Bidness ETC - Flipboard Deemed Better Than The New Apple News App

Flipboard, the news app, has been declared as more efficient with better options than the new Apple News App by analysts.

At the Worldwide Developer’s Conference that was held recently by Apple Inc, the software giant was seen to launch quite a few products and services that it had previously been working on. Among all the products and apps that the iPhone 6 makers released at the conference, the one app that got some significant attention was Apple News App, which has revealed itself to be quite a similar app to Flipboard, which is also a software made for showing latest news. The software and tech giant has always followed a pattern of bringing something great to the industry in competition with other rivals and has always managed to score more than anyone.

Therefore, when the announcement for the news app was made, it was informed that it created quite a stir at Flipboard, whose management starting digging out reasons for which they can claim to be better than the iPhone makers. The Apple News app has shown to be quite a similar app to Flipboard which is being taken by the analysts as a step to cut back down the business that the news app has already been doing in the industry. Analysts, however, are of the opinion that Flipboard needs not to worry about the competition yet since the app that has been released by the MAC producers is still not up to mark.

Flipboard services regarding the news publishing have been taken by the analysts as quite up to date and with new technology, something that Apple is apparently now experimenting with yet. The news cum magazine app was created five years back in 2010 by Mike McCue along with Evan Doll, who designed it in such a manner that it took news from all over the internet and displayed it on its app in a pattern that looked like it is from a magazine.

The users who use Flipboard are equipped with news from the all over the country and all they have to do to view more news is to flip and slide their screens on the app. The news app has also provided a station for the users to connect themselves with the other social media websites that they are logged into, through the news app.

The famous app made by McCue and Doll also has news from the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times which is also taken as a plus point from the analysts, who believe that this app is much more established and with better features and options than news app that Apple is apparently working on.

Bidness ETC - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) soaring in smartphone market

Apple crossed Samsung smartphone sales; Lenovo, Xiaomi, Huawei attracted market by offering inexpensive sets.

Smartphone sales escalated one billion mark in 2014, Gartner published its report regarding smartphone sales in Q4, 2014 on Tuesday. According to the report Apple Inc. succeeded in controlling the industry whereas SAMSUNG ELECT LTD lost the market hold it reigned over for past 3 years.

According to the report 367.5 million devices made their way to global consumers. Of which Apple sold 75 million smartphones whereas Samsung was able to sell 73 million handsets. The margin does not pose a massive difference in terms of handsets sold however ensures a leap of 0.5 percentage points which turns out to be a game changer for two dominant forces in the smartphone industry.

Apple iPhone 6 has completely changed the game for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). The company’s strategy to launch a bigger smartphone proved to be fruitful since the sales of the latest version have been overwhelming.

According to Anshul Gupta, primary research analyst at Gartner, “Samsung continues to struggle to control its falling smartphone share, which was at its highest in the third quarter of 2013. This downward trend shows that Samsung’s share of profitable premium smartphone users has come under significant pressure.”

Apple has not only sold the maximum number of handsets but also banged the steady flow of revenues throughout Q4. According to a report by Strategy Analytics: Apple has governed almost 90% of profits in the smartphone domain in Q4.

Several smartphones makers emerged in 2014 who disrupted the market at a fairly steady pace. Lenovo, Xiaomi and Huawei are one of the few stakeholders who succeeded in attracting the market by offering inexpensive smartphones. These companies also tripled the number of handsets sold in Q4 2013 to Q4 2014. Irrespective of the growth, the three smartphone manufacturers have not been able to sabotage Apple or Samsung’s share accumulatively.

According to Roberta Cozza, the research director at Gartner, “With Apple dominating the premium phone market and the Chinese vendors increasingly offering quality hardware at lower prices, it is through a solid ecosystem of apps, content and services unique to Samsung devices that Samsung can secure more loyalty and longer-term differentiation at the high end of the market.”

However, Samsung has been working on several differentiated projects in order to breathe life into its staggering smartphone market, but this might not prove to be fruitful since Android has a strong hold over the entire smartphone fraternity. Dragging away to a differentiated operating system will further rupture the company, as it will not be able to cater to the needs of smartphone users at such a fast pace.

