.
That's very close to RIM's current market capitalization, at $5.4 billion, though a buyer could be expected to pay a premium.
The cash cushion also means that RIM is in no imminent danger of going bankrupt. But as the shares decline, RIM is likely to face increasing pressure from shareholders to unlock the company's value through a sale, and to abandon the comeback plan.
A possible middle ground would be to sell the patent portfolio while keeping the rest of the company. Two months ago, AOL, once a pioneering Internet service provider, sold and licensed its patents -which are more modest than RIM's for $1 billion- to Microsoft.
Microsoft is one company that's been suggested as a potential RIM buyer. The software juggernaut is trying to get back into smartphone software, but its Windows Phones haven't been popular so far. Buying RIM could give it a chance to establish itself as a provider of trusted wireless email services, though moving subscribers from BlackBerry to Windows could be challenging.
___
AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed from New York.
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Late Tuesday, the company said it expects to post an operating loss for the current quarter, a sign that BlackBerry sales are falling even faster than analysts expected. On Wednesday, the company's stock hit its lowest level since 2003, the year RIM went from making two-way e-mail pagers to smartphones.
The stock has fallen 93 percent since their peak in 2008. Since then, the BlackBerry's dominance as the smartphone for on-the-go business people has been eviscerated by Apple Inc.'s iPhone, and more recently, by phones running Google Inc.'s Android software. Research firm IDC says BlackBerrys now account for 6.4 percent of the global smartphone market, a third of what they had two years ago.
In that time, the company's financial performance has suffered. RIM reported a 25 percent revenue decline in the latest fiscal quarter, to $4.2 billion from $5.6 billion. For the full fiscal year that ended on March 3, it earned $1.2 billion, or $2.22 per share, on revenue of $18.4 billion. That's down from net income of $3.4 billion, or $6.34 a share, on revenue of $19.9 billion in fiscal 2011.
RIM issued the dire warning about its business Tuesday, adding that it will lay off a 'significant' number of employees.
Still, the company is defiant. Chief executive, Thorsten Heins, says he can turn things around with the help of fresh smartphone software. Heins joined RIM four years ago and was most recently its chief operating officer. He replaced co-CEOs Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value.
'My charter from the board of directors is very clear: long-term value creation with RIM,' Heins told The Associated Press in an interview at the company's headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, earlier this month.
Analysts give the company only a slight chance of coming out of the crisis and back into the high-stakes smartphone game. To hedge its bets, the company has hired bankers to look at its options. It's not actively looking to sell itself, Heins said, but it wants to be prepared.
'We are prudent because we know the situation is somewhat challenging,' Heins said. 'So we are just looking at everything that could be an option. That doesn't mean we are pulling on those options. But we need to understand ... what is our field of action that we could take in case we need to?'
Last year marked a turning point in the way analysts assess RIMs value. Instead of treating it like a company with a future, they started looking at it as a collection of parts that could be split up and sold separately to the highest bidder.
Michael Walkley at Canaccord Genuity believes most of the company's value lies in the monthly fees it gets from phone companies in exchange for running the systems that deliver email and Web pages to BlackBerrys.
RIM has 78 million users connected to this system, but Walkley estimates that only 20 million are corporate and government users who are likely to stick around because of the communications security RIM provides. The rest are consumers who will jump to competing phones, he believes. That business is worth about $2.75 billion to a competitor, Walkley wrote in a research report Wednesday.
The other major component of RIM's value is its patent portfolio. The company had an early scare in U.S. patent courts in 2006, when it was forced to pay $612.5 million to a small company founded by an inventor who had patents on wireless e-mail delivery. Since then, it's filed for thousands of patents to use as a defense against future suits.
Patents on wireless technologies exploded in value last year, as Apple and Microsoft Corp. started suing makers of Android phones, and they countersued. A consortium that included Apple and RIM bought the patents of a defunct Canadian maker of telecommunications gear, Nortel, for $4.5 billion last year. That compares with the $1.13 billion Nortel's once-prominent wireless networks business fetched in 2009.
As a counter-move, Google bolstered its own patent portfolio by buying Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., a U.S. phone maker with only slightly better prospects than RIM, for $12.5 billion.
Where does that leave RIM? Christopher Marlett, the CEO of MDB Capital, said RIM's patents are worth more than $1 billion, and could be worth as much as $4 billion if a bidding war develops between Apple, Google, Microsoft Corp. and perhaps Samsung Electronics Co.
'It's a question of how aggressive they get,' Marlett said. His firm is an investment bank that focuses on intellectual property, including patents.
Walkley puts the value of RIM's portfolio at $2.5 billion, excluding the patents RIM bought from Nortel and shares with Apple, Microsoft and other buyers.
RIM has $2.1 billion in cash, but Walkley discounts this completely, since the phone business will likely start using up cash soon, and downsizing will require severance payments. That means the email network and the patents comprise RIM's entire value at $5.25 billion, by his estimate.
That's very close to RIM's current market capitalization, at $5.4 billion, though a buyer could be expected to pay a premium.
The cash cushion also means that RIM is in no imminent danger of going bankrupt. But as the shares decline, RIM is likely to face increasing pressure from shareholders to unlock the company's value through a sale, and to abandon the comeback plan.
A possible middle ground would be to sell the patent portfolio while keeping the rest of the company. Two months ago, AOL, once a pioneering Internet service provider, sold and licensed its patents -which are more modest than RIM's for $1 billion- to Microsoft.
Microsoft is one company that's been suggested as a potential RIM buyer. The software juggernaut is trying to get back into smartphone software, but its Windows Phones haven't been popular so far. Buying RIM could give it a chance to establish itself as a provider of trusted wireless email services, though moving subscribers from BlackBerry to Windows could be challenging.
___
AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed from New York.
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Analysis: Even after hiring bankers, RIM running out of options
TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd may be running out options as it struggles to turn around its slumping fortunes with the help of a coterie of investment bankers.
The bankers - including leading M&A specialists from Royal Bank of Canada and J.P. Morgan - will explore options as drastic as an outright sale, one of the alternatives that RIM seems determined to avoid.
But analysts and investors doubt that anyone is ready to buy the whole company at this time, despite a price that looks tantalizingly cheap on paper. Interest in RIM looks slim to nil, two sources close to the matter said.
RIM's market capitalization is now $5.5 billion, down from $84 billion at the company's peak in 2008. It has $2 billion in cash, no debt and patents that experts say could be worth $2.5 billion.
'You are not going to sell RIM whole,' said Charter Equity analyst Edward Snyder, who has covered RIM since its Nasdaq initial public offering in 1999. 'The biggest problem RIM faces is that it's a very illiquid market in suitors for its phone business.'
'There's very few companies that could exploit RIM's (hardware) assets to make a go of it. Those who can are already beating the pants off RIM.'
RIM virtually invented on-your-hip email with its first BlackBerry device in 1999 and enjoyed almost a decade as a market darling, with quarter after quarter of soaring sales.
But it has hemorrhaged market share in the last few years, fading almost to irrelevance in a market dominated by Apple Inc's iPhone and devices from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd using Google Inc's Android software.
RIM shares sank to a eight-year low of just over $10 on Wednesday after the company said the day before that it expected to report an operating loss this quarter, its first in seven years
The company also said 'significant' job cuts were on the way. Two sources told Reuters last week that up to 6,000 of RIM's 16,500 jobs could go by early next year.
LBO WOULD FACE OBSTACLES
Breaking up the company for a piecemeal sale is also a possibility, but an unlikely one given the complexity of such an action and management's reluctance to contemplate such a move.
A leveraged buyout may be a more likely outcome, although it also faces a number of obstacles. Private equity firms have circled RIM over the past two years and have tried without success to figure out ways to buy the company.
Another option is to shut down the device business, admitting that the BlackBerry cannot compete with Apple and Android, to focus on RIM's secure network operations and its patented technology.
But the sources said closing the device business would be a costly endeavor. 'The device business is too volatile,' one of the sources said.
RIM management, backed by the board, is fixed on a path to recovery that keeps its services business exclusive to BlackBerry, pinning its hopes on next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones it says will come later this year.
That's an apparent turnaround from the policy put forward by former co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who sought to offer RIM's secure data-crunching network to others for a fee.
Balsillie left the company earlier this year after his plan to radically shift RIM's strategy was rejected, sources with knowledge of his plan told Reuters last month.
RIM'S LARGEST CUSTOMER
RIM's security-focused network remains one of its biggest assets. It reaches behind corporate firewalls and taps into mobile networks globally to provide a framework that is unique among handset makers.
The Pentagon, for example, is RIM's largest single customer, with an estimated quarter-million of its 78 million subscribers.
'There is in my view still time to restructure around the services business as a going concern or sale, but time is running out' said Mike Abramsky, a former RBC analyst who left the bank several months ago and urged a split last year.
Another option the bankers might consider would be for RIM to create a separate company to house its patents. RIM could then arrange a licensing deal with this new company before selling it. Canaccord Genuity analysts value RIM's patent portfolio at $2.5 billion.
Licensing of its operating system is seen as unlikely, at least until BlackBerry 10 proves itself in the marketplace, and that is far from a given.
Initial previews of the software show a fluid, touch-based interface, and developers like how it easy it is to build applications for new devices with the HTML5 web coding language.
But the likely October launch of an initial device will pit new BlackBerrys head-to-head with a likely iPhone 5. RIM's PlayBook tablet computer, the first device to use its new operating system, bombed with consumers.
Meanwhile RIM's inventory, the components and finished devices it still holds, ballooned above $1 billion in mid-2011 and only dipped below that mark in December as RIM wrote down the value of the goods by almost $500 million.
