Mr Marcus McGowan MSc PgDip BA (Hons)

This Business Education Learning Blog is aimed primarily at Higher Business Management students/teachers and ICT students/teachers.

The aim of this blog is to provide you with interesting articles, news, trivia as well as resources or links to materials which will help in your course of study.

I am a Teacher of Business Education and I have written for Education Scotland and BBC Bitesize.

If you'd like to contact me please click on the link to: email me
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts

Monday, 31 December 2012

Apple CEO takes massive pay cut

From BBC Business News:

Tim Cook will take home a salary of just 1% of the $378m (£235m) he received to be Apple's boss last year. In a regulatory filing, the iPhone-maker's head said he would get a salary of $1.4m and a bonus of $2.8m for 2012.


Most of his money from 2011 came from a grant of shares awarded for becoming the chief executive, and Apple said he would not get any new shares. "Mr Cook's target cash compensation remains significantly below the median for CEOs of peer companies," it said.

Sunday, 30 December 2012

iWatch

mashable.com/2012/12/27/app…

Download the official Twitter app here


Sent from my iPad

Steve Jobs Presentation

A presentation on Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple.


Saturday, 29 December 2012

Apple's new smartphone: the iWatch

More information on apple’s planned rival to the smartphone... what has been dubbed the iWatch:



#business #apple #iWatch

Friday, 28 December 2012

Apple sued by Chinese software writers for $166,000

Apple are being told to pay $166,000 to 7 Chinese writers for infringement of copyright.

Apparently the writers have sued Apple over their content being free on iTunes and being downloaded through the AppStore. The writers have seen the work being given away for free, which has meant lost revenue for them and their company called ChineseAll.

Another incident in the ‘conflict’ between China and Apple! To be honest, I can only see one winner.

Friday, 21 December 2012

Business Facts #14


All 3 founders of Apple worked at Atari before forming Apple

Friday, 14 December 2012

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Google Maps Already a Massive Apple Apps Hit

The long awaited release of Google Maps has not disappointed. Google Maps, which is a free download, has already taken top spot in the free download category for iPhones and iPads.

Apple's own maps was good but it just doesn't seem to compare with the highly popular Google Maps and of course the legendary StreetView which everyone seems to love!

Friday, 25 November 2011

Apple TV Latest News

From Fortune, a report by Peter Misek in Japan has learned the following about the partnership between Apple and Sharp:

  • We believe Apple has shifted display production and that Sharp has now become a large panel supplier, based on our checks. We believe that the Gen 6 Kameyama facility has been exclusively taken over for Apple purposes with Apple purchasing $500M to $1B of equipment for the manufacturing of iPad 3 and iPhone 5 LTE displays.
  • We believe production of iPad 3 displays began two weeks ago and is the cause of much of the noise in the supply chain.
  • We believe that Apple and Sharp together have a modified IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) technology to achieve 330 dpi, which is sufficient for an HD display while not using IPS nor having to include dual-bar LED backlighting. In our view, this should lead to several design advantages, namely the device can be thinner, battery life should be longer, and the overall experience for users should be meaningfully improved.
  • We believe that Apple may use this facility for the vast majority of the iPad 3 displays. The price at which Apple will be able to procure these panels will be lower than expected as the capital commitment by Apple likely necessitates below market pricing in our view.
  • For the iPhone 5 LTE we also believe this new facility will be used to supply displays. The IGZO technology is perfect in that it offers near-OLED power consumption while having a lower cost and thinness that is only 25% greater than OLED, based on our checks. [OLED =Organic light-emitting diode]
  • Even after the iPad 3 launch, we believe Apple will continue to produce the iPad 2 and will lower the price by $100 to $200.
  • Going forward we believe that Apple and Sharp will jointly develop OLED panels for use in iPhone and iPad within the next 1 to 2 years. This contrasts with conventional wisdom that states Samsung will have a lock on OLED for that timeframe. The equalizer is a new printing technology based on a combination of daisy wheel and inkjet technology that "prints" the OLED onto a film that is then deposited onto glass. The yield improvements have been enormous and have enabled some trial runs to produce commercial yields. We expect Sharp/Apple to have a line testing this by the middle of 2012 with 2013 output possible.
  • Based on our checks we believe OLED is only slated for small and mid-sized panels (i.e., iPad, iPhone). iTV is unlikely to receive OLED treatment until 2015.