The smartphone industry has observed a steady growth on a global canvas. Gratner reports, “All regions recorded growth in 2014, except Japan and Western Europe, which recorded decline of 2.8% and 9.1% respectively.”

Bidness Etc - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) cannot escape taxes

Apple does not want to reveal its financial structure to Australian tax officials.

Tax is extremely important to boost any economy. It is the thing that allows governments to carry out an efficient system with ease. The industry giants who are generating a substantial amount of revenues are an asset for any nation contributing positively to the economy. Australia is also one of those countries that wishes to avail this opportunity and will not let these companies escape law so easily.

According to the Australian Tax Office that notified recently that the top industry giants that include the three companies are being scrutinized at this point of time for their tax payment mechanism reports Reuters.

The company organized public inquiries for which Apple Inc.’s executive Tony King who deals with operations overseas that includes Australia and New Zealand was brought in front of the court of law.

All these three companies however refused that they are manipulating their profits or in any way avoiding escaping taxes. However, if they consider themselves to be so pure and free from flaws then three companies which include Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Apple Inc. have actually refused to present their financial structures to the officials.

“Double Irish” is considered to be one of the most prominent loopholes in terms of taxes. This actually allows firms that are operational in Ireland to streamline revenues to alternate Irish subsidiaries. This results in tax residency in regions which do not take any taxes like Cayman Islands.

For instance in Ireland, only those firms that are owned and controlled by Irish authorities are barred from taxes and termed as tax residents. However, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) Operations International is not owned and managed in Ireland but is not incorporated there.

However, the finance minister of Ireland has decided to raise the bar now where new firms will not be granting Double Irish policy. So now big companies like Apple and Google need to come up with a counter strategy according to which they have to find another region which is easy on taxes.

The government of such regions is taking a fairly wise step to stop granting favors to these companies since the trio has a portfolio that boasts of skyrocketing revenues. It is their role as a company to help sustain the economy.
It is natural for the Australian government to take precautionary measures since these companies do not really have a good image when it comes to paying taxes.

AAPL and GOOG should realize the potential they have and reveal their financial structures in order to avoid unnecessary allegations.

Bidness Etc - Apple Inc Gets Compared to Hitler By Chinese Tech CEO

Chinese company's CEO Yeuting compares Apple Inc to Hitler in a recent video he posted in order to attract people to his company's new smartphone

One of the most recent Apple news that has attracted the public’s attention is that one of the tech companies in China, LeTV.com’s CEO has created a cartoon series to that has labeled Apple Inc as a ‘Hitler’ company in the tech world, the one who does not let other tech companies of the industry come up on the scale in the market. Jia Yueting, who created the cartoon comics and is also serving as the CEO of the tech company in China seemed rather annoyed by the success the latest iPhone makers were not letting them experience.

Through the cartoon series, he created a figure that looked like Adolf Hitler and made him wear an armband with Apple’s logo drawn on it. This helped in conveying to the public that Yueting was utterly crestfallen by the dominance that the Californian company has been practicing on a global level and how that does not let him or other companies like his climb up the ladder of success in the market. He was seen talking about it on the social media where he mentioned how unfair it was for tech companies like his as the tech giant does not leave any space for small companies in the industry.

Yueting was even seen to have posted a video about the point that he was trying to make and he even made a few comments supporting his argument in which talked about how the whole world is going crazy for Apple and its products which has badly affected the other companies trying to make a mark in the same market. He even said that people’s attitude towards the iPod makers needs to change in order to bring a positive change in sales of other tech companies.

Analysts, in general, are posting different opinions about this act of the Chinese company’s CEO saying that this was just to put a bad impact on the Californian Company’s name. However, analysts at Business Insider think differently. According to them, this stunt was carried out just to attract attention towards a new smartphone launched by none other than LeTV, the company that is currently being run by Jia Yueting.

LeTV.com is a website which has videos that entertain the whole of China with its creative videos and ideas. Over the period of time, this website has become as popular in the Asian country as YouTube all over the world. These website owners have stepped into the smartphone industry only recently and as reports say, the phones that the company is making are highly inspired by the designs that Apple owns.