Inventory bounced up again in the last quarter despite further write-offs, and RIM is widely expected to book more costs as it cuts prices on its older stock to get it out the door.
(Editing by Janet Guttsman)
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The bankers - including leading M&A specialists from Royal Bank of Canada and J.P. Morgan - will explore options as drastic as an outright sale, one of the alternatives that RIM seems determined to avoid.
But analysts and investors doubt that anyone is ready to buy the whole company at this time, despite a price that looks tantalizingly cheap on paper. Interest in RIM looks slim to nil, two sources close to the matter said.
RIM's market capitalization is now $5.5 billion, down from $84 billion at the company's peak in 2008. It has $2 billion in cash, no debt and patents that experts say could be worth $2.5 billion.
'You are not going to sell RIM whole,' said Charter Equity analyst Edward Snyder, who has covered RIM since its Nasdaq initial public offering in 1999. 'The biggest problem RIM faces is that it's a very illiquid market in suitors for its phone business.'
'There's very few companies that could exploit RIM's (hardware) assets to make a go of it. Those who can are already beating the pants off RIM.'
RIM virtually invented on-your-hip email with its first BlackBerry device in 1999 and enjoyed almost a decade as a market darling, with quarter after quarter of soaring sales.
But it has hemorrhaged market share in the last few years, fading almost to irrelevance in a market dominated by Apple Inc's iPhone and devices from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd using Google Inc's Android software.
RIM shares sank to a eight-year low of just over $10 on Wednesday after the company said the day before that it expected to report an operating loss this quarter, its first in seven years
The company also said 'significant' job cuts were on the way. Two sources told Reuters last week that up to 6,000 of RIM's 16,500 jobs could go by early next year.
LBO WOULD FACE OBSTACLES
Breaking up the company for a piecemeal sale is also a possibility, but an unlikely one given the complexity of such an action and management's reluctance to contemplate such a move.
A leveraged buyout may be a more likely outcome, although it also faces a number of obstacles. Private equity firms have circled RIM over the past two years and have tried without success to figure out ways to buy the company.
Another option is to shut down the device business, admitting that the BlackBerry cannot compete with Apple and Android, to focus on RIM's secure network operations and its patented technology.
But the sources said closing the device business would be a costly endeavor. 'The device business is too volatile,' one of the sources said.
RIM management, backed by the board, is fixed on a path to recovery that keeps its services business exclusive to BlackBerry, pinning its hopes on next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones it says will come later this year.
That's an apparent turnaround from the policy put forward by former co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who sought to offer RIM's secure data-crunching network to others for a fee.
Balsillie left the company earlier this year after his plan to radically shift RIM's strategy was rejected, sources with knowledge of his plan told Reuters last month.
RIM'S LARGEST CUSTOMER
RIM's security-focused network remains one of its biggest assets. It reaches behind corporate firewalls and taps into mobile networks globally to provide a framework that is unique among handset makers.
The Pentagon, for example, is RIM's largest single customer, with an estimated quarter-million of its 78 million subscribers.
'There is in my view still time to restructure around the services business as a going concern or sale, but time is running out' said Mike Abramsky, a former RBC analyst who left the bank several months ago and urged a split last year.
Another option the bankers might consider would be for RIM to create a separate company to house its patents. RIM could then arrange a licensing deal with this new company before selling it. Canaccord Genuity analysts value RIM's patent portfolio at $2.5 billion.
Licensing of its operating system is seen as unlikely, at least until BlackBerry 10 proves itself in the marketplace, and that is far from a given.
Initial previews of the software show a fluid, touch-based interface, and developers like how it easy it is to build applications for new devices with the HTML5 web coding language.
But the likely October launch of an initial device will pit new BlackBerrys head-to-head with a likely iPhone 5. RIM's PlayBook tablet computer, the first device to use its new operating system, bombed with consumers.
Meanwhile RIM's inventory, the components and finished devices it still holds, ballooned above $1 billion in mid-2011 and only dipped below that mark in December as RIM wrote down the value of the goods by almost $500 million.
Inventory bounced up again in the last quarter despite further write-offs, and RIM is widely expected to book more costs as it cuts prices on its older stock to get it out the door.
(Editing by Janet Guttsman)
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Analysts skeptical as RIM reviews strategy
(Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd's move to hire bankers for a strategic review and scout for partnerships prompted a slew of price-target cuts from analysts, who were skeptical about the BlackBerry maker's ability to attract a buyer.
The company on Tuesday said it hired bankers from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate its strategies.
'A potential buyer remains uncertain, and potentially a long shot in our judgment,' analysts at Robert W. Baird said, adding they would be surprised by an acquisition by an existing OEM.
'Microsoft is likely to be rumored, though given its focus on Windows 7 and 8, that seems increasingly unlikely to us,' they said.
BMO Capital Markets, which too cut its price-target on the stock to $9 from $11, does not see a buyer either for the device business or the network business.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is struggling to retain its top talent after a series of high-level executive departures in recent weeks, and now finds itself struggling in the smartphone market, trailing Apple and other rivals.
'We continue to remain cautious on RIM and are reducing our estimates ... We believe that the company's integrated strategy is too far behind Apple's,' Wedbush Securities said in a note.
However, JMP Securities upgraded RIM stock to 'market perform' from 'market underperform' after the company issued the cautionary update, largely based on valuation.
RIM's U.S.-listed shares were down 8 percent at $10.29 before the markets opened on Wednesday. They closed at $11.23 on Tuesday on the Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Fareha Khan in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)
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The company on Tuesday said it hired bankers from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate its strategies.
'A potential buyer remains uncertain, and potentially a long shot in our judgment,' analysts at Robert W. Baird said, adding they would be surprised by an acquisition by an existing OEM.
'Microsoft is likely to be rumored, though given its focus on Windows 7 and 8, that seems increasingly unlikely to us,' they said.
BMO Capital Markets, which too cut its price-target on the stock to $9 from $11, does not see a buyer either for the device business or the network business.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is struggling to retain its top talent after a series of high-level executive departures in recent weeks, and now finds itself struggling in the smartphone market, trailing Apple and other rivals.
'We continue to remain cautious on RIM and are reducing our estimates ... We believe that the company's integrated strategy is too far behind Apple's,' Wedbush Securities said in a note.
However, JMP Securities upgraded RIM stock to 'market perform' from 'market underperform' after the company issued the cautionary update, largely based on valuation.
RIM's U.S.-listed shares were down 8 percent at $10.29 before the markets opened on Wednesday. They closed at $11.23 on Tuesday on the Nasdaq.
(Reporting by Fareha Khan in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)
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Apple CEO sees TV as area of "intense interest"
RANCHOS PALOS VERDES, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook said technology for televisions was of 'intense interest' but stressed the company's efforts would unfold gradually amid speculation the iPad and iPhone maker was on the brink of unveiling a revolutionary iTV.
In one of his more revealing interviews since assuming the helm of the world's most valuable company, Cook also said he hoped someday to see Apple products manufactured in the United States and outlined his approach to managing an organization long-associated with its late founder Steve Jobs.
'Another thing that Steve taught us all is to not to be focused on the past,' Cook told this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in the upscale California coastal resort town of Rancho Palos Verdes.
Industry insiders and executives say Apple may unveil a TV-based device in late 2012 or 2013 that has the potential to shake up the cozy television content and distribution industry the way the iPod and iPhone disrupted music and mobile content, but Cook has steered clear of commenting on that issue directly.
'This is an area of intense interest for us,' Cook said, referring to Apple's existing television set-top box product. 'We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.'
When asked specifically if Apple was making a television set, Cook said he was not going to answer that question.
Apple already sells a $99 set top box called Apple TV that streams Netflix and other content. Cook, who has previously said the Apple TV product had a hobby status inside the company, noted the company was sticking with it despite not being known as a 'hobby kind of company.'
'Here's the way we would look at that, not just at this area but other areas, and ask can we control the key technology?' he said in response to a question about how Apple thinks about improving the television experience for consumers. 'Can we make a significant contribution, far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we would want?'
Apple has been in negotiations with content companies for its devices. It began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios.
The company has a good relationship with content owners and doesn't see the need to own a content business, Cook said, adding he has met with several people in that business recently.
MADE IN USA?
In wide-ranging remarks, Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more U.S. components such as semiconductors.
Apple has been criticized for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to assemble its products and for contributing to the decline of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Cook, who took the helm of the world's most valuable technology company in August shortly before founder Steve Jobs died, said manufacturing in the United States was difficult because of declining tool-and-die manufacturing expertise, among other things, but he was working on it.
'There are things that can be done in the U.S., not just for the U.S. market but that can be exported for the world,' Cook said. 'On the assembly piece, could that be done in the U.S.? I hope so, again, one day,' he added.
Apple's final assembly is done through Asian contract manufacturers, particularly Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group and its listed entity Hon Hai Precision. Cook noted that Apple does some component manufacturing in the United States, including the main microchip that runs the iPhone and iPad.
Apple makes the A5 processor in a 1.6 million square-foot factory in Austin, Texas, owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics.
Cook also said some of the glass for the iPhone and iPad is made in a plant in Kentucky.
The CEO talked about how the iPad was just in the 'first innings,' but declined to say what was in store for it next.
He reiterated his belief that many consumers will use the iPad more than computers. In response to a question about PC software-maker Microsoft Corp's efforts to enter the tablet market, Cook brushed off the threat.
'The more you look at the tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product,' he said.
Apple released the iPad in 2010 and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 67 million units so far.
DOUBLING DOWN ON SECRECY
The 51-year old Cook said he spends less time focused on marketing and design as CEO than his predecessor, who Cook said spent 'virtually all of his time on those two things.'
At a company the size of Apple, Cook said, having a strong team is critical.
