Smartphones overtake ‘dumb’ phones worldwide

Manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones worldwide in the first three months of this year, compared with 189 million regular cellphones, according to a study IDC released late Thursday. IDC said smartphones made up 51.6 percent of the 419 million mobile phones shipped.

More here …

 

Faking It, Whee Look At The Growth …. Data Shift To Lift US Economy 3%

Data shift to lift US economy 3%

The faked numbers get officially bigger … No new jobs, no real growth, just more faking of the whole. It’s magic … In other words, all the GDP “growth” since the Lehman failure has come on the back of money “created” by the Fed.

Making air soar … Intangibles, seasonal adjustments, etc etc. They’ll do whatever it takes…

The Bureau of Economic Analysis have a plan on how to make the US economy, which is now growing at an abysmal 1.5% annualized pace, or about 5 times slower than US debt growing at 7.5% annually, catch up: magically make up a number out of thin air, and add it to the total. And it literally is out of thin air: according to the FT the addition will constitute of a one-time addition of intangibles, amounting to 3% of total US GDP, or more than the size of Belgium at $500 billion, to the US economy.

From FT:

The US economy will officially become 3 per cent bigger in July as part of a shake-up that will see government statistics take into account 21st century components such as film royalties and spending on research and development.

Billions of dollars of intangible assets will enter the gross domestic product of the world’s largest economy in a revision aimed at capturing the changing nature of US output.

Brent Moulton, who manages the national accounts at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, told the Financial Times that the update was the biggest since computer software was added to the accounts in 1999.

“We are carrying these major changes all the way back in time – which for us means to 1929 – so we are essentially rewriting economic history,” said Mr Moulton.

What exactly will constitute GDP growth going forward? In a word, intangibles: films, books, magazines and iTunes songs.

 “We’re capitalising research and development and also this category referred to as entertainment, literary and artistic originals, which would be things like motion picture originals, long-lasting television programmes, books and sound recordings,” said Mr Moulton.

At present, R&D counts as a cost of doing business, so the final output of Apple iPads is included in GDP but the research done to create them is not. R&D will now count as an investment, adding a bit more than 2 per cent to the measured size of the economy.

Nothing like adding intangibles in the fluid, ever-changing government definition definition of what constitutes an economy.

JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson Is Out

So much for the “transformational” CEO, poached from AAPL and credited with creating the AAPL retail mystique. As per CNBC, he now effectively “out”:

J.C. PENNEY TO OUST RON JOHNSON AS CEO: CNBC
J.C. PENNEY’S CEO JOHNSON `IS OUT’: CNBC

At least he lasted just a bit longer than the former JCP president Mike Francis, who came, saw, collected $10 million, and quit nine months later.

 

The Insane: Bloomberg Targets Too-Loud Earbuds

Out front with all the Fascists crude he can stuff down you. If I lived in New York, I would move.

Hear is the latest … because you are too stupid.

The latest health initiative being pushed by the Bloomberg administration is  a social media campaign aimed at young people who listen to music too loudly  using earbuds.

With the proliferation of personal music players, New Yorkers are often seen  on the streets and subways wearing the hearing devices.

The risk of hearing loss is a real problem.

An iPod can reach 115 decibels when only 85 decibels is safe, reported the NY  Post.

The paper also cites a statistic from the Third National Health and Nutrition  Examination Survey that found hearing loss skyrocketed 30 percent about teens  between 1988-2006.

Bloomberg has cracked down on smoking, junk food, trans fats, salt and  super-sized drinks often with heavy criticism.

Read more:

Did you know you can turn the iPod volume up? And down. If one ear can be saved we should regulate iPod volume.

JCP Penny Retail Sales Sink, Lowest in 20 Years

JCPenney Co. Inc.:

(NYSE:  JCP) reported an adjusted second-quarter net loss of $0.37 per share and  $3.02 billion in revenues before markets opened today. EPS for the same period a  year ago came to $0.13, and last year’s revenue totaled $3.9 billion. The  results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for a net loss of  $0.25 and $3.2 billion in revenue.

FoxConn Freezes Hiring On iPhone Production Slowdown

Apparently all the kiddies can no longer afford iPhones, cry me a river   ….

So first Walmart, the world’s largest private sector employer with over 2 million workers, and now FoxConn, the world’s largest tech-focused employer with 1.2 million workers, is also realizing what a cashless, consumerless “recovery” means, regardless whether it is due to Apple or not.

Consumer sales is are about 71% of the USA GDP   … Right now government consumes 25 % of GDP. The more for government the less for you … And Obama wants it all. As government increases, freedom decreases. President Reagan found this out. FDR Fascism found out how far you can go with the 1930′s depression and his 90 % tax rates.

What did you think growing government was all about???

Now we have our very own turd-world Obama to do it all again. It’s socialist countries, like Mexico that runs off of capitalistic free countries like the USA.  Grabbing the crumbs for the illegals. Would it be better to have freedom in Mexico? Do you think they would allow that when the drug trade is their biggest source of their government.

Meanwhile the disarmed Mexican peasants live in fear and squalor.

And the markets still continues to wave it off as one off events.

 Human resources officials at Foxconn’s largest factories, local government officials and external recruiters working with the company said there had been internal notices on Tuesday and Wednesday to stop hiring until at least the end of March, 5th in response to reduced orders for the iPhone

Apple did not respond immediately to a request for comment, but Tim Cook, chief executive, told a conference last week that he did not think demand for iPhones was peaking. “We do not have the word ‘limit’ in the Apple vocabulary. . . I see a [smartphone] market that’s incredible to be in. Maybe one of the best markets of all time, “he said.

