Skagen

Where Have All the Peak Oil Believers Gone?

I think the author of this article does not understand the idea of "peak ol". the concept simply says that petroleum is a limited resource and that we are using it at a rate where we will run out of it soon. The market price of that resource isnt the point - its that we are running out of it!

Now why anyone would bother to debate that we will run out of a mineral that take a million years to create and we are burning like there is no tomorrow, I have no idea.

But what is not in debate is that petroleum is a declining resource. In order to find it, oil companies are going to more and more difficult locations and thus their costs per barrel are up, due the human and technology costs involved.
Meanwhile we are steadily devloping more alternatives to petroluem and these substitutes are more and more realistic. And government are more willing to tax petroleum for its full environmental costs ie pollution.
So in the long run as petroleum finds continues to decline, you cant decline peak oil as ”rising oil” prices – it will and should become less important even as it becomes rare.
Let’s put it this way: guano went through a ”peak oil” scenario too, and (if you pardon the pun) it isnt worth shi# today.

iPhone Versus the Rest: More Evidence Smartphone Makers Are in Trouble

This is just full of sweeping generalisations. Nokia for example, has been making fantastic and very easily usable smartphones for quite a while. If you have issue with the Windows smartphones, hey - agreed. But that is why Nokia has 73% market share - so why on earth would you make such a generalisation?

These sort of elementary holes make this attempt at analysis not very credible

Wal-Mart Believed to be Readying for Banking Expansion

Its not that crazy. Tesco of the UK has been doing this for ages, not "at the end", but in their ascendancy. They have beaten the pants off of Wal-mart's UK unit, Asda, with those sort of things.

With Tesco now coming into Wal-mart's home market, I would bet you that this is one of several pre-emptive moves that Wal-Mart will be taking. More to come on this front.

Why Google Apps Doesn't Compete with Microsoft Office

Is it really necessary to plug your product here, disclaimer or not?

Zune Phone: Implications for Microsoft's Mobile Partners

HTC makes the vast majority of Windows Mobile phones (under a variety of brands) and they have been pushing VOIP in phones, so clearly they are onboard with the idea of bypass the traditional phone business. This functionality could - and probably would - simply be thrown in with their devices.

And I'll bet you HTC would be the one who would actually make this phone for MS in any case. They are more or less MS's phone arm.

Steve Jobs: We're Ready To End DRM Now

"No DRM system was ever developed for the CD." ????

I cant believe Jobs actually said this. There is no DRM for the traditonal Redbook CD, but music stores these days are full of copy protected CD's which do not follow the Redbook spec. And there was a huge scandal last year which was all about Sony violating the law with its CD's installing secret"rooktits" on the PC's of people who bought their music. That was all about DRM on CD's.

So Jobs is just flat out wrong on that and that is before you get in to the lots of other holes in his argument.

Bottom line is that even Ipod users buy very little iTunes music on average. Partloy because of the DRM on the music but also partly because what Itunes sells is low quality 128 kbps recordings, well below CD quality and in fact not much different from an FM broadcast. I dont think Apple even sells music in its own pointless proprietary "Apple Lossless" format

So Jobs would rather have DRM-free music to boost sales but I think he will also need to sell decent quality musiic too if he wants to see higher sales numbers via Itunes.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

It has been announced that Apple is strictly forbidding operators to subsidise the phone - and Apple is estimated to be seeking a 50% margin on this model. Then they will lower the price on other folling models.

In other words, this first modle is the sucker phone - at a sucker price.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

You said: "I doubt this phone will ever be big in Europe, where Apple has very little traction with any product, specifically MP3 players. Also, Europe 3G adoption is far behind the US because of the pricing of data plans that doesn;t allow for unlimited browsing"

Are you joking? Do your research before writing. Ipods do very well here in Europe. Really.

As for the 3G, European adoption of 3G on GSM far outstrips the US. So it really doesnt matter what is going on in Kansas or Idaho. If Apple wants to sell meaningful quantities of this phone here in the year 2007, it better have 3G. end of story.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

Asking basic questions about a product before you buy it, e.g. "can I put my phone numbers in it", is basic common sense you'd expect of a 16 year old - not "Phonerati" anything.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

The fact that you actually bought the RAZR - and then found out about the phone book, is not exactly boosting confidence in your ability to judge phones. I went in to the store, asked about it it and turned back around the moment they told me what it was capable of doing, or better said, what it was NOT capable of doing.

The iPhone is overpriced and will underwhelm. I'm sure Apple will come out with subsequent better ones, but this one here is just going to be a dud with the people whom it is priced for.

Too little on offer there, for far too much money - and a two year slave contract to a company whos approach to customers is best described as "customer DIS-service".

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

This article is full of holes.

- The pricing has already been announced and the annunced prices are subsidised prices, and for new account sonly. Mind you some of the people buying this phone will aready have Cingular accounts and will have to pay even more since they will need to pay fees to terminate existing accounts.
- The Wi-fi in this phone will add little value since it is crippled and cant make VOIP calls. If you buy the phone, you'd already be on a data phone and have paid for banwith to use the internet. The killer app for Wi-fi on a phone is the VOIP calls and this phone is unable to give you that.
- Third, you say Apple will soon release a "lower end phone" but arguably this one here is a lower end phone - albeit at a high end price. It doesnt have 3G and it cant make VOIP calls, which is what high end smartphones do these days.
- Finally you claim that the iPhone has a $200-$300 Mp3 player included. Well listen anyone with a smartphone can buy a memory card and stick it in there to create an MP3 payer for a lot less. That's been going on for 2-3-4 years before and recently companies like Sony started explicitly releasing wildly succeful Walkman phones like the W950i, W850 and W800 . Apple didnt create it and in fact are way behind on the curve.

Are Warehouse Stores Too Dependant On Membership Fee Income?

The obvious – and missing – conclusion is that the membership fee is not standalone revenue. Its merely an up front payment on your your annual shopping commitment when you join and it in fact induces customers to shop more and take advantage of their sunk costs. Which is why these things are called “Wholesale....Clubs”.

You might something if you pointed out that retail margins are pretty low if $50 per customer can make up 75% of annual profit. But breaking out the annual membership “fee” as supposedly independent revenue is a pointless exercise.

You could also view the 75% as an indicator that these companies have customers who are extremely commmited.