'You could have an S on your chest and a cape on your back and not be able to do everything,' said Cook, who later cited Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger as figures that he looks up to.
Cook also discussed efforts to make the company more transparent on certain issues, such as supplier responsibility and environmental matters, but stressed he was committed to preserving Apple's culture.
One Jobs legacy that Cook flagged is Apple's well-known penchant for going to great lengths to keep details of new products under tight wraps, noting that he planned to 'double down on secrecy' on products.
But he suggested Apple would not be constrained by its past.
'I love museums, but I don't want to live in one,' he said.
(Editing by Matt Driskill and Mark Potter)
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In one of his more revealing interviews since assuming the helm of the world's most valuable company, Cook also said he hoped someday to see Apple products manufactured in the United States and outlined his approach to managing an organization long-associated with its late founder Steve Jobs.
'Another thing that Steve taught us all is to not to be focused on the past,' Cook told this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in the upscale California coastal resort town of Rancho Palos Verdes.
Industry insiders and executives say Apple may unveil a TV-based device in late 2012 or 2013 that has the potential to shake up the cozy television content and distribution industry the way the iPod and iPhone disrupted music and mobile content, but Cook has steered clear of commenting on that issue directly.
'This is an area of intense interest for us,' Cook said, referring to Apple's existing television set-top box product. 'We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.'
When asked specifically if Apple was making a television set, Cook said he was not going to answer that question.
Apple already sells a $99 set top box called Apple TV that streams Netflix and other content. Cook, who has previously said the Apple TV product had a hobby status inside the company, noted the company was sticking with it despite not being known as a 'hobby kind of company.'
'Here's the way we would look at that, not just at this area but other areas, and ask can we control the key technology?' he said in response to a question about how Apple thinks about improving the television experience for consumers. 'Can we make a significant contribution, far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we would want?'
Apple has been in negotiations with content companies for its devices. It began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios.
The company has a good relationship with content owners and doesn't see the need to own a content business, Cook said, adding he has met with several people in that business recently.
MADE IN USA?
In wide-ranging remarks, Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more U.S. components such as semiconductors.
Apple has been criticized for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to assemble its products and for contributing to the decline of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Cook, who took the helm of the world's most valuable technology company in August shortly before founder Steve Jobs died, said manufacturing in the United States was difficult because of declining tool-and-die manufacturing expertise, among other things, but he was working on it.
'There are things that can be done in the U.S., not just for the U.S. market but that can be exported for the world,' Cook said. 'On the assembly piece, could that be done in the U.S.? I hope so, again, one day,' he added.
Apple's final assembly is done through Asian contract manufacturers, particularly Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group and its listed entity Hon Hai Precision. Cook noted that Apple does some component manufacturing in the United States, including the main microchip that runs the iPhone and iPad.
Apple makes the A5 processor in a 1.6 million square-foot factory in Austin, Texas, owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics.
Cook also said some of the glass for the iPhone and iPad is made in a plant in Kentucky.
The CEO talked about how the iPad was just in the 'first innings,' but declined to say what was in store for it next.
He reiterated his belief that many consumers will use the iPad more than computers. In response to a question about PC software-maker Microsoft Corp's efforts to enter the tablet market, Cook brushed off the threat.
'The more you look at the tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product,' he said.
Apple released the iPad in 2010 and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 67 million units so far.
DOUBLING DOWN ON SECRECY
The 51-year old Cook said he spends less time focused on marketing and design as CEO than his predecessor, who Cook said spent 'virtually all of his time on those two things.'
At a company the size of Apple, Cook said, having a strong team is critical.
'You could have an S on your chest and a cape on your back and not be able to do everything,' said Cook, who later cited Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger as figures that he looks up to.
Cook also discussed efforts to make the company more transparent on certain issues, such as supplier responsibility and environmental matters, but stressed he was committed to preserving Apple's culture.
One Jobs legacy that Cook flagged is Apple's well-known penchant for going to great lengths to keep details of new products under tight wraps, noting that he planned to 'double down on secrecy' on products.
But he suggested Apple would not be constrained by its past.
'I love museums, but I don't want to live in one,' he said.
(Editing by Matt Driskill and Mark Potter)
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH - where latest news are our top priority.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
A look at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion
Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, warned Tuesday of an operating loss and layoffs to come as the company struggles to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and phones running Google's Android system.
Here's a look at recent developments:
Sept. 15, 2011: RIM reports a sharp drop in net income and revenue in the fiscal second quarter and says it has sold far fewer PlayBook tablet computers than it expected.
Oct. 10: Email and Internet services are disrupted for three days, primarily outside North America. RIM says a crucial link in its infrastructure had failed, and a backup didn't work either. By the third day, other users, including those in the U.S. and Canada, were affected by a backlog of traffic.
Oct. 25: RIM says it is delaying the launch of an upgraded operating system for the PlayBook until February, saying it isn't up to its standards yet. The company also says the new version initially won't have the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. It's the third delay announced since the features were promised in April.
Dec. 2: RIM says it is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets after it had to sell them at a deep discount. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200. The company says it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter. RIM also says it will sell fewer BlackBerrys in the holiday quarter than in the one that just ended. It also says it won't meet full-year earnings guidance of $5.25 to $6 per share, the third cut in a row.
Dec. 6: RIM says 'BlackBerry 10' will be the new name for its next-generation system after the company loses a trademark ruling on its previous name, BBX.
Dec. 15: RIM says new phones deemed critical to the company's future won't be out until late 2012. The company says the BlackBerry 10 phones will need a highly integrated chipset that won't be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect the new phones to ship late in the year. The company also says BlackBerry sales will fall sharply in the holiday quarter compared with the three months that ended Nov. 26. RIM says it would only ship between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerrys in the fourth quarter, down from 14.1 million in the third quarter.
Jan. 22, 2012: RIM founder Mike Lazaridis and long-time executive Jim Balsillie announce they will step down as co-CEOs. Thorsten Heins, a chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, was named as their replacement. Lazaridis and Balsillie remain on the board.
Feb. 21: RIM finally releases an upgraded operating system for its PlayBook. The free upgrade allows for built-in email, calendar and contacts on the tablet - features promised within 60 days after the PlayBook's launch last April. The PlayBook had received negative reviews because it launched without an email program and the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. The new version still doesn't include the messaging service.
March 29: RIM says Balsillie has resigned from its board, and two top executives are leaving. RIM also writes down the value of its product inventory again as the company reports a loss of $125 million, its first quarterly loss since fiscal 2005. Heins doesn't rule out a sale, but he says it is not the main direction of the strategic review he's overseeing.
April 26: Newest board member of RIM says a turnaround could take three to five years. Prem Watsa, RIM's third-largest investor, says he sees his investment in the company as a long-term one, adding that RIM's fortunes won't be reversed soon.
May 1: RIM unveils a newly designed smartphone prototype powered by its upcoming BlackBerry 10 system. The prototype BlackBerry has a touchscreen, but no physical keyboard like most BlackBerry models. No update was given on the new system's launch date.
May 2: Company stresses that while the prototype has no physical keyboard, RIM will continue to make some models with one.
May 8: RIM announces hiring of two senior executives from struggling tech companies. Frank Boulben, the new chief marketing officer, comes from LightSquared. Kristian Tear, the new chief operating officer, is from Sony Mobile Communications.
Tuesday: RIM says it will have an operating loss in the current quarter and significant layoffs this year. The company says it has hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate various strategies, including opportunities to partner with other companies and license software.
This news article is brought to you by STOCK MARKET BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Here's a look at recent developments:
Sept. 15, 2011: RIM reports a sharp drop in net income and revenue in the fiscal second quarter and says it has sold far fewer PlayBook tablet computers than it expected.
Oct. 10: Email and Internet services are disrupted for three days, primarily outside North America. RIM says a crucial link in its infrastructure had failed, and a backup didn't work either. By the third day, other users, including those in the U.S. and Canada, were affected by a backlog of traffic.
Oct. 25: RIM says it is delaying the launch of an upgraded operating system for the PlayBook until February, saying it isn't up to its standards yet. The company also says the new version initially won't have the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. It's the third delay announced since the features were promised in April.
Dec. 2: RIM says it is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets after it had to sell them at a deep discount. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200. The company says it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter. RIM also says it will sell fewer BlackBerrys in the holiday quarter than in the one that just ended. It also says it won't meet full-year earnings guidance of $5.25 to $6 per share, the third cut in a row.
Dec. 6: RIM says 'BlackBerry 10' will be the new name for its next-generation system after the company loses a trademark ruling on its previous name, BBX.
Dec. 15: RIM says new phones deemed critical to the company's future won't be out until late 2012. The company says the BlackBerry 10 phones will need a highly integrated chipset that won't be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect the new phones to ship late in the year. The company also says BlackBerry sales will fall sharply in the holiday quarter compared with the three months that ended Nov. 26. RIM says it would only ship between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerrys in the fourth quarter, down from 14.1 million in the third quarter.
Jan. 22, 2012: RIM founder Mike Lazaridis and long-time executive Jim Balsillie announce they will step down as co-CEOs. Thorsten Heins, a chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, was named as their replacement. Lazaridis and Balsillie remain on the board.
Feb. 21: RIM finally releases an upgraded operating system for its PlayBook. The free upgrade allows for built-in email, calendar and contacts on the tablet - features promised within 60 days after the PlayBook's launch last April. The PlayBook had received negative reviews because it launched without an email program and the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. The new version still doesn't include the messaging service.
March 29: RIM says Balsillie has resigned from its board, and two top executives are leaving. RIM also writes down the value of its product inventory again as the company reports a loss of $125 million, its first quarterly loss since fiscal 2005. Heins doesn't rule out a sale, but he says it is not the main direction of the strategic review he's overseeing.
