Unlimited Tunes from Apple?

I use ipod and i-tunes. Unfortunately I cannot use a itune store in Korea, but I always wait for launching it in Korea. I heard that Ipod users feel more comfortable to use itune stores than other site for purchasing music. I think that if the ipod ensure the supply of all music, it can make a huge market of music record and also can expand its own product sales.
Apple already have enough money from charging for ipod and iphone devices to cover the cost of licensing entire music collections. Therefore, they can create a market selling the music with subscription system. Trouble is nobodies are talking about it. Insiders at major music labels were arrogant. The idea of subscription plan has been "kicked around" for about a year.
That doesn't mean the music industry wouldn't welcome Musician can get a chance to distribute songs and albums through a subscription plan. For Apple, subscriptions will provide a reliable revenue stream. And also consumers would really welcome this chance to purchase the music at more practical price. If this system start consumers can pay $7 to $10 a month for all the music,
Itune has become the second largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores. It means over 50 million customers and has sold some 4 billion songs since its inception in 2003.
More important point for Apple, the online music store is can make sales more profitable. Apple has sold nearly 142 million iPods, plus 4 million iPhones. Total them all up and you find that the average iPod or iPhone owner buys. However, the actual sales of music are fewer than 30 songs for each unit because so far people usually tend to fill the iPod with music from an existing CD collection or other means. It means there are enough market to expand.
However, there are other sights to see this subscription market because there will be keen competition. New competition, MySpace, have their own music-store plans in the works. MySpace would let users stream music for free, and pay to download MP3 music files à la carte, similar to a service introduced by Amazon.com late last year. A strong competitive threat from MySpace, Apple have to be different marketing and system which satisfy their customers needs.
Music record market faces the crisis. In contrast, new music market definitely will get a great success. Who are going to finally occupy its market is very interest thing for me. I think that there must have a huge change in distribution of revenue.

http://www.bussinessweek.com/
March 20, 2008 by by Arik Hesseldahl

20600171 11th entry

European companies in BW's IT 100 know the future is in emerging markets

When Deutsche Telekom (DT) agreed on May 14 to pay $5 billion for a 25% stake in Greece's OTE Hellenic Telecommunications (OTE), the German company wasn't just interested in a piece of the Athens mobile market. The real attraction was OTE's assets in fast-growing Eastern European countries including Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia. OTE's holdings in southeastern Europe make OTE "an important partner," Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer René Obermann said in a statement. 　

　
The deal was yet more evidence that emerging markets are where the action is in telecommunications these days. If you want hard data, look no further than the 2008 edition of BusinessWeek's IT 100, the annual ranking of the globe's most dynamic tech companies prepared in conjunction with Standard & Poor's (MHP). Telecommunications companies active in emerging markets—or companies that provide them with equipment or services—account for almost all of the 19 companies from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa that made the IT 100. Examples include South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.DE), which pioneered cell-phone service in Africa, and Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding (ORTE.CA), which did the same in the Middle East.
Nokia, the Finnish handset maker that is No. 7 overall on the list—the best showing by a European company—arguably created the conditions that have allowed the others to thrive. Early in the decade, Nokia (NOK) began designing handsets specifically for emerging markets. They were affordable and rugged, and able to go many days between charges. That's an important feature in regions where car batteries are often the main source of recharging power.
Lots of Room to Expand

　　
Those handsets in turn helped make it profitable for mobile network operators such as Luxembourg's Millicom International (MICC), ranked No. 32 on the list, to push into markets like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sri Lanka that are better known for guerilla warfare than text messaging. Business in those risky markets is surprisingly profitable: On Apr. 22, Millicom reported a 78% increase in first-quarter profits to $158 million on sales of $801 million.
What makes these markets particularly attractive is that there is plenty of growth left. Large swaths of rural territory, along with billions of people, still remain out of reach of mobile networks. And the Internet has only just begun to penetrate the developing world. Since PCs remain unaffordable for many people, or simply impractical because of a lack of electric power, mobile handsets will provide the likely entry to the Web for most of Africa and rural Asia. "Like a lot of people who made their first call on a mobile, they will have their first experience with the Internet on a mobile," says Carolina Milanesi, research director, mobile devices, at market-watcher Gartner (IT).

　　
Nokia is already bringing some basic Internet features to its handsets for emerging markets, including the ability to fetch Web-based e-mail. "Think about the next billion customers," says Kai Öistämö, Nokia executive vice-president in charge of devices. "This is how they will first know what the Net is all about. That is a fascinating thought, and a huge opportunity."

　

Author: Jack Ewing

Title: Telecom's Last Great Growth Markets
Date: May 22, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Page: 1
references: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086056645511.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories
entry # 11 20700110

GE's dillema in kitchen industry area

I read an article about GE(General Electric)'s turning point in its business. GE is a famous kitchen appliance company. Even though they do enormous businesses, the kitchen market is also a key part of GE. But as the market's competitors grow very fast and GE's position can be threatened. Also, GE is now allocating its budget to various industry area, so if the business is not successful at all, GE can remove it from their portfolio. Actually the scale of kitchen area is only $7 billion, and the total revenue is $173 billion. It's very small business to GE. And they now focus on the market outside of USA. The kitchen market is completely USA market, so GE now consider to give up the kitchen industry.

