January 30, 2012

The BlackBerry, Trying to Avoid the Hall of Fallen Giants

By SAM GROBART and IAN AUSTEN

Published: January 28, 2012

FORGET the Union —  what’s the state of the BlackBerry?

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The Blackberry 957.

Fallen Giants

Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, sent its co-chief executives packing last week and replaced them with Thorsten Heins, who had been RIM’s chief operating officer. How would he characterize his employer?

“We make the best communications devices in the world,” said Mr. Heins, who met with editors and reporters from The New York Times on Friday.

Not everyone feels the same way. Over the last year, RIM’s share price has plunged 75 percent. The company once commanded more than half of the American smartphone market. Today it has 10 percent.

RIM has two, maybe three ways forward.

The first — the one that Mr. Heins is clearly aiming for — is a triumphant comeback after a near-death experience. Think Apple and its iMac. RIM is on the verge of upgrading its PlayBook operating system — now with, among other things, e-mail, a feature that the original PlayBook bafflingly lacked — and will release the BlackBerry 10 OS this year.

Behind Door No. 2 is a gradual decline and diminution as rivals like Apple, Google and Microsoft devour most of the market; to some degree, they already have. BlackBerry would keep the scraps — a small but dedicated following of corporate and government customers who want its proprietary messaging and security features.

Then there is the third option: oblivion. The road of progress is littered with the corpses of fallen titans. Objects that once seemed as indispensable as the companies that made them have been mercilessly superseded — as seen below. And RIM ought to know: with mobile devices like the BlackBerry 957, it helped to extinguish the pager era.

SONY WALKMAN (1979-2010)  Before the Walkman, “personal audio” meant holding a transistor radio to your ear. Sony’s invention created an entire category of devices and helped make the company the technology leader of the 1980s. New models (Thinner! Auto-reverse!) were eagerly anticipated, the LP was relegated to the attic and tender moments spent listening to mix tapes from that certain someone proliferated across teenage bedrooms. Sony seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong. It successfully moved the brand into compact discs with the Discman, then bought record labels and movie studios to bring about that illusory marriage of technology and content. When the digital revolution hit, Sony was too beholden to its proprietary formats, as well as to the inertia inside its media companies. Enter Apple and the iPod.

PAGERS (BORN 1951)  At first, pagers were attached to people who worked in fields where lives were on the line. That usually meant doctors, though the group expanded in the late 1980s to include drug dealers. Early beepers displayed only numbers, giving rise to a numerical lexicon that included codes like 911 (call me back immediately) and 07734, which resembles “hello” when read upside down. Pagers briefly gained fame in early 1990s hip-hop, showing up in songs like “Skypager,” by a Tribe Called Quest. The pager’s fall  was attributable to the disruptive and destructive powers of another technology: the mobile phone. Why beep when you can talk? And a pager message is so tiny that it makes a tweet look like “The Iliad.” The beeper does live on, in limited circles: its network remains more reliable than cell networks, making it useful to E.M.S. and other rescue workers.

PALM PILOT (1997-2007) Filofax brought personal organizers to their analog apogee in the early ’90s, but Palm brought them into the digital age. Palm Pilots were dazzling when they first appeared: all of your contacts, calendars and notes in one slim, pocket-size device. A touch screen, which required a stylus, made navigation easy. And you could add software, bought through an online store. Want a Zagat guide to go along with your personal data? No problem. In later years, Palm even added telephone features, creating a compelling, all-in-one gadget. Despite boardroom dramas that affected the company’s name and its ownership, Palm’s reputation as a source of innovative hardware and software endured until Jan. 9, 2007. Why that date? That’s when Apple introduced the iPhone.