April 26: Newest board member of RIM says a turnaround could take three to five years. Prem Watsa, RIM's third-largest investor, says he sees his investment in the company as a long-term one, adding that RIM's fortunes won't be reversed soon.
May 1: RIM unveils a newly designed smartphone prototype powered by its upcoming BlackBerry 10 system. The prototype BlackBerry has a touchscreen, but no physical keyboard like most BlackBerry models. No update was given on the new system's launch date.
May 2: Company stresses that while the prototype has no physical keyboard, RIM will continue to make some models with one.
May 8: RIM announces hiring of two senior executives from struggling tech companies. Frank Boulben, the new chief marketing officer, comes from LightSquared. Kristian Tear, the new chief operating officer, is from Sony Mobile Communications.
Tuesday: RIM says it will have an operating loss in the current quarter and significant layoffs this year. The company says it has hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate various strategies, including opportunities to partner with other companies and license software.
This news article is brought to you by STOCK MARKET BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
BlackBerry maker RIM sees operating loss, shares slump
TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd on Tuesday warned it could report an operating loss and said it had engaged bankers to help it review its business, the latest in a string of dismal messages from the once-dominant BlackBerry maker.
RIM shares, already down more than 75 percent over the past 12 months and trading at 8-year lows, slumped nearly 13 percent to around $9.77 a share in after market trading.
'That is a disaster. It's really bad. We did not expect an operating loss this quickly,' said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.
Mark McKechnie, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC, put RIM's value at 'about $10 per share' - for the value of its patents.
RIM, which virtually invented the concept of on-your-hip email with its first BlackBerry devices, is due to release its first-quarter results on June 28.
Analysts had expected RIM to earn 42 cents a share on revenue of $3.64 billion in the quarter, according to analyst views collated by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
RIM also said it would make significant job cuts in some areas, confirming reports of reductions as RIM tries to reposition itself in a smartphone market where it now trails far behind rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc's Android.
But it gave no figures for the scale of the job cuts or the likely size of the operating loss. Two sources with close connections to RIM said last week that RIM, which currently employs around 16,500 people globally, plans to slash its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.
RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said it had hired the bankers from JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Canada, after releasing its year-end results in late March to aid its strategic review.
It wants the bankers to evaluate strategies including an overhaul of its whole business model, as well as less dramatic moves such as expanding the BlackBerry platform through partnerships and licensing deals.
Other smartphone makers can still not compete with the security features on RIM's devices, something that has made the BlackBerry a crucial tool for police, government and military use.
'These advisors have been tasked to help us with the strategic review we referenced on our year-end financial results conference call and to evaluate the relative merits and feasibility of various financial strategies,' CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement.
BLACKBERRY 10
RIM, its market share falling by the month, is pinning its hopes on its next-generation BlackBerry 10 models, which will use a spiffy new operating system that RIM says will let it compete more effectively against Apple and others.
But the new devices won't be released until later this year, pointing to further difficult quarters to come.
'I don't see the tide turning,' said Misek. 'The problem is the BlackBerry 10 handsets aren't coming out next quarter, so you know next quarter is going to most likely be worst. Then you look at the November quarter, when we'll probably get the BB10 handsets, and at the same time we'll have the iPhone 5. So that quarter is probably going to be bad.
'So we have a string of bad quarters coming and it really is tough to see how it's going to get better.'
In March, RIM posted a net loss of $125 million on the back of an inventory writedown for phones launched last year. Excluding those one-off items, RIM reported an adjusted profit of $418 million.
(Writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Frank McGurty)
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
RIM shares, already down more than 75 percent over the past 12 months and trading at 8-year lows, slumped nearly 13 percent to around $9.77 a share in after market trading.
'That is a disaster. It's really bad. We did not expect an operating loss this quickly,' said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.
Mark McKechnie, an analyst at ThinkEquity LLC, put RIM's value at 'about $10 per share' - for the value of its patents.
RIM, which virtually invented the concept of on-your-hip email with its first BlackBerry devices, is due to release its first-quarter results on June 28.
Analysts had expected RIM to earn 42 cents a share on revenue of $3.64 billion in the quarter, according to analyst views collated by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
RIM also said it would make significant job cuts in some areas, confirming reports of reductions as RIM tries to reposition itself in a smartphone market where it now trails far behind rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc's Android.
But it gave no figures for the scale of the job cuts or the likely size of the operating loss. Two sources with close connections to RIM said last week that RIM, which currently employs around 16,500 people globally, plans to slash its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.
RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said it had hired the bankers from JP Morgan and Royal Bank of Canada, after releasing its year-end results in late March to aid its strategic review.
It wants the bankers to evaluate strategies including an overhaul of its whole business model, as well as less dramatic moves such as expanding the BlackBerry platform through partnerships and licensing deals.
Other smartphone makers can still not compete with the security features on RIM's devices, something that has made the BlackBerry a crucial tool for police, government and military use.
'These advisors have been tasked to help us with the strategic review we referenced on our year-end financial results conference call and to evaluate the relative merits and feasibility of various financial strategies,' CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement.
BLACKBERRY 10
RIM, its market share falling by the month, is pinning its hopes on its next-generation BlackBerry 10 models, which will use a spiffy new operating system that RIM says will let it compete more effectively against Apple and others.
But the new devices won't be released until later this year, pointing to further difficult quarters to come.
'I don't see the tide turning,' said Misek. 'The problem is the BlackBerry 10 handsets aren't coming out next quarter, so you know next quarter is going to most likely be worst. Then you look at the November quarter, when we'll probably get the BB10 handsets, and at the same time we'll have the iPhone 5. So that quarter is probably going to be bad.
'So we have a string of bad quarters coming and it really is tough to see how it's going to get better.'
In March, RIM posted a net loss of $125 million on the back of an inventory writedown for phones launched last year. Excluding those one-off items, RIM reported an adjusted profit of $418 million.
(Writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Frank McGurty)
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
'Fifty Shades' reading is not always so discreet
NEW YORK (AP) - Ashley Cummings had a little mishap while engrossed in 'Fifty Shades of Grey' on her way to the San Francisco subway. Head down, clutching her iPad, she ran smack into a fellow pedestrian. When the downloaded culprit became clear, her victim went from grumpy to new friend.
It's not the only time the 24-year-old publicist's e-edition was something less than private. Across the country in Connecticut, her 13-year-old brother wondered why she was reading 'those sex books' when they also showed up on his iPad, since the two share an account.
'I laughed it off,' Cummings said, 'and proceeded to lock him out!'
Much has been made of the erotic trilogy's success thanks to discreet e-books, but whether downloaded or between paper covers, it has made for many a twisted life scenario since a mainstream publisher acquired rights and shot it out into the world nearly two months ago.
Margie Goolan's reading group with five, 40-something girlfriends in Novato, Calif., just finished 'Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman' by Robert K. Massie. Before that it was 'Tinkers,' a Pulitzer-winning journey into the painful past of a dying clock repairer, by Paul Harding.
Highbrow be damned for their next meeting. They succumbed to Grey, though Goolan was pulling for Brian Doyle's 'Mink River,' the lyrical story of quirky, fictional townsfolk along the Oregon coast.
'I had a laugh when I bought 'Fifty Shades' at the small local bookstore,' said Goolan, in San Francisco's north bay area. 'I'm in there often. When I told him that it's my book club's selection so I get the store's book club discount, he just smiled and said 'so it's gotten that far already.''
So much further, Mr. Bookseller.
Some Grey-lings proudly brandish their copies in public, posting and tweeting photos of themselves with their prizes for fun or as some sort of kinky badge of honor. Others won't leave the house with their books, while an unknown number are going the e-route.
Random House and its Vintage Books paperback imprint have sold more than 10 million copies of the rough-sex love story across all formats, including audiobooks. The publisher won't break down the sales by e-book versus paperback, but you know who you are (no judgment, just sayin').
Meagan Feeser, 30, in York, Pa., is a Kindle kind of Grey girl.
'It's embarrassing enough without everyone around you knowing that you're essentially reading pornography in their presence, not to mention the fact that I'm 37 weeks pregnant, so I would look like a walking stereotype,' she said.
A walking 'Fifty Shades Freed' stereotype. The last of the three books has once-innocent Ana enjoying a round or two of pregnant sex, Christian Grey style.
Feeser's all-female reading group took on the books in May. Two among them 'loved it.' Two, Feeser included, 'are having a hard time finishing the first one.' And two 'never read any of the books and just come for the wine.'
Turns out Feeser lives in a hotbed for 'Fifty Shades,' according to the book site Goodreads, one of the first places where the phenom surfaced.
The site looked at readership among 8.6 million members around the country to see which areas are the most Grey, weighting the data to account for population and membership fluctuations.
The highest concentration of 'Fifty Shades' readers was in the East's tri-state and New England regions, though the books by London mom E L James were liked more in southern and plains states than anywhere else in the country, Goodreads said.
Dan Malkin, 24, of New York City found himself in a strange Grey moment when he whipped out his copy on a bus to Boston, earning him funny looks from his female seatmate. A stolen glance at her Kindle revealed that she, too, was reading 'Fifty Shades.'
'The real question in my mind,' he puzzled, 'was did she know that I knew?'
Lisa Holden, 26, in San Francisco was on a train when she pulled a fast one on a lovely, elderly gentleman after he struck up a conversation about reading devices, like the Kindle she was cradling as she read 'Fifty Shades.'
When their chat rolled around to what she was reading, 'In a quick panic I lied and said 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.' I wouldn't read this book without using my Kindle. It keeps me from having to talk to a stranger about spanking.'