Friday, 18 November 2011

PC v Apple Quiz

Are you a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs type of person?

Take the PC v Apple quiz and see how you get on.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs changed the world. He was born in 1955 to a Syrian father and an American mother but was put up for adoption. He was raised by the Jobs family who worked near Silicon Valley.

He formed Apple with Steve Wozniak and together they launched in 1976 the Apple I. In 1977 they launched Apple II which was the first home computer.

Famously Steve Jobs visited Xerox and saw their icon driven systems which inspired him to created the Macintosh in 1984, which also featured an iconic advert filmed by Ridley Scott in the style of an Orwellian nightmare.

Jobs left Apple in 1985 under a cloud and then formed NeXT (which was used by Tim Berners-Lee to create the World Wide Web) and he also found time to buy out George Lucas' stake in an animation company called Pixar.

Jobs returned in 1997 to Apple and in 1999 had helped launch colour versions of the Apple Mac.

However it was in 2001 that Steve Jobs and Apple really started to fulfill their potential and promise. The iPod was launched, revolutionising modern portable music, followed by iTunes in 2003, the online store to download music. An incredible achievement in an era where many used the internet to download mp3 files for free!

How could he top this? In 2007 he launched the smartphone to end all smartphones: the iPhone. This was a portable PC in your pocket. And then in 2010 he went into the market they said couldn't be done... the Tablet PC. Apple's version was called the iPad and has already sold millions of units.

Steve Job's untimely passing will have a profound effect on Apple, which for a brief time this year became the world's top company, eclpising Exxon Mobil.

Steve Jobs was a visionary who always cared for aesthetics as much as performance. Style over content, perhaps, but that was and is Apple.

It has been remarked that he will be remembered alongside Thomas Edison and Henry Ford as genuine American legendary entrepreneurs.

Thursday, 30 September 2010

The iPad

The iPad has been the first successful Tablet PC after Microsoft's failed attempt some years back.

Apple's powerful brand image and style has been a key selling point, with customers willing to spend well over £400 for the iPad.

Tablet PC's are in the no man's land between a smart phone and a laptop or indeed a laptop and a PC. That was Microsoft's problem. Many people just didn't need one.

Apple have sold in excess of 3.5 million iPads since the launch in April.

However it still is not compatible with Macromedia Flash - meaning many internet applications cannot be utilised properly.

The competition is starting to take note of what Apple did well and producing imitations such as the Samsung Galaxy Tablet PC which has many of the features of the iPad, but it can make calls and has two cameras. The Galaxy is crucially nearly £100 cheaper!

So what will be the future of the iPad and the Tablet PC?

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Apple Launch the i-Pad

Apple founder Steve Jobs launched the i-Pad, the latest attempt to make a success of the Tablet computer market.

During the iPad launch, Apple said that it had recently sold its 250 millionth iPod.
One analyst predicted future sales of the iPod will be cannibalised by those of the iPad.

Apple's rivals Microsoft had a rare product failure in this category with a Tablet Computer that didn't catch on in 2001.

Apple said its aim was to try to create a third category of product that sits between a laptop and a smartphone, which is the traditional interpretation of a tablet computer.

There are some issues with the iPad. It does not support multi-tasking, the ability to have more than one application open at any one time. It doesn't have a camera nor support Flash, the ubiquitous software that handles video and animation on the web.

Some believe the lack of a camera is to keep the price low and afordable to less of a nice market and more of a mass market.

A 32GB iPad will cost $599 (£376) and a 64GB will cost $699 (£439).