There are many companies that gave up their core industry and changed their portfolio. For example, Intel is now just an service company. A few years ago, Intel gave up their product line and decided to focus on the service area. Now, if you see Intel brand computers, actually, it's not a computer intel produced. Intel decided their core industry, but now they do very well in service area. If they remained the manufacturing industry, maybe they failed in the competition and also could be bankruptcy. I think GE is now facing the turning point. I think they have to get out of kitchen industry and invest in the promising industries. Author say that 'the company's future growth will largely be fueled by its health-care and energy businesses, much of it from outside the USA'. Accordingly, it's the matter of timing not the option problem. GE has to depart the old core industry and invest in the new industries. I think the resource area can be a promising industry. Though the probabillity is low, at some time, natural resources will be exhausted. If a company can be a entrepreneur in that area, it can fail in the industry. In the business life cycle, GE is now facing the maturity time. If they could't rebound, they will be a loser in the industry and fade away from market.

Korean companies also reach the maturity gradually. For example, the semiconductor is now facing a recession. At first, Samsung was a monopoly company in semiconductor market, but now many Taiwan and Japanese companies developed semiconductor technology. Accordingly, the market is now a price competition market. The demand for D-ram is also decreased. I think Samsung has to change their view to semiconductors. If the technology cannot improve anymore, the market is not a precious one. We have to find the Blue Ocean industry. Korea has many world number one products. But the premium is not eternal. At some time, we can face some competitors, and can lose from the competitions. In other words, we have to innovate ourselves and try to develop new technology. You know the iRiver, past MP3 dominator, is now facing a bankruptcy. The cause of the failure is laziness in innovation. Monopoly is a sweet one, but it can steal companies' life at the end.

Author: Matt Vella

Title: Why GE Is Getting Out of the Kitchen

Date: May 16, 2008, 12:01AM EST

Page: 1

references: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id20080515_212057.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+++design_top+stories

http://cafe342.daum.net/_c21_/bbs_search_read?grpid=18xYo&fldid=DIKj&contentval=0001Ezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz&nenc=VQLH-6.4PtI-mDSxpdiF4A00&dataid=76&fenc=gTqfTm_BfZw0&docid=18xYoDIKj7620070618071951&q=%B9%DD%B5%B5%C3%BC%20%BA%D2%C8%B2&srchid=CCB18xYoDIKj7620070618071951

entry # 11 20700067

Hongkong Disneyland

The fifth Disneyland style park, the park is located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. After years of negotiations and construction, the park opened to visitors on September 12, 2005, considered an auspicious date according to Chinese almanacs for the opening of a new business. Disney attempted to avoid problems of cultural backlash by attempting to incorporate Chinese culture, customs, and traditions when designing and building the resort, including adherence to the rules of Feng Shui.

The park consists of four themed lands similar to other Disneyland parks: Main Street, U.S.A., Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. There is as yet no Frontierland, although it may be included in future expansion projects. The theme park's cast members use English and Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin dialects, to communicate verbally. Guide Maps are printed in both Traditional and Simplified characters, Japanese, and in English.

The capacity of the park is 34,000 visitors per day, and is the smallest Disneyland park. It has so far fallen short of meeting its targeted visitorship figures. The park attracted 5.2 million visitors in its first year, below its target of 5.6 million. Visitor numbers fell 20% in the second year to 4 million, which was below company targets, inciting criticisms from local legislators.

The resort currently has 310 acres (1.3 km²), with the actual park taking approximately 100 acres (0.4 km²). With its small size cited often to explain its under-performance, the park has announced various plans for expansion. The classic Disney attraction, "it's a small world", opened on 28 April 2008. Furthermore, according to Bill Ernest, the executive vice president and managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland, the park is planning to add two unique theme lands in its future expansion. Over a 15 year expansion period, the park capacity will increase to handle up to 10 million visitors annually

Author: Doris Ho
Title: "Hongkong Disneyland
Date:FEBRUARY 15, 2006
page:1
Refrences: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2006/id20060215_677377.htm?chan=search

20300780 Entry 11

American Idol's Ads - TOO MUCH

          Has been one of the most watched show, American Idol from Fox Entertainment is facing some criticisms over its overdose use of ads in its show case. In the recent episode, Ryan Seacrest, who is the host of the show, constantly flashed Apple iPhone for nearly a minute elaborating what it can do and how nice it is to use when viewers vote for their favorite contenders. Also, in front of the judges, there are always red cups written in Coca-Cola.

          The show has been running for seven years introducing many talented amateur singers to the world and been recognized one of the most successful reality shows in America. However, now a day it seems like it's more like a marketing showcase rather than musical competition. All the major corporations sponsoring the show, including Ford, Apple, Coca-Cola, AT&T and more, are putting their best efforts to appeal their logo on the show; however, it seems like it's getting out of control.

          Compared to the previous seasons, now American Idol is starting to show its decline in rating, according to the article, "...the ratings before the May 21 finale were off about 10% from last year" and a question has been raised, "Will product placement kill the video star?" (businessweek).

          Another problem that the show is facing is that it's targeted segment is aging faster than any other shows. What first started as teen's must-see kind of show, the current median viewer age are 43. Even though the show is still highly attractive for many companies to put their ads on, if it gets too much, young viewers are the first ones to notice.

          When I saw the show few years ago, I also notice that they are putting too much ads on the show, and now it's saying that it got worse. American Idol is such an exciting show, and people love to see unnoticed amateurs to become America's top singers. However, putting too much ads would distract the viewers to concentrate what the show is really trying to appeal and fade away the important characteristic it has: interaction with viewers. Even if the companies still think it's beneficial by putting their ads on the show, they should realize one day, people would say "I had enough of this."


Reference;
Grover, Ronald. "American Idol's Ads Infinitum" BusinessWeek. May 22, 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_22/b4086038607130.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

20601008 - 11th Entry