To heck with that, declares Patty Vonder Heide, 56, in suburban Chicago. She usually likes to read on her iPhone but chucked it in favor of hard copy for 'Fifty Shades' when she found herself distracted by the constant page turns.
'I'll purchase the next book in print and will take it to the pool or beach this summer for sure,' said the speech pathologist and mom of two grown children.
In Orlando, Fla., 25-year-old Laura Keesee has never been more thankful for her iPad as she read all three books nonstop. She's looking forward to re-reading without questions about why she's lugging around THOSE books again.
'Going into the bookstore and standing in line with the hard copies of the book, I would feel a little bashful,' she said. 'It's like standing in the grocery line buying condoms or tampons. Everyone knows what's going on.'
Keesee's boyfriend teased her so much about her Grey obsession that she took to quickly flipping to a different app when he, or anybody else, got too close.
'I'm not usually a shy or bashful person. I told everyone I was reading the books. I got a few colleagues to start reading and we had full discussions in the office,' she said. 'But there's something about being in the moment and reading 'Fifty Shades' that you just want it to be your little indulgence.'
This news article is brought to you by FOOD AND DRINKS NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
It's not the only time the 24-year-old publicist's e-edition was something less than private. Across the country in Connecticut, her 13-year-old brother wondered why she was reading 'those sex books' when they also showed up on his iPad, since the two share an account.
'I laughed it off,' Cummings said, 'and proceeded to lock him out!'
Much has been made of the erotic trilogy's success thanks to discreet e-books, but whether downloaded or between paper covers, it has made for many a twisted life scenario since a mainstream publisher acquired rights and shot it out into the world nearly two months ago.
Margie Goolan's reading group with five, 40-something girlfriends in Novato, Calif., just finished 'Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman' by Robert K. Massie. Before that it was 'Tinkers,' a Pulitzer-winning journey into the painful past of a dying clock repairer, by Paul Harding.
Highbrow be damned for their next meeting. They succumbed to Grey, though Goolan was pulling for Brian Doyle's 'Mink River,' the lyrical story of quirky, fictional townsfolk along the Oregon coast.
'I had a laugh when I bought 'Fifty Shades' at the small local bookstore,' said Goolan, in San Francisco's north bay area. 'I'm in there often. When I told him that it's my book club's selection so I get the store's book club discount, he just smiled and said 'so it's gotten that far already.''
So much further, Mr. Bookseller.
Some Grey-lings proudly brandish their copies in public, posting and tweeting photos of themselves with their prizes for fun or as some sort of kinky badge of honor. Others won't leave the house with their books, while an unknown number are going the e-route.
Random House and its Vintage Books paperback imprint have sold more than 10 million copies of the rough-sex love story across all formats, including audiobooks. The publisher won't break down the sales by e-book versus paperback, but you know who you are (no judgment, just sayin').
Meagan Feeser, 30, in York, Pa., is a Kindle kind of Grey girl.
'It's embarrassing enough without everyone around you knowing that you're essentially reading pornography in their presence, not to mention the fact that I'm 37 weeks pregnant, so I would look like a walking stereotype,' she said.
A walking 'Fifty Shades Freed' stereotype. The last of the three books has once-innocent Ana enjoying a round or two of pregnant sex, Christian Grey style.
Feeser's all-female reading group took on the books in May. Two among them 'loved it.' Two, Feeser included, 'are having a hard time finishing the first one.' And two 'never read any of the books and just come for the wine.'
Turns out Feeser lives in a hotbed for 'Fifty Shades,' according to the book site Goodreads, one of the first places where the phenom surfaced.
The site looked at readership among 8.6 million members around the country to see which areas are the most Grey, weighting the data to account for population and membership fluctuations.
The highest concentration of 'Fifty Shades' readers was in the East's tri-state and New England regions, though the books by London mom E L James were liked more in southern and plains states than anywhere else in the country, Goodreads said.
Dan Malkin, 24, of New York City found himself in a strange Grey moment when he whipped out his copy on a bus to Boston, earning him funny looks from his female seatmate. A stolen glance at her Kindle revealed that she, too, was reading 'Fifty Shades.'
'The real question in my mind,' he puzzled, 'was did she know that I knew?'
Lisa Holden, 26, in San Francisco was on a train when she pulled a fast one on a lovely, elderly gentleman after he struck up a conversation about reading devices, like the Kindle she was cradling as she read 'Fifty Shades.'
When their chat rolled around to what she was reading, 'In a quick panic I lied and said 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.' I wouldn't read this book without using my Kindle. It keeps me from having to talk to a stranger about spanking.'
To heck with that, declares Patty Vonder Heide, 56, in suburban Chicago. She usually likes to read on her iPhone but chucked it in favor of hard copy for 'Fifty Shades' when she found herself distracted by the constant page turns.
'I'll purchase the next book in print and will take it to the pool or beach this summer for sure,' said the speech pathologist and mom of two grown children.
In Orlando, Fla., 25-year-old Laura Keesee has never been more thankful for her iPad as she read all three books nonstop. She's looking forward to re-reading without questions about why she's lugging around THOSE books again.
'Going into the bookstore and standing in line with the hard copies of the book, I would feel a little bashful,' she said. 'It's like standing in the grocery line buying condoms or tampons. Everyone knows what's going on.'
Keesee's boyfriend teased her so much about her Grey obsession that she took to quickly flipping to a different app when he, or anybody else, got too close.
'I'm not usually a shy or bashful person. I told everyone I was reading the books. I got a few colleagues to start reading and we had full discussions in the office,' she said. 'But there's something about being in the moment and reading 'Fifty Shades' that you just want it to be your little indulgence.'
This news article is brought to you by FOOD AND DRINKS NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
RIM to benefit from job cuts: Macquarie
(Reuters) - Additional job cuts at Research In Motion Ltd would be prudent as the BlackBerry maker tries to improve its free cashflow ahead of the planned launch of its next-generation phones later this year, Macquarie Equities Research said.
RIM, which employs about 16,500 people, plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year, two sources told Reuters.
'We support further cost realignment in the face of falling revenue and margins,' Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithen said in a note to clients.
Macquarie cut its price target on RIM's U.S.-listed shares to $14.50 from $17.50. They had closed at $11.00 on Friday on the Nasdaq.
The Canadian smartphone maker is planning to launch its next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
Smithen said the May and August quarters will be 'especially difficult' for RIM as emerging market carriers begin to embrace Apple Inc's iPhone and low-cost Android devices.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)
This news article is brought to you by CLEANING-TIPS - where latest news are our top priority.
RIM, which employs about 16,500 people, plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year, two sources told Reuters.
'We support further cost realignment in the face of falling revenue and margins,' Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithen said in a note to clients.
Macquarie cut its price target on RIM's U.S.-listed shares to $14.50 from $17.50. They had closed at $11.00 on Friday on the Nasdaq.
The Canadian smartphone maker is planning to launch its next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
Smithen said the May and August quarters will be 'especially difficult' for RIM as emerging market carriers begin to embrace Apple Inc's iPhone and low-cost Android devices.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)
This news article is brought to you by CLEANING-TIPS - where latest news are our top priority.
RIM's top lawyer joins parade of resignations
TORONTO (Reuters) - The top lawyer at Research In Motion Ltd has resigned and will soon leave the struggling BlackBerry maker, RIM said on Monday, joining a parade of long-time company executives to depart since Thorsten Heins took over as CEO earlier this year.
The loss of Chief Legal Officer Karima Bawa - who litigated numerous patent disputes and helped write many of RIM's commercial deals - follows the resignation of RIM's head of global sales, Patrick Spence, last week.
'Thorsten Heins is reframing the RIM organization. Not everyone will fit into the new picture,' said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. 'Departures, forced or otherwise, are inevitable anytime management sets a new course for an organization.'
The resignations come ahead of what are expected to be massive layoffs this year as the company prepares to launch BlackBerry smartphones run by an operating system completely different from that used in its legacy phones.
RIM's shares have fallen some 75 percent in the last year while its market share has shriveled against competition from iPhone maker Apple Inc and a slew of manufacturers using Google Inc's Android operating system.
RIM's Toronto-listed rose 0.9 percent to C$11.34 late Monday afternoon. The company's Nasdaq-listed shares were not trading due to a U.S. holiday.
Bawa, who joined RIM in 2000, was promoted to general counsel and chief legal officer in late 2010.
She plans to stay with the company while a replacement is hired and during a transition, RIM said in an emailed statement after Reuters asked about Bawa's status.
Analysts and former employees have long complained about what they viewed as a hyper-cautious corporate approach at RIM. That grew out of a drawn-out patent dispute early in the company's rise and was exacerbated by the hiring of a slew of in-house lawyers afterwards.
CLEANING HOUSE
RIM is quietly cleaning out layers of management and recruiting fresh faces to fill important roles in a new structure being fashioned under Heins, who himself replaced longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in January.
'Thorsten has a very different leadership style,' said one former RIM employee who left several months ago. 'He is picking a very specific organizational structure, inner circle, external hires and strategy, and a lot of folks aren't 100 percent comfortable with it.'
The former employee spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his ongoing business relationship with the company.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company currently employs around 16,500 people globally. Two sources with close connections to RIM have told Reuters that RIM plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.
The sources asked to go unidentified because their disclosures would hurt their relationships with RIM.
The cuts will affect RIM's legal, marketing, sales, operations, and human resources divisions, one of the sources said.
'The Research In Motion people have come to know is very likely to be a much smaller organization in the near future,' said IDC's Restivo. 'It's a reflection of the company's smartphone struggles. Call it an trailing indicator if you will.'
RIM's share of the global smartphone market slipped to 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from 13.6 percent a year earlier, according to IDC.