POLAROID INSTANT CAMERAS (1948-2008) Edwin Land’s invention of instant-developing film in 1948 put a darkroom inside a handheld camera. That achievement gave his Polaroid Corporation a distinct advantage over traditional film cameras. By 1980, Polaroid was selling 7.8 million cameras a year in the United States — more than half of all the 15 million cameras, instant and traditional, sold that year. In 1985, it won a major patent-infringement suit, forcing Kodak to abandon its own instant-camera efforts. The victory was short-lived. The late ’80s brought the rise of the digital camera. By 2000, digital cameras began appearing on cellphones, placing  cameras in millions of pockets. Polaroid declared bankruptcy for the first time in 2001 and stopped making instant film in 2008. Kodak declared bankruptcy on Jan. 19.

ATARI 2600 (1977-c.1984) It wasn’t the first game console, but the Atari 2600 brought video games into the home and popular culture. Over its life span, more than 30 million were sold. Pong, Combat, Pitfall and Frogger soaked up children’s afternoons. Then came the PC, which could play games and do much more. Atari rushed out games, assuming that its customers would play whatever it released. They didn’t. Millions of unsold games and consoles were buried in a New Mexico landfill in 1983. Warner Communications, which bought Atari in 1976 for $28 million, sold it in 1984 for no cash. 

My Comments: I found this article to be very interesting and very relevant. I have seen countless numbers of friends who were once devoted blackberry users switching over to the Iphone left and right. It was interesting that they related the blackberry to devices such as the Walkman and Atari. To me, growing up in the 90’s I was able to see all of these devices prosper and then “die” but to think the blackberry may become one of these I was very surprised.

January 27, 2012

AT&T’s Net Loss Tied to T-Mobile Merger Fees

By JENNA WORTHAM

Published: January 26, 2012

AT&T, the second-largest phone company in the United States, reported a substantial $6.68 billion net loss for the fourth quarter, primarily from the break-up fees incurred as a result of the company’s failed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. During the same period a year earlier, the company reported profit of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents a share.

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Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

Despite posting a net loss for the quarter, AT&T said that a wave of momentum from iPhone sales and new subscribers nudged its revenue up.

However, a wave of momentum from iPhone sales and new subscribers nudged AT&T’s revenue up 4 percent during the quarter, with sales rising to $32.5 billion from $31.4 billion a year ago. Analysts expected the company to report $31.95 billion in revenue.

The company added 717,000 post-paid wireless subscribers, the largest increase in five quarters, and a net total of 2.5 million wireless subscribers, which lifted the company’s base to 103.2 million wireless customers. AT&T also said it beat previous records for smartphone sales during the quarter, selling 7.6 million iPhones and 9.4 million smartphones over all.

Rick Franklin, an analyst with Edward Jones, said the report “sets AT&T up well for future wireless data growth and profitability.”

After discounting charges from the $4 billion breakup fee paid in the wake of the T-Mobile USA bid, AT&T’s per-share profit was 42 cents; analysts expected 43 cents a share.

The company also beat results for Verizon, the country’s largest phone company, which said on Wednesday that it sold 4.2 million iPhones and 7.7 million smartphones during the same period. AT&T said that 76 percent of its overall revenue increase stemmed from the company’s growth in wireless, wireline data and services.

“We had a tremendous year in terms of execution, and we have excellent momentum across our growth platforms,” said Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of AT&T, in a statement. “This was a blowout quarter for smartphone sales.”

“Looking ahead, we start 2012 with the best visibility we’ve had in some time, and we’re well-positioned to deliver solid results,” Mr. Stephenson said.

Investors seemed initially disappointed by the results, with shares slipping 2.4 percent to $29.50 in premarket trading. 

My Comments:

This article is basically about the net loss AT&T found in their fourth quarter sales. Last year at this time that had a profit of $1.09 billion and this year there has been a $6.68 billion net loss. Although this all seems like bad news AT&T also reported having gained more customers this quarter than they have in the past five quarters. More good news is that AT&T still “beat out” Verizon on number of smart phones sold. As a current customer of AT&T (although not a stock holder) I am curious as to why this quarter showed such results. AT&T for a long time was the only wireless provider with the Iphone so I wouldn’t have been surprised if many people were switching over/buying Iphones when they first came out, but it seems like since AT&T is losing money, people are either downgrading their talking/texting plans or since Verizon has the Iphone also, less are switching to AT&T. Although only mentioned in the beginning of the article, I believe it is a good thing that AT&T wasn’t able to acquire T-Mobile. This would give AT&T too much of a monopoly on the cellular phone business.

