RK

22 Comments

    • ON: Sun Sep 28th 11:18 AM
      Commented on:
      Will RIM's Gamble Pay Off?
      Land grab does not apply to the smartphone market. These devices are turned over every 1-2 years due to people dropping the phones (like me) or contract expiration. Market share gained one year can vaporize in the next. The smartphone market is not the PC market, which enjoys a much longer replacement cycle and people do not like to lose their investment in their software and their files. The consumer drives the smartphone market and he/she will keep flocking to the coolest and best phone of the moment. Device maker should maximize their profit every year, thereby to increase their potential to invest more in R&D and to stay ahead of competition.
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    • ON: Wed Sep 24th 09:25 AM
      Commented on:
      Jonathan Ive: More Valuable to Apple than Steve Jobs?
      A CEO's main job in a public company is optimal capital allocation, making the most money out of a capital base. A great design talent, while extremely valuable, does not portend success with capital allocation. Mr. Jobs has successfully opened new markets for Apple not once but three times not counting the computer line: ipod and itunes, Apple retail, and iphone. Few CEO's can create two new markets in their career, let alone three times. Most big companies get into new markets by acquisitions: see Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, HP, IBM. Apple is unique in this respect.
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    • ON: Wed Sep 17th 20:03 PM
      Commented on:
      AIG: Hardly a 'Bailout', Absolutely Necessary
      AIG did not have to accept the government's term if it had an alternative, one would think. Given the high interest rate AIG accepted, the deal was the last resort. What I don't understand was why AIG did not choose chapter 11. Did the company not do it because of the greater good? Hard to imagine.
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    • ON: Thu Aug 7th 13:21 PM
      Commented on:
      Houston to Obama: Smell the Oil
      why is 30% net profit margin obscene? did anyone look at Microsoft's? the government is no good at regulating the 'right' level of net profit. the right level depends on the industry. let the capital market figure out the right level of profit margin for the thousands of industries and their sub-niches.
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    • ON: Thu Jul 10th 18:52 PM
      Commented on:
      L.A. Times: The Inconvenient Poster Child for the Newspaper Debacle
      If anyone blames wall street for the decline of the newspaper business, he or she does not get the internet-based businesses.
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    • ON: Mon Jun 23rd 09:18 AM
      Commented on:
      The Minimum Wage and Employment
      It is impossible to perform controlled experiments in social science. So my confidence in research in isolating the influence of min. wage is not high. That said, it is possible that min. wage increases have no discernible effect over a relatively long period of time as the market based min. wage overtakes the mandated min. wage.

      What does not make sense is to have a national min. wage. Coastal regions are different from the interior. A wage level that is below market based min. wage at coastal regions may be way above what the market can bear in interior regions.

      Another argument against min. wage increases is: if increases are harmless, why not double or triple it? If that is harmful, then the theory that such increases lead to more prosperity to the economy does not hold water.
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    • ON: Sun Jun 22nd 20:08 PM
      Commented on:
      A Real iPhone Challenger - Barron's
      HTC is great at churning out large variety of phones. Based on my direct observation of the HTC phones around me in the office, the fit and finish of the hardware with the software (Win mobile) are not great. Probably due to Win mobile as much as the hardware. It is uncommon for me to see repeat HTC buyer. It is just my observation.
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    • ON: Thu Jun 19th 00:22 AM
      Commented on:
      MBIA Vs. NYT
      That's why I read blogs like yours to get news and analyses that don't exist in newspapers. NYT is still living in the past where news flows one way. What a dinosaur!
      View article »
    • ON: Wed Jun 18th 09:03 AM
      Commented on:
      Take Four: EA's Bid for Take Two Delayed Again
      This battle makes no sense. EA must think it has a chance to be successful. The question is why. Take-two is doing well with GTA. So why should its shareholders take EA's offer? Head scratching.
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    • ON: Mon Jun 16th 09:11 AM
      Commented on:
      Sirius/XM Merger: What Is 'Noncommercial' Satellite Radio Programming?
      As usual, government regulators are fighting the last war. Satellite radio will remain a niche market at best. Not sure how the company can afford to replace its satellite in the future. MP3 in cars has taken over. This is just like some landline telephone merger in the 90's that people objected to (was it between Sprint and something else?) It was so irrelevant as it was clear that landline telephone business was in permanent decline. Despite the opposition to that telephone merger, we have only 3.5 (Verizon, ATT, Spring, Quest) large landline telephone companies. I guess we can't expect the government to be future oriented.
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    • ON: Sun Jun 15th 11:26 AM
      Commented on:
      Life Without Microsoft Is Possible
      In another 5 years, no one cares about OS anymore: not Windows, OS X, or Linux. We are already there in mobile devices (do you care to know which OS runs on what phones?)

      I wean myself off Windows when I got my MacBook Air. I still use Office, however. I found Openoffice too slow on the Mac. If it keeps getting better, I will use it.
      View article »
    • ON: Fri Jun 13th 08:34 AM
      Commented on:
      Buffett’s Horse Race: Will Protege Partners Beat the S&P?
      The whole contest is silly; what investor should care about is risk-adjusted return. Looking at your charts, it appears that the hedge fund index returns the same as S&P but with less volatility. For someone likes me, that is better than a yo-yo ride.
      View article »
    • ON: Thu Jun 12th 12:23 PM
      Commented on:
      $1.2 Billion in iPhone Apps? Not Likely.
      As an iphone user, I can definitely see myself spending $20 a year on software. Heck $40 is nothing. That is less than 4 movies or soon 5 gallons of gas.
      View article »
    • ON: Thu Jun 12th 08:54 AM
      Commented on:
      Crude Report Stumps Analysts
      The lower utilization number from refiners seems significant. It supports the theory that oil companies are expecting the demand to slacken in face of the high retail prices. Seasonal norm may not hold when people (in CA anyhow) are looking at the approach of $5/gallon gas.
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    • ON: Tue Jun 10th 09:37 AM
      Commented on:
      The Market Sees Microsoft Losing Its Grip
      MSFT looks and acts like the IBM in the mid 1990s. Still very big and influential, but the market that it dominates is less relevant every day. The Windows and Office franchise will be a lot less important in 10 years. MSFT's position in other businesses vis-a-vis Google, other gaming companies, Apple, Nokia is far less dominant. MSFT's aborted purchase of Yahoo reminds me very much of the IBM's Lotus acquisition as a way to jump start a lackluster competitive position. Mr. Ballmer is a caretaker CEO; he won't ruin the franchise, but he won't re-vitalize the company either.
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