A round of 2,000 job cuts was planned for around June 1, the day before the end of RIM's quarter, the Globe and Mail said on Saturday, citing several people close to the company.
Last July RIM said it cut 2,000 jobs, after its worker count ballooned to near 20,000 following a string of acquisitions in recent years.
Balsillie remains the departure with the highest profile. While cutting all formal ties to the company, he remains a major shareholder. Lazaridis is still influential on the board.
A chief operating officer, Jim Rowan, and the head of software David Yach left in March. Soon after, Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, and Alistair Mitchell, vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging product, also left.
The head of RIM's India unit left in November, its head of government relations left months before that, and former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy departed more than a year ago.
RIM said this month it had replaced Pardy with wireless veteran Frank Boulben, who has yet to start work.
It has also named Kristian Tear as its single chief operating officer. He replaces Heins, who took the CEO job, Rowan, who departed, and a third operating head, Don Morrison, who retired last year.
(Editing by Frank McGurty)
This article is brought to you by BUY COMPUTERS.
The loss of Chief Legal Officer Karima Bawa - who litigated numerous patent disputes and helped write many of RIM's commercial deals - follows the resignation of RIM's head of global sales, Patrick Spence, last week.
'Thorsten Heins is reframing the RIM organization. Not everyone will fit into the new picture,' said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. 'Departures, forced or otherwise, are inevitable anytime management sets a new course for an organization.'
The resignations come ahead of what are expected to be massive layoffs this year as the company prepares to launch BlackBerry smartphones run by an operating system completely different from that used in its legacy phones.
RIM's shares have fallen some 75 percent in the last year while its market share has shriveled against competition from iPhone maker Apple Inc and a slew of manufacturers using Google Inc's Android operating system.
RIM's Toronto-listed rose 0.9 percent to C$11.34 late Monday afternoon. The company's Nasdaq-listed shares were not trading due to a U.S. holiday.
Bawa, who joined RIM in 2000, was promoted to general counsel and chief legal officer in late 2010.
She plans to stay with the company while a replacement is hired and during a transition, RIM said in an emailed statement after Reuters asked about Bawa's status.
Analysts and former employees have long complained about what they viewed as a hyper-cautious corporate approach at RIM. That grew out of a drawn-out patent dispute early in the company's rise and was exacerbated by the hiring of a slew of in-house lawyers afterwards.
CLEANING HOUSE
RIM is quietly cleaning out layers of management and recruiting fresh faces to fill important roles in a new structure being fashioned under Heins, who himself replaced longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in January.
'Thorsten has a very different leadership style,' said one former RIM employee who left several months ago. 'He is picking a very specific organizational structure, inner circle, external hires and strategy, and a lot of folks aren't 100 percent comfortable with it.'
The former employee spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his ongoing business relationship with the company.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company currently employs around 16,500 people globally. Two sources with close connections to RIM have told Reuters that RIM plans to bring its workforce closer to 10,000 by early next year.
The sources asked to go unidentified because their disclosures would hurt their relationships with RIM.
The cuts will affect RIM's legal, marketing, sales, operations, and human resources divisions, one of the sources said.
'The Research In Motion people have come to know is very likely to be a much smaller organization in the near future,' said IDC's Restivo. 'It's a reflection of the company's smartphone struggles. Call it an trailing indicator if you will.'
RIM's share of the global smartphone market slipped to 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from 13.6 percent a year earlier, according to IDC.
A round of 2,000 job cuts was planned for around June 1, the day before the end of RIM's quarter, the Globe and Mail said on Saturday, citing several people close to the company.
Last July RIM said it cut 2,000 jobs, after its worker count ballooned to near 20,000 following a string of acquisitions in recent years.
Balsillie remains the departure with the highest profile. While cutting all formal ties to the company, he remains a major shareholder. Lazaridis is still influential on the board.
A chief operating officer, Jim Rowan, and the head of software David Yach left in March. Soon after, Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, and Alistair Mitchell, vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging product, also left.
The head of RIM's India unit left in November, its head of government relations left months before that, and former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy departed more than a year ago.
RIM said this month it had replaced Pardy with wireless veteran Frank Boulben, who has yet to start work.
It has also named Kristian Tear as its single chief operating officer. He replaces Heins, who took the CEO job, Rowan, who departed, and a third operating head, Don Morrison, who retired last year.
(Editing by Frank McGurty)
This article is brought to you by BUY COMPUTERS.
Monday, May 28, 2012
RIM loses another senior executive
TORONTO (AP) - Struggling BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd. is losing another senior executive as its chief legal officer is retiring from the company after 12 years.
RIM said Monday that Karima Bawa had been in discussions about her retirement for some time and plans to stay on to help with the transition once a replacement has been hired.
The departure comes amid reports that RIM may announce a major restructuring that could result in thousands of job cuts.
It also follows the departure last week of Patrick Spence, RIM's head of global sales. A number of executives left earlier this year, including founder Mike Lazaridis and co-chief executive Jim Balsillie. Lazaridis remains on the board.
Thorsten Heins became RIM's chief executive in January after RIM lost tens of billions in market value.
This news article is brought to you by MOTORCYCLES - where latest news are our top priority.
RIM said Monday that Karima Bawa had been in discussions about her retirement for some time and plans to stay on to help with the transition once a replacement has been hired.
The departure comes amid reports that RIM may announce a major restructuring that could result in thousands of job cuts.
It also follows the departure last week of Patrick Spence, RIM's head of global sales. A number of executives left earlier this year, including founder Mike Lazaridis and co-chief executive Jim Balsillie. Lazaridis remains on the board.
Thorsten Heins became RIM's chief executive in January after RIM lost tens of billions in market value.
This news article is brought to you by MOTORCYCLES - where latest news are our top priority.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Canada's RIM to cut at least 2000 jobs: report
TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd is preparing for a major restructuring beginning in the next couple of weeks that will see it eliminate at least 2,000 jobs worldwide, the Globe and Mail reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.
The Canadian newspaper, citing several people close to the company, reported that the next round is layoffs is said to be planned for around June 1 - a day before the BlackBerry smartphone maker's first quarter ends - but some expect the announcement even earlier.
One person familiar with the company's plans said the layoffs may cut even deeper than 2,000 jobs, the article said, adding that the layoffs are expected to sweep across departments including the legal, human resources, finance, sales and marketing units.
Company officials did not immediately respond to a message from Reuters seeking comment on the report.
Once the dominant player in the wireless e-mail sector, RIM has lost market share amid fierce competition from Apple Inc and phones running on Google Inc's Android software.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson and Alastair Sharp. Editing by Christopher Wilson)
This news article is brought to you by HOME-IMPROVEMENT - where latest news are our top priority.
The Canadian newspaper, citing several people close to the company, reported that the next round is layoffs is said to be planned for around June 1 - a day before the BlackBerry smartphone maker's first quarter ends - but some expect the announcement even earlier.
One person familiar with the company's plans said the layoffs may cut even deeper than 2,000 jobs, the article said, adding that the layoffs are expected to sweep across departments including the legal, human resources, finance, sales and marketing units.
Company officials did not immediately respond to a message from Reuters seeking comment on the report.
Once the dominant player in the wireless e-mail sector, RIM has lost market share amid fierce competition from Apple Inc
(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson and Alastair Sharp. Editing by Christopher Wilson)
This news article is brought to you by HOME-IMPROVEMENT - where latest news are our top priority.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Yahoo kills 'Livestand' just 6 months after debut
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo has killed Livestand, a tablet magazine, just six months after its debut on the iPad.
The decision announced Friday is part of the struggling Internet company's latest turnaround effort.
Last month, Yahoo Inc. told analysts it would close or combine about 50 services that haven't been performing up to expectations.
That housecleaning plan was drawn up by Yahoo's former CEO, Scott Thompson, who lasted at the company for an even shorter period than Livestand. Thompson's four-month stint at Yahoo ended two weeks ago when he stepped down amid a flap over incorrect information on his bio.
Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn hasn't said whether the company still plans to dump as many services as Thompson intended. A Friday post on Yahoo's corporate blog made it clear that more services will be closed, without specifying a precise number.
'When we discontinue products, it will be so that we can focus on opportunities where we lead and where we can create the most meaningful experiences for people using our products, and for our partners, developers and advertisers,' the post said.
Yahoo began working on Livestand in 2010 after it became clear Apple Inc.'s iPad was going to be popular. But the tablet magazine didn't hit the market until last November, well after a similar iPad application called 'Flipboard' had already attracted a large audience.
Nevertheless, Yahoo still had high hopes for Livestand. It was hailed as 'sort of a re-imagining of what Yahoo can be,' by Blake Irving, the company's chief product officer at the time of the tablet magazine's release. Irving left Yahoo last month after Thompson laid off about 2,000 workers and reshuffled management.
Livestand featured software that could be customized to pull content from Yahoo's own website, and other digital publishers to cater to each user's tastes.
It was the same concept pioneered by Flipboard, which was available shortly after the iPad's April 2010 debut. Flipboard became so popular that Apple named it as its 'app of the year' for 2010.
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S SELF DEFENSE TIPS - where latest news are our top priority.
The decision announced Friday is part of the struggling Internet company's latest turnaround effort.
Last month, Yahoo Inc. told analysts it would close or combine about 50 services that haven't been performing up to expectations.
That housecleaning plan was drawn up by Yahoo's former CEO, Scott Thompson, who lasted at the company for an even shorter period than Livestand. Thompson's four-month stint at Yahoo ended two weeks ago when he stepped down amid a flap over incorrect information on his bio.
Yahoo interim CEO Ross Levinsohn hasn't said whether the company still plans to dump as many services as Thompson intended. A Friday post on Yahoo's corporate blog made it clear that more services will be closed, without specifying a precise number.