January 25, 2012

Travel Hiring Is on the Rise

By HARRIET EDLESON

Published: January 23, 2012

As the economy has begun to improve from its darkest days in late 2008 and 2009, hiring in the travel and tourism industry has become one of the bright spots.

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David Maxwell for The New York Times

Sharae Martin, with visitors at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, was hired as a guest services employee.

The industry — which includes hotels, rental cars, airlines and entertainment — shed jobs quickly as the economy spiraled downward. But in the last year or so, travel businesses have begun to hire again, albeit slowly and cautiously.
“Clearly, the travel and tourism industry suffered pretty heavily during the downturn,” said Adrian Cooper, chief executive of Oxford Economics, a London-based economic forecasting consultant with offices in New York. “Now we’re seeing an improvement in jobs in travel and tourism. It’s one of the healthiest sectors in the United States, and down the supply chain. There is still some ways to go, getting back to the peak in 2007.”
But, he added, “we see it outpace other sectors.”
One beneficiary has been Maria Sutherland, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, who has lost two jobs in the retail fashion business in the last two years. “I needed something where I was going to be secure,” Ms. Sutherland, 23, said.
So in September, after losing her second job when a retail store closed, she applied for the job of “insider” at the W Hotel in Union Square, to help guests secure hard-to-get restaurant reservations or theater tickets. In early December, she got good news. “I was ecstatic,” she said.
In the first half of 2011, the travel industry added 16,000 jobs a month, on average, though that slowed to an average 2,000 new jobs a month from July to November, said David Huether, senior vice president for economics and research for the U.S. Travel Association. Total employment reached a low of 7.3 million jobs in December 2009, and since then the travel and tourism industry has gained 224,000 jobs.
Two factors drive travel jobs, Mr. Huether said. International travelers to the United States support one of every eight travel jobs, while domestic travel supports the rest.
Even with the early signs of a recovery in the industry, said Henry H. Harteveldt, co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group, an airline and travel industry analyst based in San Francisco, “it’s been a very tentative recovery marked by a lot of financial and organizational discipline” by employers.
As to the travelers themselves, “travel is very opportunistic,” he said. “It’s discretionary. ‘I am going to keep a very tight grip on my wallet,’ is what people are saying.”
Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, offered a similar assessment of the hotel industry. “It’s a recovery but not an impressive recovery,” he said.
Putting the situation in perspective, occupancy for 2009 was 54.6 percent, according to Smith Travel Research, almost the lowest since the Depression. (The lowest was 53.4 percent in 1971.) Occupancy for 2011 was 59.8 percent and is projected to climb to 61 percent in 2012, Smith Travel Research said. Employment in the airline industry suffered, too, in the weak economy. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the Transportation Department, calculated 28 consecutive months of decreases in full-time employment for airlines, leading up to November 2010. Finally, in December 2010, employment began to improve.
Cruise capacity has also been growing, and is projected to grow 5 percent from 2011 to 2012, Mr. Harteveldt said.
The health of the travel industry affects related businesses, Mr. Cooper of Oxford Economics said, noting that the “supply chain to the travel industry is quite long.” Demand for air travel, for instance, affects not only airlines but also plane and parts construction and jet fuel.
Wages vary but even at entry level tend to be higher than minimum wage. Randy Pullen, president of Wage Watch, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said there were “not many of those” minimum-wage jobs in the travel and hospitality industry. Even housekeepers, he said, make more than minimum wage, and tend to make more in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and Seattle. In Arizona, they may make $10 plus tips, whereas in New York, it is $10 to $12. A bellman can make minimum wage plus tips for a total of $35,000, Mr. Pullen said.
Hotels have also been able to take advantage of the downturn, said Joseph McInerney, president and chief executive of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, by hiring people with a higher level of education and sophistication, like those with bachelor’s degrees from Cornell School of Hotel Administration or Florida International’s hospitality and tourism school.
The prognosis for 2012 is “very positive,” Mr. McInerney said. Job seekers may not be able to get their dream job initially but can work their way up, he said.
Sharae Martin, 21, started work last Thursday at the new Greater Cleveland Aquarium. “It’s very exciting to me because to me it feels like I am getting my independence back,” Ms. Martin said.
She said she was looking for a job in customer service when she heard that the new aquarium was hiring.
Though her goal is to become a pharmacist, for now she is happy to be working. “Now that I have a job, I’m secure,” she said. “I feel very good about my position in life right now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/business/for-travel-and-tourism-hiring-is-on-the-rise-cautiously.html?ref=business