However, Apple has given no hint about exact UK prices and final costs may be higher.

Polymath Stephen Fry is raving about the new gadget . He was at the launch and had a trial of the iPad. He said he would like to run away with it!

So will we be talking about the iPad in the same way the iPod and to a lesser extent the iPhone have fired our imaginations?

Remember, for a brilliant example of how to pitch your product, look up Steve Jobs iPod launch for his incredible presentation. I show this to classes every year as he not only introduces the product but he explains how and why they found and satisfied the gap in the market. It is truly brilliant!

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs. It is on You Tube so you may not be able to access it in school, but it is worth the wait when you get home!

Friday, 27 November 2009

In the News...

BORDERS GOES BUST

The Borders bookshop chain in the UK has gone into administration.

Administrators MCR said all 45 Borders and Books Etc stores would remain open while it sought a buyer for all or some of the outlets.

Borders has suffered from increased competition from online retailers and supermarkets, and its website recently stopped taking new book orders.

DUBAI DEBT CAUSES WOBBLE

European shares have been hit by concerns over Dubai's financial health, after a government-owned company asked for an extension on repaying its debts.

The UK's FTSE 100 index lost 3.2%, its biggest one-day fall since March, after Dubai World asked creditors to postpone upcoming repayments until May 2010.

Banks were hit particularly hard on concerns over Dubai's ability to pay back its debts.
Share indexes, however, are trading at their highest levels for over a year.

JAPAN COMING OUT OF RECESSION?

Japan's exports fell at their slowest annual rate in a year in October, providing further evidence of the country's emergence from recession.

Exports from the world's second largest economy totalled 5.3tn yen ($60bn; $36bn), a fall of 23.2% from the same month a year earlier.

The main reason for the improvement was higher demand in Asia, analysts said.
Last week, Japan posted figures showing it had grown between July and September for the second straight quarter.

TESCO AND i-PHONE TEAM UP

Supermarket giant Tesco has joined a growing number of UK firms offering Apple's popular iPhone.

A spokesperson for the firm said that it hoped to offer the phone "in time for Christmas".

Although Tesco has not revealed tariffs, the spokesperson said that its prices were "competitive".

In September, it was revealed that O2 had lost its exclusive deal to sell the phone, which had been in place since its launch in 2007.

Both Vodafone and Orange have signed deals to sell the phone.

CHINA TO GO GREEN?

China has unveiled its first firm target for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, two weeks before a global summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

Beijing said it would aim to reduce its "carbon intensity" by 40-45% by the year 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

Carbon intensity, China's preferred measurement, is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP.

AND FINALLY...

The US Secret Service is investigating reports that a couple gatecrashed Tuesday night's state dinner at the White House, US media say.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi were reportedly not invited but later posted photos of themselves on Facebook.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the pair were screened and the president was never in any danger, but former FBI agent Brad Garrett described the incident as a "real concern."

The Washington Post described the Salahis as "polo-playing socialites" with Ms Salahi said to be on the cast of the Real Housewives of Washington television programme.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

Friday, 23 October 2009

Nokia take on Apple

TWhen you have been No. 1 in any industry, the only was is down. This happened to Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone giant.

Nokia makes beautiful phones, but they needed to offer extra funtcions to keep up with Apple. To create a smartphone!

The iPhone has become the gold standard by which all other mobiles are measured.

Nokia has lost substantial ground in the North American cell phone market.

Apple, according to Nokia, has gotten a free ride since the iPhone launched—a very fast ride. Apple commands 22% of the smartphone market in the US, and globally, it holds 12% of the market, more than doubling its share from last year.

Meanwhile, despite its best efforts, Nokia has steadily lost ground. It holds 40% of the market, down from 43% last year, according to IDC. And in the competitive North American market, Nokia is barely holding its own with just 3%.

Nokia is now ringing the changes to create a range of smartphones able to match Apple's iPhone. But will it have it's rival's 'cool' factor?

Source: Fortune

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