arkay

Life After Steve Jobs: Handicapping Apple’s Back Bench

Thank you for providing a comprehensive information about Apple's who is who. If Jobs were to leave, Apple will certainly have a huge shock. But once things settle, Apple will be status quo and has a well round team to carry on the vision of providing world-class products.

Still No Vision at Citigroup

Felix,

You are back again with your negativity on citi. Currently the market sentiment is against financials. So any news is bad news for citi. Dont expect miracles? Citi has had prolonged periods of inefficiency during Sandy Weil and Chuck Prince. You can only make progress when the market sentiment and fundamentals support you.

Citi is one of the most recognized global franchise. It will recover well and is well positioned to take advantage of its global reach.

3G iPhone: What Has Apple Got Against Cameras?

If you want a decent camera, then you also want to provide flash which would be drain in the memory. For me, GPS has a lot more value than camera

Why Microsoft Will Never Win (Again)

If MSFT does not win Google, Google will eat MSFT lunch. MSFT is being attacked from multiple angles. From OS perspective, MSFT is no longer the much awaited software / system that customers are expecting. OS is means to an end. Even though MSFT will have a market share, the more popular ones would Mac from Consumer perspective and Linux from corporate.

A good analogy of Office business would be how Dial-up computing was for AOL. AOL was reluctant to make any content available that would jeopardize dialup business which led to proliferation of Yahoo!, Excite and likes. MSFT is in the similar shoes. If they want to preserve MS-Office, it would make the competition stronger.

Another area of dominance in the future would be in mobile computing. Because of iPhone, Apple will certainly have a huge advantage. Blackberry would be a formidable player in the arena and so is Nokia. Msft - windows for mobile has been more as also ran. MSFT needs to capture this market at any cost and would make sense to look start from scratch. There is no need to worry about windows platform which makes it too cumbersome. What is needed is a simple, nimble system that offers advantage.

Unfortunately, There's an "I" in BRIC (and a "C")

I am appalled by the quality of your article. You claim to offer premium advice to your subscribers. If buy-high, sell-low is your way of recommendation, this article is a good example of that. God help your subscribers.

Unfortunately, There's an "I" in BRIC (and a "C")

I am appalled by the quality of your insights. If this is the quality of insights, god help your subscribers who rely on your so-called buy-high sell-low strategies.

Unfortunately, There's an "I" in BRIC (and a "C")

I would appreciate if you write with more insight on what are the reasons for these market downturn. Based on the article, it looks like you are recommending to dump Chindia stock and just concentrate on Brussia. How long can this phenomenon continue?

At present, the growth is Brussia is based on Energy and Materials (applies only to Brazil). As the oil bubble breaks, these stocks would experience tremendous pressure. In addition, these Brussia stocks are having a ball right now which is because of weak dollar. Once the dollar becomes strong these stocks would be under pressure. Along with this hyper-growth, they are also having rising inflation.

What does this mean to Chindia? They are experiencing the same cost pressure escalation that US is experiencing. The stock market is undergoing a much-needed correction. As the oil price stabilizes, there would be more stability in the stocks. If the dollar appreciates, that would benefit these economies.

The Chinese economy is totally dependent on US market. So when dollar appreciates, it affects Chinese stocks. Indian software imports and BPO service markets are experiencing tremendous pressure because of weak dollar. The long-term picture for these 2 countries are still very healthy and GDP growth is well over 8%.

Consumption within these economies are going to grow tremendous which is going to spur more growth in these markets. Bernake has already mentioned the need for a stronger dollar. Once this happens, the pendulum would be shifting towards China & India.

While infrastructure growth has been tremendous in China, India offers a huge opportunity for massive improvements in infrastructure. Once there are more infrastructure boom begins, it would generate an additional 2% of GDP which would be in addition to 7% GDP growth. So these 2 markets offer compelling value proposition

So you cannot stay away from these economies. This would be a good time to take position in these markets. As oil bubble burst, you want to transition from Brussia to Chindia until there is a correction in Brussia.

Apple: How Big Is the Potential iPhone Market?

samij,

To increase 520m potential market, apple would need have lower profit margin.

This is how product strategy evolves. During the initial stage - your startup cost is high, there is a huge risk is involved in introducing the product. Once the product is successful, it is more about scalability. The fixed costs can be distributed across multiple units and there is also ability to reduce the costs because of margin.

If Apple wanted, they could come with a product strategy to get rapid sales. But the challenge will be to sustain the growth. That is the reason why Apple is managing growth and when a product reaches maturity, they introduce new products.

Yahoo's 'Poison Pill' Against MSFT Takeover Deemed 'Nuts'

I cannot imagine a Jerry Yang doing this. It is so out of hand. The board should be sued for their negligence. If Jerry Yang was so adamant of having Yahoo! is an independent company, he should invest all his money in Yahoo! or take his company private.

Citi's Pandit Spams His Customers

Felix,

Get a like. Will you. During difficult times, it is common for CEO to send communication about what is the direction of the company to the street, customers which is precisely what Pandit has done. The email is just a courtesy letter that provides commitment to the customer.

The outcome of this email is get a positve vibe from the customer, it is nice to get an email from CEO. No-one has anymore time to over-analyze anything beyond that.

Citi's Pandit Skewered

Felix,

I don't know what you have with this guy Pandit that makes you two consecutive articles about a non-trivial issue and that about an email.

While I dont give a rat-ass as about any email that I receive from customer service time-to-time, I would appreciate an email communication that comes from CEO of the company. Beyond that I dont over analyze anything else.

So instead of wasting your time and energy on stupid email analysis, why dont you contribute on something more tangible that could help us understand the market / make trades

Single Country vs. Regional ETFs: Regionals Maintain the Upper Hand

Precisely. When you compare, you need benchmark this against the more example. Not the example that suits you.

While I do agree the broad basket is better, you cannot ignore selective individual country opportunity. EWZ - Brazil is individual country play that you cannot ignore. You should certainly have some stake in RSX - Russia. Right now India & China has gone down so significantly, FXI and INP can be played individually or part of EEM.

I would certainly not make individual bets in countries such as EWW, TUR, EWT, EWS - which are all promising. But would rather be a part of basket.

Why Citi Can't Be a Global Universal Bank

Felix,

If Citi spins off the businesses now, citi would be selling the businesses for less. You cannot make hasty changes without looking at the whole picture.
The idea of offering universal banking is sound. Citi has a very good franchise globally compared to anyone in the world. Dont look at the world from the eye of what works / does nt work in US will not work elsewhere.

The reason why there is no universal bank in the US is by the design of US regulators early on - not to build a monopoly. That is the reason why you had regional banks which were quite huge. In the last 10 years, there has been deregulation and some of the banks are expanding their presence in the US (BAC, JPM) while others like (Citi) are expanding globally.

The reason why Citi failed is because of its inability to transform the vision into reality and another reason was there was no burning platform to necessitate change. Given the mortgage crisis, now there is a change in CEO and I hope there is a change in Board as well. Allow Vikram Pandit to evaluate the business concept as whole and fix the businesses, cut costs, increase the value of each operations and decide whether to spin off the business based on strategic value to the future of the business

Apple Links Higher Sales with Higher Prices

Would you look at price point when you come to buy a BMW / Mercedes?

Vikram Pandit, 'COO' of Citigroup

Precisely. What vision are you going to talk about if you cannot execute? In order to execute, you need to understand what is working and what needs to be fixed.

Articulating the vision without understanding the ground realities have brought citi to what it is today. What citi needs now is an engineer to execute rather a visionary.