'When we discontinue products, it will be so that we can focus on opportunities where we lead and where we can create the most meaningful experiences for people using our products, and for our partners, developers and advertisers,' the post said.
Yahoo began working on Livestand in 2010 after it became clear Apple Inc.'s iPad was going to be popular. But the tablet magazine didn't hit the market until last November, well after a similar iPad application called 'Flipboard' had already attracted a large audience.
Nevertheless, Yahoo still had high hopes for Livestand. It was hailed as 'sort of a re-imagining of what Yahoo can be,' by Blake Irving, the company's chief product officer at the time of the tablet magazine's release. Irving left Yahoo last month after Thompson laid off about 2,000 workers and reshuffled management.
Livestand featured software that could be customized to pull content from Yahoo's own website, and other digital publishers to cater to each user's tastes.
It was the same concept pioneered by Flipboard, which was available shortly after the iPad's April 2010 debut. Flipboard became so popular that Apple named it as its 'app of the year' for 2010.
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S SELF DEFENSE TIPS - where latest news are our top priority.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Zynga unleashes zombies on smartphones
Zombies stalked San Francisco streets on Thursday as social game maker Zynga ghoulishly introduced a game that lets iPhone or iPod Touch users slash and hack the undead.
Actors posing as the living dead were unleashed here and in Manhattan ahead of the 'Zombie Swipeout' launch. The hordes enticed humans with free 'blood pops' -- hibiscus and mint popsicles promising the 'fleshiest' ingredients.
'We love zombies,' said Zynga Mobile Germany studio director Matthias Hoechsmann, whose small startup gave the world the hit game 'ZombieSmash' before being bought in October by the San Francisco-based social games star.
'What we love most is there are so many things you can do to zombies - anvils, machetes, baseball bats, landmines...' he continued as he gave AFP a preview of the new smartphone game.
'It's guilt-free killing because they are already dead.'
'Zombie Swipeout' will launch globally in coming weeks.
The free, arcade style game has one rule: don't kill the good guy.
Cartoon zombies bounce into view on screen and points are scored by slaughtering them by slashing with fingers. Occasionally a human character arcs into the mix, and killing him ends the game.
'The object of the game is to slash, slice, bludgeon, explode, and freeze as many zombies as possible without harming Joey, the lone human survivor from ZombieSmash,' according to Hoechsmann.
Hoechsmann's path to game design was an unusual one. He studied computer science and genome research in Germany, earning a doctorate degree.
Hoechsmann took a position at a California State university where he studied micro-organisms that could survive in extreme temperatures.
He was a college researcher and his brother was working on a doctorate degree of his own in Germany when the iPhone launched and 'changed our lives.'
'My brother and I grew up with games and played every game out there, so we learned something about programming and started making our own games.'
'Zombie Swipeout' grows more challenging as players progress through levels. Extra points are award for moves such as head blows or chain kills.
Players can earn, or buy, weapons with special powers such as slowing enemies or adding time to games. Players are given 75 seconds to earn as many points as they can.
Leader boards rank friends weekly according to high scores and display special badges earned. And snapshots of 'awesome kills' can be shared on social networking service Facebook or sent to friends by email.
This article is brought to you by CHEAP COMPUTERS.
Actors posing as the living dead were unleashed here and in Manhattan ahead of the 'Zombie Swipeout' launch. The hordes enticed humans with free 'blood pops' -- hibiscus and mint popsicles promising the 'fleshiest' ingredients.
'We love zombies,' said Zynga Mobile Germany studio director Matthias Hoechsmann, whose small startup gave the world the hit game 'ZombieSmash' before being bought in October by the San Francisco-based social games star.
'What we love most is there are so many things you can do to zombies - anvils, machetes, baseball bats, landmines...' he continued as he gave AFP a preview of the new smartphone game.
'It's guilt-free killing because they are already dead.'
'Zombie Swipeout' will launch globally in coming weeks.
The free, arcade style game has one rule: don't kill the good guy.
Cartoon zombies bounce into view on screen and points are scored by slaughtering them by slashing with fingers. Occasionally a human character arcs into the mix, and killing him ends the game.
'The object of the game is to slash, slice, bludgeon, explode, and freeze as many zombies as possible without harming Joey, the lone human survivor from ZombieSmash,' according to Hoechsmann.
Hoechsmann's path to game design was an unusual one. He studied computer science and genome research in Germany, earning a doctorate degree.
Hoechsmann took a position at a California State university where he studied micro-organisms that could survive in extreme temperatures.
He was a college researcher and his brother was working on a doctorate degree of his own in Germany when the iPhone launched and 'changed our lives.'
'My brother and I grew up with games and played every game out there, so we learned something about programming and started making our own games.'
'Zombie Swipeout' grows more challenging as players progress through levels. Extra points are award for moves such as head blows or chain kills.
Players can earn, or buy, weapons with special powers such as slowing enemies or adding time to games. Players are given 75 seconds to earn as many points as they can.
Leader boards rank friends weekly according to high scores and display special badges earned. And snapshots of 'awesome kills' can be shared on social networking service Facebook or sent to friends by email.
This article is brought to you by CHEAP COMPUTERS.
BlackBerry stock falls after sales chief resigns
TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares in Research In Motion Ltd fell more than 3 percent on Thursday morning after the BlackBerry maker said its global sales chief had resigned.
The resignation of Patrick Spence, a 14-year RIM veteran, comes as the Canadian company struggles to sell legacy products and prepares for the make-or-break launch of its new smartphone later this year.
London-based Spence had risen steadily through RIM's ranks and was widely credited with building strong sales growth in the Middle East and other emerging markets.
'Losing Patrick is undoubtedly a blow to RIM and he is a significant loss to the European operation,' said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight. 'He was a well-liked and committed BlackBerry advocate who was highly regarded both inside and outside the business.'
RIM did not name a replacement or say where Spence was going when it made the announcement late on Wednesday.
Spence was pivotal to the global launch of a range of BlackBerry 7 devices last year and had worked to decentralize RIM's sales planning so it fit better with regional needs.
His sudden departure was not a shock to some analysts, who said his close ties to RIM's former co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie may have left him isolated after Balsillie quit earlier this year over a major strategy disagreement.
'Spence was a Balsillie protégé so his departure isn't a surprise altogether,' said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. 'But his departure is still a punch in the stomach to RIM faithful as he helped the company rise to prominence in key markets such as the UK and the Gulf states.'
New CEO Thorsten Heins moved quickly to put his stamp on the company after he took over in January from Balsillie, who had focused on sales, and founder Mike Lazaridis, who led product development.
Heins filled a long vacant chief marketing job earlier this month and also named Kristian Tear as chief operating officer. Being passed over for that job may have influenced Spence's decision to leave, the Globe and Mail newspaper said, citing a source close to the company.
The departure creates a void in sales as RIM struggles to sell existing devices seen as lagging those of industry leaders Apple and Samsung, while at the same time working on a major transition of its smartphone lineup to the operating system first used in its poor-selling PlayBook tablet.
The stock was down 3 percent at $10.75 at mid-morning on the Nasdaq. It has lost three-quarters of its value in the past year and languishes at prices last seen in December 2003, when its annual sales were seven times smaller than its last quarterly revenue tally.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Peter Galloway)
This news article is brought to you by FEAR OF COMMITMENT - where latest news are our top priority.
The resignation of Patrick Spence, a 14-year RIM veteran, comes as the Canadian company struggles to sell legacy products and prepares for the make-or-break launch of its new smartphone later this year.
London-based Spence had risen steadily through RIM's ranks and was widely credited with building strong sales growth in the Middle East and other emerging markets.
'Losing Patrick is undoubtedly a blow to RIM and he is a significant loss to the European operation,' said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight. 'He was a well-liked and committed BlackBerry advocate who was highly regarded both inside and outside the business.'
RIM did not name a replacement or say where Spence was going when it made the announcement late on Wednesday.
Spence was pivotal to the global launch of a range of BlackBerry 7 devices last year and had worked to decentralize RIM's sales planning so it fit better with regional needs.
His sudden departure was not a shock to some analysts, who said his close ties to RIM's former co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie may have left him isolated after Balsillie quit earlier this year over a major strategy disagreement.
'Spence was a Balsillie protégé so his departure isn't a surprise altogether,' said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. 'But his departure is still a punch in the stomach to RIM faithful as he helped the company rise to prominence in key markets such as the UK and the Gulf states.'
New CEO Thorsten Heins moved quickly to put his stamp on the company after he took over in January from Balsillie, who had focused on sales, and founder Mike Lazaridis, who led product development.
Heins filled a long vacant chief marketing job earlier this month and also named Kristian Tear as chief operating officer. Being passed over for that job may have influenced Spence's decision to leave, the Globe and Mail newspaper said, citing a source close to the company.
The departure creates a void in sales as RIM struggles to sell existing devices seen as lagging those of industry leaders Apple and Samsung, while at the same time working on a major transition of its smartphone lineup to the operating system first used in its poor-selling PlayBook tablet.
The stock was down 3 percent at $10.75 at mid-morning on the Nasdaq. It has lost three-quarters of its value in the past year and languishes at prices last seen in December 2003, when its annual sales were seven times smaller than its last quarterly revenue tally.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Peter Galloway)
This news article is brought to you by FEAR OF COMMITMENT - where latest news are our top priority.
Interactive Atlas Puts the Whole World in Your Hand
[More from Mashable: App Puts Your Bad Parking in the News [VIDEO]]
The interactive atlas, based on the Barefoot Books atlas, features a colorful globe that children can spin to discover far-off places. The app is optimized to take advantage of the new iPad's Retina display, though it will render fine with previous versions.