My Comments:

Reading this article got me thinking a lot about my future. It’s really great to hear that at least in one industry more jobs are opening up. It surprises me that travel is the first business that began to start picking up again as it is so expensive. The article made a great point though that within the travel industry there are so many jobs (which is why it is so expensive for the consumer). Within travel there is the restaurant business, the hospitality business, the transportation business which also includes fuel and mechanics business. It is definitely something to think about for a soon-to be graduate that the hospitality/travel industry is a good place to start looking!

January 23, 2012

By JEREMY W.PETERS and SERGE F.KOVALESKI
Published:January 20, 2012

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Darlene Kleckley was at homerecovering from knee surgery one recent afternoon when she heard the phonering. It does that a lot these days.
Given its challenges, perhaps the Palmetto State is bestserved by a Democratic president.
When her answering machine clicked on, she heard Mitt Romney’svoice greeting her husband.
“He said: ‘Hi, William. This is Mitt,’ ” recalledMs. Kleckley, 65, a retired university administrator.
This struck her as odd for two reasons. First, herhusband died in September. “And besides,” she added, “no one called him William.Everybody called him Bill.”
In South Carolina, not even the dead can find sanctuaryfrom the bombardment of political messages that has hit the state with a fury.
And phone calls are not even the half of it. Beyond thetraditional methods used to reach voters — television and radio ads, directmail and automated phone-dialing, known as robo-calling — candidates competingfor the Republican primary on Saturday have put their messages into e-mails,text messages, Web sites and Twitter feeds.
Click onto Dictionary.com or a local news site like TheState.com,and colorful ads from Mitt Romney and Ron Paulflash on your screen. Check your e-mail, and there could be a message from RickSantorum or something much worse. Some Republicans received a fakepress release purporting to contain an admission from Newt Gingrich that hepressured his former wife into having an abortion.
Even the morning commute isn’t safe. For a brief time onThursday, commuters on I-85 were caught in a four-mile traffic jam whiledrivers gawked at a hot-air balloon draped in Ron Paul banners.
Every four years, this small, bustling city nestled inthe state’s hilly northwest corner is a focus of Republican presidentialcandidates drawn by its large religious conservative population and itspopulous media market, the state’s largest. But many residents said they couldnot ever recall being this overwhelmed.
“Oh, it’s awful,” sighed Tina Hampton, 59, an officeadministrator. Her mailbox is filled with glossy brochures from candidates andthe “super PACs” that support them. Her television blares with snipingpoliticians in commercial breaks of her favorite shows. Her respite at work, aniPodTouch that plays soothing music through Pandora radio, was overtaken by Rick Perryads. “It’s a scourge,” she said.
“Last night, I was trying to watch ‘AmericanIdol.’ I was like, I just want to watch Steven Tyler,” Ms. Hamptonsaid. “I don’t care that Newt has lied and that Santorum has lied and thatRomney has lied, and that everybody is just a bunch of big, fat liars.”
She added: “I’d really just like to see a coffeecommercial. Seriously.”
Ms. Hampton sifted through her mail Thursday, having leftit unchecked for two days this week. Upon retrieval, 12 pieces of politicalliterature were waiting for her: four from Ron Paul, four from Mitt Romney,three from the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, and one from a groupcalled Strong America Now, which is supporting Mr. Gingrich. “I have no ideawhat’s in these things because they just go in the garbage,” she said, pausingto glance at one of the Paul letters, which was written on letterhead that said“From the Desk of Jedd Coburn.”
“Who is Jedd Coburn?” Ms. Hampton groaned.  (Heworked for the National Right to Work Committee, an antiunion group.)