However, at external recruiter in the northern province of Shandong, who identified himself only as Mr. Zhang, said Foxconn’s demand for workers this year was as low as that in 2009.

The company’s work force in China was estimated at about 800,000 during the 2009 crisis, but rose to 1.2m last year ahead of the launch of the iPhone 5 Workers’ tenure at the company is less than 13 months on average, according to a person close to the company. This suggests that head count at Foxconn could fall by least of thousands if it stopped hiring for a month and its turnover of workers Remained as high as last year

Recruiters said hiring has stopped for the iPhone and iPad production lines in Shenzhen, the company’s largest plant with more than 200,000 workers, as well as at Zhengzhou, the second-largest with about 200,000 workers, Which therefore makes iPhones. Taiyuan, Which had 79.000 workers as of September and makes iPhone parts, and Chengdu, Which makes the iPad were, thus putting a freeze on hiring.

As for Apple’s demand-driven issues, those are very well known:

The move follows a recent decline in sales at Apple suppliers . “In January, Apple’s supply chain-related gene names rally delivered a slowing sales momentum due to the sluggish shipments of MacBook, iPhone 5 and iPad during the holiday season,” Nomura said in a research note this week.

Hon Hai, the Taiwan-listed flagship of the group Which uses the trade name Foxconn reported, at 8 per cent sales decline last month, and Quanta Computer , the world’s largest notebook contract manufacturer and therefore at Apple supplier, saw sales drop 16 per cent .

Fear not: all shall promptly be well once FoxConn clarifies it wasn’t really Apple’s fault and the end-demand collapse was all due to Sandy, snow, meteors, the sequester and Bush. All in that order.

And now, back to your algorithmic, Fed-ordained stock “market” ramp, where news of global recession should be enough to lift the S&P by at least 10 points.

NYC CRIME RATE UP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS — THE REASON WHY MIGHT SURPRISE YOU

The overall crime rate for New York City has risen for the first time in 20 years, but what is driving up crime might be surprising.

The Wall Street Journal reported that crime rose 3 percent in the city due to the theft of Apple products, like the iPhone. New York Police Department spokesman told WSJ there would have been a “slight decline” in overall crime among the city’s five boroughs if Apple product thefts had stayed constant, but it rose.

More specifically, as of December 9 grand larceny, which includes Apple products, was up 9 percent compared to the same timeframe in 2011, according to WSJ.

Although this statistic isn’t necessarily favorable, homicides in the city for the year were the lowest ever since since similar records began being kept in 1963.

Read more about the city’s crime statistics for 2012 in the Wall Street Journal’s full article here.

Somebody explain the use of a stolen phone???

Here Comes T-Mobile

Besides the announcement of an Apple deal, T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere announced an aggressive 2013 plan for the Seattle-based carrier that includes scrapping phone subsidies and going after AT&T’s customers.

Speaking at an investor conference in Germany for Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company, Legere said T-Mobile will offer only its so-called Value Plan next year.

The plan is intended to offer customers lower rates for their cellular service by disassociating it with the price of a subsidized phone.

Customers can bring their own devices, pay full price for a phone upfront or pay a lower out-of-pocket price followed by monthly payments of around $15 to $20 for 20 months.

That ought to shake things up…

Upstream Supply Chain Sees Surface RT Orders Cut By Half

Is there any reason you know that MS fired the Windows 8 head honcho? I am not impressed with my Surface sit down session. No Sale, it’s too neutered for me.

DIGITIMES [Wednesday 28 November 2012]:

The upstream supply chain of Microsoft’s Surface RT has recently seen the tablet’s orders reduced by half, and with other Windows RT-based tablet orders also seeing weak performance, sources from the upstream supply chain believe the new operating system may not perform as well as expected in the market.

Microsoft originally expected to ship four million Surface RT devices by the end of 2012, but has recently reduced the orders by half to only two million units.

Although Asustek Computer, Samsung Electronics and Dell have all launched Windows RT-based tablets, consumer demand for those devices is also weak.

The sources also pointed out that Surface RT is also unlikely to achieve great performance in the upcoming quarter which may force Microsoft to bring out its Intel-based Surface Pro tablet earlier in December.

The sources also noted that Microsoft may consider reducing its Surface Pro price to attract more consumers; however, such a decision may put the already awkward relationship between the software giant and notebook vendors in an even worse situation.

No surprise to me.

I am still slogging through my brand new Windows 8 machine’s conversion back to a SSD running Windows 7. So far, slow going. Apple’s Fusion Drive software would be nice to integrate a SSD into Windows.

Looks like I need a book to figure out how???

And The Layoffs Go On: Texas Instruments to lay off 1,700

Chipmaker Texas Instruments said Wednesday that it will lay off 1,700 workers in an effort to shift focus away from its struggling mobile business.

The job cuts represent about 5% of TI’s staff, and they are part of a previously announced restructuring initiative aimed at cutting costs and increasing its presence in the burgeoning embedded device market. Shares of Texas Instruments rose about 1% in afterhours trading.

The Dallas-based company had made some headway in the smartphone market a few years ago. But recently the biggest mobile phone makers, including Samsung and Apple have opted to design their own chips for their respective Galaxy smartphones and iPhones…