Kids can pinch and zoom their way through different countries. They learn about cultures, see 3D rotations of historical objects and find fun facts like how far away the country is or what the local weather is as they go. Navigation tabs let them jump directly to a specific country or region, and some include actual photographs taken from that location. Tap the voice icon and the info is read aloud.
[More from Mashable: The Business of In-App Advertising [VIDEO]]
Exploring geography isn't always high on kids' lists of fun things to do, but this interactive atlas will keep them engaged and eager to explore.
At $7.99, the app is more expensive than most iOS apps, but given the amount of information and live updating -- and the chance to watch your kids interacting with other cultures -- this one is worth the trip.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
This article is brought to you by BUY A NEW COMPUTER.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
RIM's head of global sales leaving BlackBerry maker
TORONTO (Reuters) - The head of global sales at Research In Motion Ltd has resigned to take on a leadership role in another industry, the BlackBerry maker said on Wednesday, a major blow ahead of make-or-break product launches due later this year.
Patrick Spence was a 14-year RIM veteran widely considered a rising star. A spokeswoman for RIM said Spence's last day with the company will be June 15.
Spence was promoted to the global sales role in July after serving as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A source close to the company told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Spence likely stepped down after being passed over for the chief operating officer role recently filled by Kristian Tear, who spent most of his career at Sony Corp, Ericsson, and their Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture.
Tear's role covers operational functions for handhelds and services, including research and development, global sales, manufacturing and supply chain management.
RIM has seen a steady stream of departures in the past year as its once-dominant market share has slipped amid fierce competition from Apple Inc and phones running on Google Inc's Android software.
London-based Spence helped launch a range of BlackBerry 7 devices last year and had also worked to decentralize RIM's sales planning so it fit better with regional sensibilities.
Spence joined RIM soon after graduating from the University of Western Ontario, before the company had created its first BlackBerry smartphone.
RIM spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy said the sales function will report directly to Chief Executive Thorsten Heins on an interim basis before coming under Tear when he starts work in coming months. RIM did not name a replacement for Spence or say where he was going.
Heins replaced longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who stepped down in January, and has moved quickly to clear house. Other key executives have also exited the company in the past year.
A chief operating officer, Jim Rowan, and head of software David Yach left in March, at the same time that Balsillie left the board. Other recent departures include Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, and Alistair Mitchell, a vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging product.
The head of RIM's India unit left in November, its head of government relations left months before that, and former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy departed more than a year ago.
RIM said this month it had replaced Pardy with wireless veteran Frank Boulben, who has yet to start work.
Analysts expect RIM to struggle to sell its legacy devices - widely considered inferior to Apple's latest iPhone and high-end Android devices - for several quarters ahead of the planned launch of next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
In July, RIM slashed 2,000 jobs, or about 11 percent of its workforce, to cut costs as sales and profit fell. [ID:nL3E7IP251] Its developer relations and sales and marketing teams were particularly hard hit.
The company posted a loss in its most recent quarter on the back of a writedown on unsold inventory and a slump in phone shipments.
RIM shares have fallen more than 80 percent from a peak of almost $70 in February 2011, to close at $11.09 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Richard Pullin)
This news article is brought to you by DANCING - where latest news are our top priority.
Patrick Spence was a 14-year RIM veteran widely considered a rising star. A spokeswoman for RIM said Spence's last day with the company will be June 15.
Spence was promoted to the global sales role in July after serving as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A source close to the company told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Spence likely stepped down after being passed over for the chief operating officer role recently filled by Kristian Tear, who spent most of his career at Sony Corp, Ericsson, and their Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture.
Tear's role covers operational functions for handhelds and services, including research and development, global sales, manufacturing and supply chain management.
RIM has seen a steady stream of departures in the past year as its once-dominant market share has slipped amid fierce competition from Apple Inc and phones running on Google Inc's Android software.
London-based Spence helped launch a range of BlackBerry 7 devices last year and had also worked to decentralize RIM's sales planning so it fit better with regional sensibilities.
Spence joined RIM soon after graduating from the University of Western Ontario, before the company had created its first BlackBerry smartphone.
RIM spokeswoman Tenille Kennedy said the sales function will report directly to Chief Executive Thorsten Heins on an interim basis before coming under Tear when he starts work in coming months. RIM did not name a replacement for Spence or say where he was going.
Heins replaced longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who stepped down in January, and has moved quickly to clear house. Other key executives have also exited the company in the past year.
A chief operating officer, Jim Rowan, and head of software David Yach left in March, at the same time that Balsillie left the board. Other recent departures include Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, and Alistair Mitchell, a vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging product.
The head of RIM's India unit left in November, its head of government relations left months before that, and former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy departed more than a year ago.
RIM said this month it had replaced Pardy with wireless veteran Frank Boulben, who has yet to start work.
Analysts expect RIM to struggle to sell its legacy devices - widely considered inferior to Apple's latest iPhone and high-end Android devices - for several quarters ahead of the planned launch of next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
In July, RIM slashed 2,000 jobs, or about 11 percent of its workforce, to cut costs as sales and profit fell. [ID:nL3E7IP251] Its developer relations and sales and marketing teams were particularly hard hit.
The company posted a loss in its most recent quarter on the back of a writedown on unsold inventory and a slump in phone shipments.
RIM shares have fallen more than 80 percent from a peak of almost $70 in February 2011, to close at $11.09 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Richard Pullin)
This news article is brought to you by DANCING - where latest news are our top priority.
HP to cut 27,000 jobs to save up to $3.5B annually
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to cut 27,000 jobs as the growing popularity of smartphones, the iPad and other mobile devices makes it tougher for the company to sell personal computers.
The cuts announced Wednesday represent HP's largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. The reductions will affect about 8 percent of HP's nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014.
Word of the mass layoff had leaked out in media reports late last week, so the news didn't come as a surprise.
HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs as possible by offering early retirement packages.
The company, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., expects to save as much as $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other austerity measures.
HP CEO Meg Whitman plans to funnel most of the savings into developing more products and services that could help the company adapt to technological shifts. Those changes are driving demand for more mobile computing and for software that is provided over high-speed Internet connections, rather than installed on individual computers.
Investors seemed to be delighted with the shake-up. HP's shares surged $2.42, or more than 11 percent, to $23.50 in extended trading Wednesday after the announcement.
'Work force reductions are never easy,' Whitman said in a conference call Wednesday with analysts. 'They adversely impact people's lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company. Our goal is simple: a better outcome for the customers at reduced cost for HP.'
Whitman's crackdown will immediately change the leaders within HP's recently acquired Autonomy division, which makes software for searching for information within companies and government agencies.
Bill Veghte, HP's chief strategy officer, is replacing Autonomy founder Mike Lynch in an effort to boost the division's financial performance. The shake-up is likely to amplify investor questions about whether HP blundered last year when it paid $11 billion to buy Autonomy. That deal was announced in August by Whitman's predecessor, Leo Apotheker, just a month before he was fired.
News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results.
The company earned $1.6 billion, or 80 cent per share, during the three months ending in April, its fiscal second quarter. That represented a 31 percent decline from $2.3 billion, or $1.05 per share, at the same time last year.
If not for several items unrelated to HP's ongoing business, the company said it would have earned 98 cents per share. That figure topped the average estimate of 91 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue for HP's fiscal second quarter fell 3 percent from last year to $30.7 billion. That was about $800 million above analyst projections.
'I wouldn't say we have turned the corner, but we are making progress,' Whitman told analysts.
To pay for severance and other restructuring costs, HP expects to take a pre-tax charge of about $1.7 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends in October. It expects to take charges of an additional $1.8 billion through fiscal 2014.
The cuts announced Wednesday represent HP's largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. The reductions will affect about 8 percent of HP's nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014.
Word of the mass layoff had leaked out in media reports late last week, so the news didn't come as a surprise.
HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs as possible by offering early retirement packages.
The company, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., expects to save as much as $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other austerity measures.
HP CEO Meg Whitman plans to funnel most of the savings into developing more products and services that could help the company adapt to technological shifts. Those changes are driving demand for more mobile computing and for software that is provided over high-speed Internet connections, rather than installed on individual computers.
Investors seemed to be delighted with the shake-up. HP's shares surged $2.42, or more than 11 percent, to $23.50 in extended trading Wednesday after the announcement.
'Work force reductions are never easy,' Whitman said in a conference call Wednesday with analysts. 'They adversely impact people's lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company. Our goal is simple: a better outcome for the customers at reduced cost for HP.'
Whitman's crackdown will immediately change the leaders within HP's recently acquired Autonomy division, which makes software for searching for information within companies and government agencies.
Bill Veghte, HP's chief strategy officer, is replacing Autonomy founder Mike Lynch in an effort to boost the division's financial performance. The shake-up is likely to amplify investor questions about whether HP blundered last year when it paid $11 billion to buy Autonomy. That deal was announced in August by Whitman's predecessor, Leo Apotheker, just a month before he was fired.
News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results.
The company earned $1.6 billion, or 80 cent per share, during the three months ending in April, its fiscal second quarter. That represented a 31 percent decline from $2.3 billion, or $1.05 per share, at the same time last year.
If not for several items unrelated to HP's ongoing business, the company said it would have earned 98 cents per share. That figure topped the average estimate of 91 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue for HP's fiscal second quarter fell 3 percent from last year to $30.7 billion. That was about $800 million above analyst projections.
'I wouldn't say we have turned the corner, but we are making progress,' Whitman told analysts.
To pay for severance and other restructuring costs, HP expects to take a pre-tax charge of about $1.7 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends in October. It expects to take charges of an additional $1.8 billion through fiscal 2014.
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