When Cory Ezzell arrived at his downtown law office onTuesday, after a long holiday weekend, his voice mailbox was so full he thoughthe was facing a crisis.
But there was no emergency. Just eight separate pleasfrom politicians and their surrogates, most supporting Mr. Romney. One was fromSenator John McCain of Arizona lauding “my good friend Mitt Romney.” Anotherwas Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, saying that Mr. Romney “will worktirelessly to stop labor crews from coming in and controlling your economy.”
One invited Mr. Ezzell to an event featuring Mr. Romneywith the Nascar legend David Pearson. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum had leftmessages, too.
“Getting these calls makes my blood pressure shoot up,”Mr. Ezzell, 31, said, adding that he plans to vote for Mr. Gingrich. “They area tremendous waste of my time.” He said he still got three to four a day.
Though many voters question the wisdom of inundating themwith phone calls, those who run campaigns believe such calls are effective.Contractors can dial thousands of lines at once for pennies a call. With theright demographic research, which is expensive, campaigns can zero in oncertain areas where, for example, more socially conservative voters are likelyto live.
Ben Leinster, 34, a lawyer in Greenville, said that heand his family had been receiving 10 to 15 automated calls at home, generallyconcentrated between 5 and 7 p.m. He said that he had erased about six dozen ofthem from his voice mail, and had probably listened to only one of every 10.But he acknowledged they were leaving an impression. “At the end of the day, Ithink robo-calls are like negative ads in that everybody hates them, but theydo work,” he said. “They do plant a seed in your head. They helped solidify my supportfor Mitt Romney.”
South Carolina is not alone in this surge. A 2010 surveyby the Pew Research Center found that 60 percent of voters reported getting arecorded political call, up from 39 percent in 2008. Among Republicans, therate was higher in 2010: 70 percent compared with 56 percent of Democrats.
Like other states, South Carolina restricts how automatedcalls can be made. The state attorney general’s office has determined that suchpolitical calls are allowed as long as the recorded message is “delivered to ananswering machine and not to a live person.” If someone answers, the robo-callshould automatically disconnect. The calls are prohibited between 7 p.m. and 8a.m.
Cellphones, which used to be a safe harbor fromunsolicited calls, are becoming targets, too — not just with calls but alsowith text messages. One Romney supporter said he received an anonymous textlast week with a number to dial. He did, and heard what was apparently arecording of Mr. Romney speaking at a 1994 debate. “I believe that abortionshould be safe and legal in this country,” the recording said — not a messagethat the Romney campaign wants voters to hear.
There is one way to at least reduce the deluge. MatJordan, 40, a pharmacy technician from Roebuck, and his wife were so tired ofcalls from politicians as well as telemarketers after 2008 that they now haveonly cellphones. “This time of year,” Mr. Jordan said, “We are not missing nothaving a land line at all.”


My comments:
I believe that tele marketing is very important. I thinkit's a great way to reach people without spending a lot of money. I alsounderstand though, sometimes the “coldness” that goes into it. I work at theSaint Joseph’s “telefund” which is an organization that calls alumni andparents of current students and asks for a donation to the university. When I tellpeople I work there I get many mixed messages some people say “they paidtuition they shouldn’t have to also donate” and I understand compeltely. Yet, Iam on a scholarship to be at this school and I can’t wait to receive that phonecall and be able to donate to another deserving student as my way to give backto the university. I think this is very similar to the political campaignadvertising that is going on in South Carolina. Yes, it is very bothersome tobe simply watching tv and to be bombarded but on the other hand, it’s an easyway to reach the general American public that honestly may not know otherwisewho was even in the running for office.